One AI brain for your whole operation. Clara connects your systems, automates the manual work, and gives you one view of every order, client and project.
Most of the factory still runs on manual processes.
South African manufacturing SMEs are digitising more slowly, and custom work ends up run on tools that weren’t built for it.
of South African manufacturing firms manage supplier relations manually or with only semi-automated tools
CCRED / SA J. of Economics, 2024 →manage customer relationships manually or with only semi-automated tools
CCRED / SA J. of Economics, 2024 →Orders live in spreadsheets and chats
Every order’s status is somewhere between a spreadsheet, a WhatsApp group and someone’s memory.
Deposits get chased by hand
Work starts before the money is in, and final payments get chased after the piece has left.
Clients phone for updates
Designers and clients call to ask where their order is, because they can’t see it themselves.
Every order follows the same path, in one place.
Built for furniture, upholstery, joinery, shopfitting and other businesses that make to order.
- 01Quote
- 02Order
- 03Production
- 04Invoice
- 05Dispatch
Quotes
Build quotes from your product catalogue plus services and charges: delivery, installation, surcharges and discounts, with your VAT setting applied.
- Accepted quotes convert straight to orders
- Cost and margin visible only to owners and admins
Orders as production lanes
Your stages, your way. Admins define the production stages and status groups, and the right people are notified as an order moves.
- Stage-duration history shows where work slows down
Deposit-first production
Every order shows its payment status, from deposit due to paid in full. Production starts on deposit, and nothing is dispatched until it’s paid.
- Exceptions need an override, and every override is audited
Your accounting system stays your ledger
Deposit and final invoices are raised in your accounting system from the order: preview, then confirm. Payments are read back and the team is told when money lands.
- Contacts matched to your clients
- Optional invoice reminders, audited
Projects
Group quotes and orders under a project with its own file number, type and gated stages.
Email intake
Inquiries and orders that arrive by email become tracked requests, with the details pulled out and the attachments filed.
Growth and Marketing
Find reorder and upsell opportunities in your existing customers, and turn finished projects into posts for LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook, with photo consent.
Move from your old CRM
A one-off import brings your records, attachments and comments across from your current CRM or project tool.
A portal for your clients and designers.
Trade clients and interior designers who order on behalf of their own clients get their own login. They see their orders and nothing else.
- Log in with an emailed code or magic link, no password to forget
- Submit structured quote requests with briefs and images
- Follow order status, with a message thread on each order
- See project history, invoices and payments
- Request amendments and read your FAQs
- Your branding, with branded share links
- Hard isolation: clients only ever see their own records, never your costs, margins or internal notes
“What’s stuck in upholstery?” Just ask.
By text or by voice, across orders, quotes, projects and products. Clara answers with exact counts, the rand amounts owed and where the answer came from, and can draw it as a chart or a table.
Same day. Same orders to fulfil. Clara automates the admin around them.
Clara works around the clock: turning overnight enquiries into requests, keeping order status current and flagging what’s at risk while the factory is closed.
- 03:00Nothing happens. The system waits until someone opens it in the morning
- 07:30Reviewing overnight WhatsApps, emails and calls from clients and suppliers
- 08:15Chasing quote and order status across spreadsheets and someone’s inbox
- 09:00A client calls for an update, and the order history gets rebuilt from three places first
- 11:00Updating job sheets by hand after every change
- 14:00Re-confirming orders and deposits against invoices and the bank statement
- 16:30Finally starts planning tomorrow’s production run
- 03:00Overnight email enquiries are already tracked requests, and your morning brief is being prepared
- 07:30Email already triaged: quote requests and order queries sorted, details pulled out
- 08:15Order and quote status already up to date and visible to the team
- 09:00The client checks their own job status in the portal, no call needed
- 10:30Every stage change is logged as work moves through production, and the right people are told
- 13:00Deposits and payments read back from your accounting system, so every order shows what’s been paid
- 16:00Orders at risk of missing their dispatch date are already flagged
What comes off your plate.
The work Clara takes on, so the team can focus on production and clients.
- Turning overnight email enquiries into tracked requestsWorks 24/7
- Logging quote requests from the portal, with the brief and images attachedClara handles this
- Chasing order status across email and spreadsheetsClara handles this
- Updating clients on their job, through a self-service portal, not a phone callClara handles this
- Logging every stage change as work moves through productionClara handles this
- Drafting standard client correspondence and follow-ups, for you to approveClara handles this
- Matching orders to their accounting invoices and paymentsClara handles this
Less chasing. More making.
Clara runs daily at a South African custom furniture manufacturer, from the first quote to the final invoice.
Show us how an order moves through your workshop.
In 30 minutes we’ll map your stages onto Clara and show you what your team and your clients would see. Pricing depends on the modules you switch on, so let’s talk.