February 24, 2026
CUSTOMER STORYFergus
“If it’s ready to be invoiced, why aren’t you sending it?” Irene Bennetts, CEO & Founder, Admin Army
Admin Army is an outsourced finance team supporting small and medium businesses with bookkeeping, payroll, and compliance.
And for trades businesses in particular, Irene Bennetts has seen the same pattern play out hundreds of times:
Good operators. Great work.
But invoicing is late and so payments are late, which means cash flow stays tight.
This is the operational fix Admin Army recommends most often:
Run the job in Fergus. Invoice in Fergus. Sync to Xero for accounting.
Admin Army doesn’t only “do the books.” They get deep into workflow – because the goal is operational efficiency.
The focus is simple: reduce admin, tighten process, and free the owner from being the system.
That’s why Irene cares so much about invoicing behaviour. It’s not a finance preference. It’s a business operating decision.
In trades, invoicing tends to land in one of these patterns:
And the downstream impact is predictable:
If the invoice isn’t sent, it can’t be paid and most trades are already carrying wages + materials before money lands.
Small misses stack up: uncharged materials, missed labour, variations that never got formalised. The job was “busy”… but profit tells a different story.
Instead of running the business, they’re doing admin after hours.
Irene’s best clients don’t do marathon invoicing sessions.
They move to a daily rhythm:
The outcome is simple: Invoice sooner → get paid sooner.
BEFORE FERGUS • 2 hours invoicing Thursday night • Weekly or monthly batching • Missed costs on every job • Owner stuck doing admin
AFTER FERGUS • 10 minutes daily invoice review • Invoice when job is ready • Clean job costing, nothing missed • Owner focuses on growth
Real example:
One of Admin Army’s clients was spending two full hours every Thursday night trying to remember what happened all week – materials logged in notebooks, time entries half-remembered, some jobs forgotten entirely.
After moving to daily updates in Fergus, invoicing dropped to 10 minutes a day, missed costs went from “every job” to “rarely,” and cash flow improved by cutting the invoice-to-payment cycle by an average of 8 days.
This is the core idea Irene reinforces:
Invoices should originate where job truth lives.
For job based work, that “truth” is:
When an invoice is created in Fergus, it’s automatically anchored to the job record, keeping all job context aligned. Starting the invoice in Fergus helps ensure everything stays connected and easy to track from the outset.
This is the same logic Fergus highlights in other customer stories.
Instead of relying on memory, the system shows what’s ready.
You keep the connection between:
Learn more: How to Price Jobs to Maximise Profits
This is the big one: the tiny misses that erode profit without anyone noticing.
Across many trade businesses, Irene describes payment speed as “tiered”:
This is why Irene pushes daily invoicing: you can’t control every payer, but you can control how fast invoices leave the building.
Related: Transforming Your Cash Flow
For a mid-sized job (e.g., ~$15k), Irene recommends a system that protects cash flow:
Keep the job lifecycle in one place with Fergus quoting.
Because the deposit covers base costs (wages, materials) and reduces the “you financed the whole job” problem.
“Your cash flow should work for you, not you working for your client’s cash flow.”
Learn how: Split Invoices and Deposits in Fergus
If the job has phases, phases should have payment points.
Fergus supports progress invoicing tied to job stages.
This keeps invoicing simple and reduces end-of-job surprises.
Mobile teams can use Fergus Go to log time and materials on-site.
If scope changes, don’t let it float as a verbal agreement. Record it, price it, and invoice it – so margin doesn’t get eaten by “extras.”
Fergus handles variations and change orders within the job record.
You can. But Irene’s view is: it depends what you’re building.
If you’re staying solo forever with very simple jobs, Xero Projects might work.
But if you’re building a scalable operation, one that runs without you, that has a team, that protects margin-invoicing from the accounting layer creates friction you don’t need:
This mirrors the workflow Fergus customer stories consistently recommend: job management is the operational backbone; accounting is the system of record.
Even Xero recommends using connected apps from the Xero App Store for job-based trade workflows.
The “great” ones aren’t magical – they’re consistent:
That’s how “two hours on Thursday night” becomes “ten minutes a day.”
Case study: How SureFence Gets Paid Faster
This workflow is strongest for trade businesses that:
It’s less critical for ultra-low-volume operators with very simple work, but even then, most businesses grow into needing it.
If you take one principle from Irene’s perspective, it’s this:
Invoice from the job system – because that’s where the job truth lives.
Fergus helps standardise the operational workflow (quote → job → costs → invoice).
Xero stays clean and accurate as the accounting system.
And the result is what every trade business wants:
Faster invoicing, tighter margins, and fewer cash-flow surprises.
Already using Fergus? Review your cost capture workflow. Are you updating jobs daily? Are you invoicing as soon as jobs are ready? Tighten these two habits and you’ll see faster cash flow within a month.
Not using Fergus yet? Join 20,000+ trade businesses that have cut admin time, improved job margins, and finally got their weekends back.
→ See how Fergus invoicing works
→ Learn about the Fergus + Xero integration
→ Watch: How to integrate with Xero
→ Try Fergus Go for mobile invoicing
→ Get paid on-site with Fergus Tap to Pay
It means the invoice is created inside Fergus (from the job record) and then sent to Xero through the integration. This keeps the invoice aligned with job labour/material costs and job status.
Yes-Fergus provides an integration that can send customer invoices to Xero and sync relevant data between the two platforms, reducing manual data entry.
Setup guide: Integrating with Xero
You can use Xero Projects to track time/costs and invoice project work inside Xero. But Xero also recommends connected job/invoicing apps through the Xero App Store, which is often a better fit for trade workflows where job management needs to be front-and-centre.
Sending invoices late (or in batches) is the biggest mistake-because it delays cash flow and increases the chance costs get missed. A job workflow that makes “ready to invoice” obvious helps tradies invoice sooner and capture more chargeable items.
Not always. For small jobs, deposits can feel unnecessary. For larger jobs, deposits protect cash flow and help cover base costs like labour and materials while work is underway. Fergus supports deposit and split invoicing workflows.
Invoice as soon as the job is ready and, where appropriate, take payment on-site. Fergus supports mobile invoicing workflows in Fergus Go, and Tap to Pay options can reduce payment delays by collecting payment immediately.
Case study: How Illawarra Shipwrights Gets Paid Without Chasing
Check the Fergus Xero integration troubleshooting guide for common issues. Most problems are caused by mapping, settings, or invoice status issues that can be resolved quickly.
Admin Army is an outsourced finance team supporting small and medium businesses across New Zealand with bookkeeping, payroll, and compliance. Founded by Irene Bennetts, Admin Army partners with clients to improve workflows, increase efficiency, and create scalable systems that free up business owners’ time.
Services:
Stop drowning in admin & paperwork. Start focusing on the jobs that make you money.
Our 20,000+ trades businesses have slashed their admin, are getting paid faster, and are finally enjoying their weekends again.
