The before — commissions lived in an inbox.
A custom furniture order is a long build, and Dovetail tracked it across an inbox, a whiteboard, and two payment tools. “The order was an email thread, production was a whiteboard, deposits were Square, and retail was Shopify,” says Ana Cole, Owner. “Telling a customer when their table would be done was a guess.”
Deposits slipped because they weren't tied to the order, and the production whiteboard never matched what the inbox had promised.
$740/month across four tools. Commissions tracked in email. Lead-time guesses that frustrated customers.
The switch — one record per piece.
Dovetail built an order record holding the spec, production stage, deposits, and delivery, and connected retail to the same catalog. Customers now get accurate build updates.
“The first time I gave a customer a real delivery date with confidence, that was new,” Cole says.
What got replaced
| Old tool | Replaced by Mewayz module | Monthly saving |
|---|---|---|
| Email / order intake | Custom Orders & CRM | $120 |
| Production whiteboard | Production Tracking | $140 |
| Square (deposits) | Payments & Deposits | $140 |
| Shopify (retail) | Storefront & Inventory | $105 |
| Total old stack | Mewayz Business | save $740/mo |
The unlock — the piece tells its story.
With orders, production, deposits, and retail unified, the shop runs from one record:
- Custom orders carry spec, deposits, and production stage together
- Deposits tie to the order and arrive on schedule
- Production stage drives accurate customer lead times
- Retail and custom share one inventory and customer list
When production stage lives on the order record, a delivery estimate is a fact, not a guess. Accurate lead times turned anxious customers into patient ones.
The new normal — building, not chasing.
“I spend my time in the shop now, not reconciling an inbox against a whiteboard,” Cole says. “The business feels like a workshop again instead of an admin job.”