RESOURCES / CASE STUDIES
Connecting Sales and Cabin Builds at Freedom Cabins
Introduction
Hatchit helped Freedom Cabins move to Zoho CRM, integrated with Trello and digitise build sheets and contractor time tracking. The project brought customer information, build progress and contractor hours into a more connected process.
Industry: Cabin construction, sales and hire
Software: Zoho CRM · Zoho Flow · Zoho Forms · Trello
Hatchit’s work: CRM migration, integration, process automation and custom webform development
About Freedom Cabins
Freedom Cabins is a New Zealand business that builds cabins for sale and hire.
The team used CRM to manage leads and deals, and Trello to track cabin builds. It wanted to keep Trello, which was already familiar, while moving to a CRM that better suited its needs.
The Challenges
Freedom Cabins’ existing CRM no longer suited how the team worked. The business needed to migrate its leads, deals and workflows into Zoho CRM without losing important information.
Trello operated separately from CRM, leaving sales information, build progress and job details spread across different places. This created double-handling and limited visibility over each cabin and job.
Paper build sheets held important specifications and checklist items, but these details were not easily connected to CRM or Trello. The team wanted to capture build information once and have it flow through automatically.
Contractor time tracking also needed improvement. The business wanted daily hours linked to individual cabins and jobs so it could see who worked on each build, how many hours were involved and where time was spent.
The Solution
Hatchit brought together Zoho CRM, Zoho Flow, Zoho Forms, Trello and a custom contractor webform to connect customer management with day-to-day build operations.
Zoho CRM provided a central place for leads, deals, jobs and customer information. Trello remained the team’s build-tracking tool, with Zoho Flow connecting the two systems. Digital forms and automation supported the flow of build specifications, progress updates and contractor hours.
How Hatchit Implemented It
Hatchit migrated Freedom Cabins’ leads, deals and workflows into Zoho CRM, then connected CRM with Trello using Zoho Flow.
The paper build sheet was replaced with a digital form using Zoho Forms. Submitted specifications populate the corresponding fields in Zoho CRM. When a checkbox is ticked in CRM, Zoho Flow creates a Trello card for the cabin, including a checklist based on the captured build details.
Hatchit also automated the update when a build is completed. When the finished cabin’s Trello card moves to the designated list, another Zoho Flow moves the related CRM deal to its next stage, triggering the next workflows.
For contractor time tracking, Hatchit built a custom webform connected directly to Zoho CRM because the business needed a more tailored solution than a standard form could provide.
Contractors submit their daily hours, break times and the cabins or jobs they worked on. Each submission updates the relevant job record. At the end of the week, a summary is sent to the contractor for sign-off before being passed to the team for payment processing.
The Results
Freedom Cabins now has a more connected system across sales, build tracking and contractor time management.
- Centralised customer and job information: Zoho CRM brings leads, deals, jobs and customer details together.
- Less manual data entry: Digital build sheets standardise information capture and reduce the need to transfer details from paper.
- Automatic build cards and checklists: Trello cards and checklists are created from the captured build specifications.
- Connected build updates: Moving a completed cabin’s Trello card to the designated list updates the related CRM deal stage and triggers the next workflows.
- Clearer visibility of job costs and build effort: Contractor hours are linked to each job, helping the team review who was involved, the hours recorded and where time was spent.
The team continues using Trello for build tracking, supported by connected CRM information and automation across its everyday processes.
Could Your Systems Work Better Together?
If your team is copying information between systems or relying on paper forms to keep work moving, talk to Hatchit about your current setup and what you would like to improve.
