Are You Still Doing Manual Stocktakes?

Frame and truss manufacturing is a precision business. Your cutting tolerances are tight, your delivery schedules are unforgiving and a missed component can hold up an entire build site. Most businesses in this industry have invested heavily in getting the production side right. The question worth asking is whether the systems running behind the scenes are held to the same standard.

In conversations with some FTMA members ahead of the National Conference, two operational challenges came up time and again and both are quietly eating into margins.

The stocktake problem

Stocktaking remains a largely manual process at most businesses we spoke with. Pulling people off the floor, working through clipboards and spreadsheets and arriving at figures that are often out of date before the ink is dry.

The downstream effects are more costly than they might appear. Timber and connectors ordered in excess tie up cash that could be working elsewhere while running short on a critical line could mean costly delays. And in frame and truss, delays have a habit of cascading across multiple jobs. Job costings built on approximate stock figures mean margins that look acceptable on paper but tell a different story at month end.

It is rarely a people problem. More often, it is capable teams being let down by tools that were not designed for the complexity of what they are managing.

The fragmentation problem

Equally common is the patchwork approach to software. Sales managed in one system, accounting in another, production tracked separately, with spreadsheets filling the gaps in between. No one has a reliable, real-time view of the business as a whole and decisions get made on information that is incomplete, delayed or simply inconsistent across platforms.

For a business quoting jobs, managing timber procurement, running a production schedule and chasing receivables all at once, this lack of visibility has a real cost. Quoting errors, missed reorders and hours spent reconciling data across systems are not just administrative frustrations but are margin leakage, week in and week out.

We have seen the same patterns across timber wholesalers, retailers and sawmills for many years. Frame and truss adds the manufacturing dimension, which makes the stakes higher and the need for connected, accurate data even more pressing.

What changes when you get this right

We are WilldooIT and since 2009 we have been implementing Odoo to help Australian businesses replace fragmented and manual processes. The timber industry has been a significant part of our journey from early on and this long experience is what brought us to the FTMA conversation because frame and truss manufacturers sit at one of the most complex points in that chain - sourcing timber, running it through production and delivering a finished product to tight schedules.

When businesses move to Odoo, the first thing they notice is that the information they need is simply there. Stock levels that reflect reality. Job costs that capture what was actually used. Purchasing that responds to what production needs, not what someone estimated last week.

Practically, that means real-time inventory visibility, barcode scanning on the floor and automated reorder rules that remove the guesswork from procurement. The manual stocktake, as a disruptive, floor-stopping event, becomes a thing of the past.

We won't overstate what a new system can deliver. Implementation requires genuine commitment and we always set realistic expectations with the businesses we work with. What we can say with confidence is that the outcomes: cleaner data, reduced manual work and sound financial visibility make a material difference to how a business operates day to day.

Join us on 7th May before the 2026 FTMA National Conference and Trade Expo

Ahead of the FTMA National Conference, we are hosting a pre-event webinar specifically for FTMA members to share how Odoo addresses the challenges outlined above. It is a practical demonstration, not a sales presentation and we will leave plenty of time for questions.

Webinar: One Platform, One Truth: A Smarter Approach To Stock Management and Business Visibility.

Date: 7th May 2026

Time: 2pm - 2.45pm EST

We would welcome your participation and we look forward to meeting many of you in person at the conference itself in May.

FTMA Members - to register for the webinar, please check your emails for the link, or register via the Members Portal, or Members App.