Increased Profit & 90% Less Scheduling Admin: How Neo Improved Sambar Plumbing’s Profitability
Increased Profit & 90% Less Scheduling Admin: How Neo Improved Sambar Plumbing’s Profitability
Industry: Plumbing
Published: 07 March, 2025
Seaford-based plumbing business Sambar Plumbing has been experiencing rapid growth in demand from both residential and commercial clients across Southeast Melbourne. The company provides a wide range of services including sewer and stormwater management, gas fitting, hot water installations, leak detection, and general plumbing maintenance. The team, led by Director Billie Bianco, also delivers new home plumbing, projects for the Victorian Schools Building Authority, commercial plumbing and plumbing for new developments and renovations.
Underpinning their success is a strict process for quality execution of works, something Billie Bianco takes great pride in. With success, however, came complexity, including managing schedules for a larger team, coordinating subcontractors and managing the variations and billing for multiple jobs. Last minute changes, a frequent feature in construction, became particularly taxing in terms of the associated communication and administration required.
Billie’s accountant suggested he consider looking into construction management software to resolve some of his issues, recommending Neo as a sound option that would be fit for purpose. Billie got in touch to organise a demonstration – and the rest is history!
“Neo just worked—it was exactly what I needed for scheduling, managing teams, and keeping everything organised."
Challenges before Neo Construction Software
- Scheduling and communications: the manual approach Billie and his team had been working with suited the business when they were small but as they grew, scheduling more jobs and workers became time intensive and prone to confusion
- Timesheets and payroll: in a growing business, the lack of automated information flow between fieldworkers and their payroll system created a major administration burden for the office staff.
- Site diaries and risk: an ineffective manual process for ensuring variations, quality and completions were appropriately tracked exposed the business to risk.
“We didn’t have a proper system for documenting what was happening on-site. It was mostly just text messages and notes, which didn’t give me strong visibility or evidence. When issues came up, like a broken pipe, I had no way to easily prove what happened, and that made it risky when dealing with disputes."
Benefits and Outcomes
Seamless Scheduling and Communications
Before Neo, using a combination of text messages, phone calls and digital notes captured by staff on their phones was leading to confusion, and increasing the changes of delays or errors on-site. A major pain point for Sambar was that workers were not given prompt updates for changes to their work schedules.
With Neo’s drag-and drop scheduling feature in the Project Calendar allows for Billie to make fast changes to fieldworker schedules and communicate updates much faster. When an update is made in the Project Calendar, a notification can be sent immediately to the workers scheduled providing them an instant update No longer a need for multiple text messages sent manually to staff – a win for his growing team!
“Neo has reduced my time spent on scheduling by 90% or more… The scheduling tool is literally priceless for me. It’s the best feature by far. I can move jobs around and confirm everything in seconds, which has made my life so much easier. That alone is worth it."
Learn more about Neo’s construction scheduling and communication feature.
Timesheets and payroll simplified by software
Sambar’s team of fieldworkers had been managing timesheets manually, recording their hours in their phones and then sending them via email to the bookkeeper. This was both laborious and prone to error. If information was incorrect or missing, Billie had the painful task of following up timesheets with individual fieldworkers so payroll could be completed in a timely manner.
Using Neo’s digital sign in and sign out features enables all of Billie’s fieldworkers to accurately and easily record their hours worked and the location, while the Neo construction software does the legwork of ensuring those hours are automatically communicated into the payroll system. With this system and process upgrade, Bille is saving time for the fieldworkers and supervisors, improving payroll efficiency and saving him up to 75% of the hours he previously used chasing timesheet details.
“The boys were basically just using their phone’s notes app to track their hours and then emailing it to my bookkeeper. It was frustrating because it wasn’t efficient, and I was often chasing up missing hours, which just made the whole process more difficult than it needed to be."
Read more about Neo’s timesheets and payroll functionality.
Improved site diaries saving 10s of thousands of dollars
Relying on notes and text messages to track what occurred on-site was proving not only time-consuming and inefficient – it also created risks. Without solid and easily accessible evidence of variations, changes or issues such as damages and delays, Billie and his team were exposed to potential disputes and lacked evidence to back themselves. Furthermore, invoiceable items such as extra work or payment for damaged items such as pipework were slipping through the net.
With Neo’s digital site diary feature, tracking everything became simple and efficient. Information, including digital photographs, can be captured efficiently and then coordinated with the invoicing system. In just the first year of using Neo construction software, Billie has seen measurable financial gains and has been able to successfully resolve potential disputes with builders because he now has evidence to support his claims.
“There have been times when we had broken pipes on-site, and I might have forgotten to invoice for them. But now, with the digital site diary feature, I can see all the variations and extra work and invoice them. It’s generated about $20,000 a year in extra revenue that I would have missed before using Neo."
Stellar support for onboarding and beyond
Billie had previous explored other construction software to resolve the administration burden and improve the company’s processes, however, the experience had left him frustrated. After a chat with his accountant, he booked a demo with Neo and found that it offered all the features he was looking for and more.
“When the Neo team showed me the demo, I realised it was literally what I was trying to describe to the other company! Neo just worked—it was exactly what I needed.”
He says Neo aligned easily with their workflow and was clearly designed with the needs of subcontractors in mind. The simplicity of the platform was a major drawcard for him, and he could see immediately how Neo’s features would address pain points like scheduling, timesheets, project visibility and site documentation.
The demo also showed just how easy it is to get started. Neo’s intuitive design was created to match the specific requirements of a successful subcontracting business, and the project calendar, scheduling features, and site documentation tools are straightforward, reducing the time needed to perform everyday tasks.
“The demo showed me how easy Neo was to use. I had my project calendar, I could drag and drop jobs, and everything was in one place. It just made sense.”
The onboarding process and ongoing support have also been a huge plus. Neo provides immediate access to support and rapid resolution for any issues, ensuring the system is always operating effectively and delivering what the Sambar team need.
Ongoing Operational Optimisation meetings are another Neo point of difference and give Billie an opportunity to identify new ways the platform can help him optimise his time and benefit his business such as creating forms and custom workflows.
“Chris, our Neo Account Manager checks in regularly with these meetings, helping me use the platform better. It’s not just about fixing things but showing me where I could be using it to improve even more.”
For Sambar, having all the important business functions and information coordinated into one efficient and effective platform has been a game-changer for productivity and communication. Having all the crucial data readily available in one place has reduced risk, streamlined management of workflows and processes and given Billie more time to focus on higher value tasks such as growing the business.
“It’s all in one place—projects, staff, clients—everything I need is right there. It’s easy for me and the team to access whatever info we need, and that makes our work smoother."
“Have a look at a demo and take advantage of the support team. Once you see how easy it is to use, especially the scheduling, you’ll see how much it can help. The system is straightforward, and the team is always there if you need help."
