Luke from Smith Brothers Building has been using Fergus for six years. With a crew of five running alterations and additions across the Illawarra, he reckons it’s the one tool that does everything in one place. Here’s what keeps him coming back.
TLDR: Smith Brothers Building is a five-person Illawarra building crew that has used Fergus for six years to manage scheduling, quoting, invoicing, and back costing. Owner Luke Smith says it keeps everything in one place and he couldn’t recommend it more highly.
Six years is a long time to stick with anything in the building game. Tools break, utes get swapped, even good subbies move on. But Luke Smith from Smith Brothers Building has been running his building business on Fergus since around 2019 – and as of 2026, he’s not going anywhere.
Smith Brothers Building is a five-person crew based in the Illawarra region of New South Wales, specialising in alterations and additions. Big kitchen-and-bathroom guts, outdoor entertainment areas, the kind of work where the details matter and the margin for error is thin. Luke’s been in the trade his whole life – dad was a carpenter, pop was a builder – so running a tight operation isn’t something he learned in a course. It’s in the bloodline.
“Couldn’t recommend it more highly. Been utilising it for six years now.” – Luke Smith, Smith Brothers Building
Short answer: everything.
Luke and the team use Fergus to handle their project scheduling,estimating, quoting, and invoicing – the full job lifecycle from first phone call to final payment. But it’s the features you don’t always see on a sales page that Luke rates just as highly.
“It does have features that allows us to track our photos and man hours on the job in real time. Back costing and just having all those secure documents in one place.”
Think about what that means for a five-person building crew running multiple reno projects at once. Every photo logged against the right job. Every hour tracked against the right cost centre. Every document – consent authorities, plans, variations, safety docs – sitting in one place rather than scattered across email, Dropbox, and the back seat of someone’s ute.
For a crew juggling three reno projects at once, that kind of visibility isn’t a bonus – it’s how you protect your margin on a $150k bathroom-and-kitchen job when the scope creeps and the client starts asking questions.
Most builders know they’re leaking money somewhere. A 2026 Software Advice report put numbers to it: builders using job management software with cost tracking finish projects with margins 12-18% closer to their original estimates than those on spreadsheets. On a million-dollar year, even a 10% margin gap is $100,000 walking out the door.
Luke’s been on top of this for years. Fergus gives him real-time financial reporting on every project – what he quoted, what he’s spent, and where the gap is. If the labour’s blowing out on a bathroom strip-out, he can see it at the two-week mark instead of the invoice stage.
Anyone who’s managed a building crew knows the Sunday night routine. Texts rolling in: “Where am I tomorrow?” “What time on site?” “Do I need the trailer?”
Luke used to live in that world. Now his team checks the Fergus calendar and gets on with it. Jobs are scheduled, people are assigned, and everyone knows where they need to be before they’ve finished their morning coffee.
With Fergus Go on their phones, Luke’s crew can check schedules, log hours, upload site photos, and add notes from wherever they are. No phone calls. No chasing. Just five blokes who know what they’re doing and where they’re doing it.
For a builder running multiple projects across a region like the Illawarra – where you might have a crew in Wollongong, another in Shellharbour, and a subbie in Kiama – that kind of clarity isn’t a luxury. It’s how you stop double-booking and start scaling. The Master Builders Association consistently highlights poor scheduling and coordination as a top operational weakness in small building firms. Luke solved that problem years ago.
Building estimates are brutal. You’re pricing work you can’t fully see – what’s behind the walls, what’s under the slab, what the council’s going to come back with. Get it wrong and you’re either eating the cost or having an awkward conversation with the client.
Luke uses Fergus to build detailed quotes with saved templates and price book integration. Common materials and labour groups get saved as favourites, so he’s not re-entering the same bathroom rough-in line items every time. The quote flows through to the job card, which flows through to the invoice – no re-keying, no double-handling.
