The Challenge
LA Services had reached the point where the systems that had grown up around the business were holding it back:
"We had a number of challenges. The first was that we had numerous software systems in operation across the business. There was no bi-directional data flow between these systems. Another challenge was that we had highly manual systems and processes which were causing a number of inefficiencies and inaccuracies."
The day-to-day impact was significant:
- Multiple systems running side by side, with TidyWork and Xero unable to exchange data, forcing manual rekeying across projects and finance.
- No way to track activities against a project inside the operational system.
- Critical special instructions for jobs being tracked in an external system, creating risk on projects where compliance and detail matter.
- Material traceability managed in Excel spreadsheets, with no clean link back to the job or the customer.
- A Bundy time capture system that was not integrated with payroll, requiring hours of manual reconciliation and allowance calculations each week.
- Prepayments for overseas purchases handled through a cumbersome, workaround-heavy process.
- An inability to apply different margins to labour and material on the same job, limiting commercial flexibility.
- Limited dashboards, no end-to-end reporting, and no visibility into the tender pipeline or accurate project status reviews.
The leadership team had also set new strategic objectives that made technology modernisation a priority:
"We didn't have the right level of data in place to monitor business performance, to monitor compliance with policy, and to inform decision making. We had recently set some strategic objectives for the business and as part of this we identified the need to modernise our technologies."
Why MYOB Acumatica - and Why Stratus
I
LA Services evaluated their options against a clear priority: they needed a system that could handle a complex, industrial production environment while also managing project-based client work across sites around Australia and overseas.
MYOB Acumatica Construction Edition was chosen because it offered:
- Full financials, purchasing, inventory, expenses, CRM, and payroll on one platform, with the Construction Edition project accounting capability that fits a project-based fabricator.
- Cost-to-complete forecasts, drawing logs, photo logs, compliance management, and change requests, with tracking from actuals to budget to invoice.
- The ability to capture material test certificates inside the system, critical for the resources sector clients LA Services works with.
- Segmented sub-accounts and dimensional reporting that supports the detail required in project work.
- Multi-currency handling and automated landed cost apportionment for overseas purchasing.
- STP2-compliant integrated payroll with a super clearing house.
- Mobile and tablet accessibility suited to a workshop environment, not just office staff.
Stratus Group was chosen as the implementation partner. The LA Services team was clear about why:
"The core reasons we chose to partner with Stratus, first one being that they were vendor accredited. They were understanding of when it made sense to customise or configure Acumatica versus partner with a specialist."
The other deciding factor was that Stratus turned up and understood the business:
"Having the Stratus team come out and see what we do, understanding how we quote projects, how we build projects, it really made them feel like they were part of the team. A lot of the other integrators were looking at us producing 10,000 of something where we're not a large scale. We produce one-offs, which are bespoke items, specified by the customer."
Mark Belkin, Director at Stratus Group, on the read of the business:
"LA Services is a mixed business. They've got a high degree of custom fabrication and a very large workshop, but they are also project-based in the way they operate with their customers rather than building widgets over and over. They needed a system tailored to that industrial production environment with manufacturing and engineering, while also being able to deal with their clients and their various sites all over Australia and the world."
Where a specialist tool was the right answer, Stratus said so. For time and attendance, that meant recommending TimeTrak alongside MYOB Acumatica to handle award interpretation, allowances, Bundy, and timesheets for the 40-person workforce.
The Solution: one integrated platform, tailored to project-based fabrication
Stratus delivered an enterprise-level, fully integrated ERP platform covering every part of the LA Services operation. The table below sets out the motivations that shaped the project, the MYOB Acumatica functionality Stratus mapped to each, and the business benefit LA Services now realises.
| Motivation |
MYOB Acumatica functionality |
Business benefit |
| Consolidate multiple disconnected systems |
Single cloud ERP covering financials, purchasing, inventory, projects, expenses, CRM, and payroll |
One source of truth across the business, no manual rekeying between platforms |
| Track special instructions inside the system |
Custom activity type built into project accounting for critical special instructions |
Compliance-critical information stays attached to the job, not in email or Word |
| Capture material test certificates |
Batch tracking and document capture on stock items |
Full traceability for resources sector clients, no more Excel workarounds |
| Improve payroll for a 40-person workforce |
STP2-compliant integrated payroll with super clearing house, plus TimeTrak for Bundy, award interpretation, and allowances |
Automated time capture, allowance calculation, and payroll processing, ending manual reconciliation |
| Apply different margins to labour and material |
Project accounting with line-level margin control on quotes and jobs |
Sharper, more commercially flexible quoting on bespoke jobs |
| Overseas purchase prepayments |
Multi-currency handling with automated landed cost apportionment |
A simpler, repeatable process for international suppliers |
| Better reporting, dashboards, and pipeline visibility |
Standard reports, custom dashboards, CRM with lead and opportunity management, project templates |
Real-time visibility of pipeline, project performance, and margins |
| Workshop-ready technology |
Mobile and tablet access designed for field and factory floor use |
Strong adoption among fabricators and welders, not just office staff |
Implementation approach
Stratus ran the project with a focus on three things: a solution built around how LA Services actually works, strong adoption on the workshop floor, and a platform the business could grow into.
