Delivering high-end architectural homes across Cromwell, Wānaka, and the wider Central Otago region requires absolute precision. As an award-winning design and construction company, Hunter & Craig manage complex projects from initial architectural concepts and working drawings right through to consents, project management, and final handover. Operating at this level means every moving part, from site builders to back-office financial tracking, must work seamlessly together.
Four years ago, Hunter & Craig partnered with Rave Build to centralise their daily operations. Here is an in-depth look at how different user journeys across their business transformed by moving to a unified construction management platform, backed by a software partner evolving right alongside them.
1. The Onsite User Journey: Effortless Daily Timesheets
For carpenters and project managers on site, software needs to get out of the way so the focus stays on craftsmanship. Managing physical paper hours, manual entries, or disconnected apps creates unnecessary admin friction at the end of a physical day on the tools.
Rave Build gives site teams a direct, intuitive way to record hours worked against specific projects in real time using our mobile timesheet and site management tools. The mobile interface ensures logging hours is fast and simple, removing administrative stress from the team on the ground.
"Our builders love how simple and efficient the timesheet feature is, and having it feed straight into our back costing has been a massive win for both accuracy and time savings."
— Hunter & Craig Team
2. The Operations Journey: Real-Time Job Costing and Visibility
Tracking actual labour expenditure against estimated project budgets is one of the biggest challenges for growing building firms. When site hours are disconnected from office management systems, back costing turns into a delayed end-of-month calculation full of guesswork.
By capturing timesheet data at the source, Rave Build automatically feeds labour data straight into project back costing. Management gets immediate visibility into real job costs versus estimates on custom builds, ensuring budget accuracy across every phase of construction.
"As a growing building company, it’s invaluable to have a software partner evolving right alongside us. We’ve been using Rave Build for four years now, and it’s honestly transformed the way we work. It’s streamlined our jobs, simplified our day-to-day operations, and brought clarity to things that used to feel far more complicated than they needed to be."
— Hunter & Craig Team
3. The Financial Journey: Quoting, Invoicing, and Xero Syncing
Managing architectural construction requires complete financial control from initial client quoting right through to progress payments and final invoices. Having separate platforms for project management and accounting causes duplicate data entry and administrative bottlenecks.
Rave Build brings the full financial management suite into one place while syncing behind the scenes with Xero. Quotes, variations, and invoices move through a single pipeline, giving administrative staff total confidence that financial records match exact job progress.
"The Xero integration keeps everything running smoothly behind the scenes, and the financial suite, from quoting right through to invoicing, is easy to use and makes the whole process so much more straightforward. Having all of this in one construction management platform has genuinely changed how we operate as a team."
— Hunter & Craig Team
4. The Support Journey: Software Built on Active Collaboration
The operational success of software depends heavily on the support structure behind it. For Hunter & Craig, the value of Rave Build extends past the core feature set into the personal, highly responsive relationship with our team.
Feature suggestions from active builders are actively listened to and incorporated into continuous system updates. Having direct access to dedicated support managers ensures any day-to-day queries are solved immediately. Have questions about how Rave Build can support your team? Get in touch with us today.
"No question is ever too small. Updates are continuous. Suggestions are welcomed, and genuinely acted on. Support is fast, friendly, and always helpful. Rebekah, Corey, Chris and the team at Rave Build really do go above and beyond to make sure we’re getting the most out of the system."
— Hunter & Craig Team