And because back costing runs alongside every active project, Luke can compare his estimates against actual costs as the job progresses. That feedback loop – quote, track, compare, improve – is how he’s sharpened his pricing over six years. Every project makes the next quote more accurate.
In 2026, with material costs still volatile across the Australian building sector – the Housing Industry Association reported ongoing price pressure on timber, steel, and concrete through the first quarter – that kind of quoting discipline isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s survival.
One of the less obvious benefits of running a tight system is what it does for your credibility outside of client work. Luke found that the detailed financial data in Fergus – work in progress reports, cash flow visibility, project-level profitability – actually helped him secure Home and Builders Warranty Insurance. Fergus Pay adds another layer to that visibility – when customers pay directly through the invoice, the cash flow picture updates in real time instead of waiting on bank transfers to clear.
That’s a big deal. In New South Wales, builders need this insurance to take on residential work above certain thresholds, as required by NSW Fair Trading. Without clean records that show you can manage cash flow and deliver projects profitably, insurers are hesitant. Luke’s Fergus data gave them the confidence to approve him, which opened the door to larger alteration and addition projects that he’d previously had to turn down.
One thing leads to another. Track your costs properly and you’ve got clean data. Clean data makes the insurer comfortable. The insurer says yes, and suddenly you’re quoting on jobs you used to have to pass on. Luke’s been riding that chain reaction for years.
Builders aren’t sentimental about their tools. If a drill stops working, it goes in the bin. Software’s no different. Luke has stayed with Fergus through crew changes, material cost spikes, project growth, and a pandemic that reshuffled the entire Australian building industry. The reason is simple: every time he’s looked at alternatives, nothing else does everything in one place the way Fergus does.
“We utilise Fergus for our project scheduling, estimating, quoting, and invoicing… Couldn’t recommend it more highly.”
That’s a six-year verdict from a builder who doesn’t hand out praise unless he means it.
Remember Luke fielding “where am I tomorrow?” messages every Sunday? That stopped years ago. If you’re still running your crew off spreadsheets, group chats, and paper timesheets, you already know it’s costing you time and money. Luke figured that out six years ago.
Fergus is used by 20,000+ trades businesses across Australia and New Zealand. It covers quoting, scheduling, invoicing, team management, reporting, and integrates directly with Xero and your trade suppliers. No lock-in contracts. Free setup and support.
Is Fergus good for builders who do renovations and alterations? Yes. Smith Brothers Building specialises in alterations, additions, and designer renovations, and they’ve used Fergus for six years to manage every aspect of their projects – from quoting and scheduling through to invoicing and back costing. Fergus is purpose-built for trades businesses, including builders handling complex renovation work.
How does Fergus help with back costing on building projects? Fergus tracks your estimated costs against actual costs in real time as the job progresses. You can see labour and materials spend at any point during a project, which lets you catch budget blowouts early and adjust before they eat your margin. Luke from Smith Brothers Building credits this visibility with helping him make better business decisions over six years.
Can my building crew use Fergus on site? Yes. The Fergus Go mobile app lets your team view their schedule, log hours, upload photos, add job notes, and access documents from their phone on site. Smith Brothers Building’s five-person crew uses it daily to stay coordinated across multiple job sites in the Illawarra region.
Does Fergus replace spreadsheets for estimating and quoting? Yes. Fergus includes a full quoting system with saved templates, price book uploads, and tiered markups. You can build detailed quotes in minutes instead of hours, and the quote data flows directly into the job card and invoice – eliminating the double-handling that spreadsheets create.
How long does it take to get set up with Fergus? Most builders are up and running within a few days. Fergus includes free onboarding support and screen-sharing sessions with the Customer Success team. Luke from Smith Brothers Building described the transition as smooth, even for someone who isn’t particularly tech-savvy.
Does Fergus work with Xero? Yes. Fergus has a native two-way integration with Xero, so your invoices, contacts, and payments sync automatically between the two systems. Smith Brothers Building has been using the Fergus-Xero integration for years.
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