Mark Belkin on the environment Stratus was walking into:
"When we first walked in the door, the first thing we noticed was that it was a very hands-on industrial environment. So we knew we were going to need to find a solution for the workers out in the field, out on the factory floor to be able to use, something easy that would work in that kind of rough environment where you're not sitting in front of a computer. We needed something that was going to work really well on mobile devices and tablets in particular for out there in the field."
Key elements of the approach included:
- On-site scoping at the Revesby workshop with the LA Services team, so the Stratus consultants understood the fabrication process, the way jobs are quoted, and how projects move through the floor.
- MYOB Acumatica Construction Edition configured to match the project-based nature of the business, with cost-to-complete, drawing logs, photo logs, compliance management, and change requests set up from the start.
- TimeTrak integrated as the time capture and award interpretation solution, with Stratus taking the primary project management role across both platforms.
- Master data migration for debtors, creditors, people, opening balances, open AP and AR invoices, open project WIP, and open trial balance, so the business went live on a clean, complete platform.
- A custom activity type built into projects to handle the special instructions capability the team had been managing outside the system.
- Hands-on training tailored to each role, from finance through to project managers, warehouse, and workshop staff.
The trickiest part of the project was one Stratus had anticipated from the start:
"The trickiest part of this implementation with LA Services or any company of this type is user adoption. For a lot of staff out on the floor, particularly in the fabrication department, we wanted to make sure we were not bringing in a system that was going to make their life harder. In fact, we wanted to make it easier as well as having benefits to the rest of the business. So making sure that the users were on board, that they were properly trained and had that window of testing and feedback. In this project, we really did. We had amazing user adoption. We can see immediate benefits from when they first started the system."
Outcomes: sharper quoting, better visibility, stronger control
The LA Services team is already seeing meaningful outcomes across operations, finance, and sales.
Commercial and quoting impact
- Pipeline visibility is now real. Leadership can see how the business is performing on project coding and margins in real time.
- Historical project data is being used to quote more competitively:
"My experience with Acumatica is that it's given us more visibility on the pipeline in how we're performing in terms of coding and the margins that we have. Once that's converted into the project space, it's really easy to monitor how the project's performing and where we're sitting. And that data, when you look at it once a project's finished, means we're able to offer a more competitive quote on the new projects that are coming through."
Operational impact
- One platform now covers financials, purchasing, inventory, projects, expenses, CRM, and payroll, replacing the disconnected TidyWork and Xero setup.
- Special instructions on projects live inside the system, not in external tools.
- Material test certificates are captured against the stock, ready for resources sector compliance requirements.
- Overseas purchase prepayments run through a simpler, repeatable process with landed cost apportionment.
Payroll and time capture impact
- TimeTrak feeds Bundy time capture, timesheets, and award interpretation straight into MYOB Acumatica Payroll.
- Manual allowance calculations and reconciliation work have been eliminated.
- The team now has an STP2-compliant, integrated payroll on a single platform.
Adoption impact
- Workshop staff have taken to the system quickly, helped by mobile and tablet access designed for a hands-on environment.
- User adoption across the business has been described by Stratus as "amazing," with immediate benefits visible from day one.
What comes next
The first phase of the project digitised workforce, project, and finance tools. From here, Stratus and LA Services are looking at how to extend the value of the platform further.
Mark Belkin:
"Post implementation, we want our clients to get more and more out of the system all the time. Their first step was to digitise their workforce, project, and finance tools, which are done. But now we want to see them improve and get even greater efficiencies. With new AI technology being built into the platforms we've got in place now becoming commonplace and really ready to use, we want to work with LA Services to make sure they adopt that and save even more time on a lot of their mundane processes."
The roadmap ahead includes deeper inventory management, workshop material tagging and tracking, an MDR solution for heritage and future IoT data, and a QA system, all building on the MYOB Acumatica foundation now in place.
What comes next
The first phase of the project digitised workforce, project, and finance tools. From here, Stratus and LA Services are looking at how to extend the value of the platform further.
Mark Belkin:
"Post implementation, we want our clients to get more and more out of the system all the time. Their first step was to digitise their workforce, project, and finance tools, which are done. But now we want to see them improve and get even greater efficiencies. With new AI technology being built into the platforms we've got in place now becoming commonplace and really ready to use, we want to work with LA Services to make sure they adopt that and save even more time on a lot of their mundane processes."
The roadmap ahead includes deeper inventory management, workshop material tagging and tracking, an MDR solution for heritage and future IoT data, and a QA system, all building on the MYOB Acumatica foundation now in place.
Why it matters
LA Services' story is a familiar one for growing Australian manufacturers. A business built on hands-on craftsmanship and long customer relationships eventually outgrows the systems that got it there. The challenge is not just choosing the right platform. It is finding a partner who takes the time to understand what happens on the workshop floor, not just what shows up in the general ledger.
With Stratus Group, MYOB Acumatica Construction Edition, and TimeTrak, LA Services has consolidated a fragmented software stack into one platform, freed the team from manual reconciliation and spreadsheet workarounds, and given leadership a real-time view of how the business is performing. Forty years on from a boiler repair job done out of the back of a ute, LA Services has the digital foundation for the next chapter.
About Stratus Group
Stratus Group is an Australian MYOB Acumatica implementation partner specialising in cloud ERP solutions for mid-market businesses. We combine deep product expertise with a delivery approach focused on adoption, so our clients go live on time, on budget, and ready to grow.
If you are weighing up an ERP change and want to talk to a partner who has done it before, we would love to hear from you.
Contact Stratus Group | stratusgroup.com.au
