Run the shop. Don't let it run you.
Get every job under control — and finally know what each one actually makes. Harkhamer installs one connected system that runs your shop from lead to real margin. Nothing slips. Nothing hides.
Built for shops whose work runs estimate → build → install.
Three ways a good shop bleeds money.
The crew drives 90 minutes, opens the truck, and the bracket is still on the shop floor. Reschedule. Second trip. Angry customer.
"Fabric color — TBD" made it into production. Nobody caught it. The order was never placed. The job's now three weeks late.
Year-end, and you still can't say which jobs made money. You're steering a business you can't actually see.
One connected flow — lead to real margin.
It isn't a pile of features. It's one spine every job travels, with hard gates it can't skip. A job can't reach production with missing specs. It can't leave the shop with a missing part. And it can't close without telling you what it made.
Lead
Site measure
Quote → deposit
Gate — specs complete?
Material order
Fabrication
Gate — install kit complete?
Install
Closeout → margin
Across every stage: the owner sees it live · customers get automatic updates · the numbers accrue by themselves
Your whole shop, on one screen.
| Job | Stage | Owner | Days here | Materials | Install | Margin |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ASB-2481 | Fabrication | Mike | 4 | Ready | Jul 16 | 38% |
| ASB-2484 | Install prep | Jen | 2 | Bracket short | Blocked | 31% |
| ASB-2487 | Quote | Christian | 6 | — | — | — |
| ASB-2490 | Material order | Cadence | 1 | 2 of 5 in | Jul 22 | — |
| ASB-2492 | Scheduling | Cadence | 3 | Ready | Jul 18 | 44% |
Who enters all this? Mostly the system, from how you already work. The crew does a tap and a photo — not data entry. If it's a hassle, they won't use it, so it isn't one.
Before Harkhamer, and after.
| Before | After |
|---|---|
| Job details spread across texts, paper, and your memory | One job record, quote through closeout |
| Production starts with missing information | Required fields block release — nothing starts half-ready |
| Materials "checked" verbally | Material readiness visible per job, before the truck loads |
| Crew asks you what to bring | Install packet generated before they leave |
| Margin guessed at year-end | Estimated and actual margin, per job, live |
| Customers call for status | Updates sent automatically at every key stage |
Not advice. Installed working parts.
- 01Operational mapYour shop's real workflow, documented.
- 02Job stage definitionsEvery stage, with entry + exit rules.
- 03Required-field matrixWhat must be true before a job advances.
- 04The production boardEvery active job, live, in one place.
- 05Installation packetPhoto-verified kit check per job.
- 06Customer update systemAuto-messages at each key stage.
- 07Job-cost dashboardTrue cost + margin, per job.
- 08Owner scorecardThe handful of numbers that run the shop.
- 09SOP libraryHow the system runs, written down.
- 10Office + crew trainingAdoption is the job, not an afterthought.
- 1190-day results reviewBaseline vs. where it landed.
You watch it get installed.
Map + baseline
I map how your shop actually runs and capture the starting numbers — so we can prove what changed.
Build the spine
Job stages, ownership rules, and the required checks that block a bad job.
Install + train
The workflow goes live. Office and crew trained on the real thing, on real jobs.
Cost + measure
Job-cost visibility on, exceptions refined, results measured against the baseline.
Our first full build is underway.
A Shade Beyond — a custom awning & shade fabrication shop in Prescott, AZ, doing real work since 1998 (5.0 on Google, 105+ reviews). It's where we're installing the whole Harkhamer system, end to end. Here's the ledger — exactly what's done, what's going in now, and what we'll measure:
- Unified job pipeline
- Required stage gates
- Installation readiness
- Owner visibility
- Quote turnaround
- Missing-material delays
- Install return trips
- Job-level margin
- Owner hours recovered
We'll publish the baseline, what changed, and what failed — as the work progresses.
It only works if it makes you 4–5×.
Illustrative figures for a mid-size shop — not a Harkhamer client result. Against a fee that starts small and steps up only as the real numbers land, the arrangement holds one rule: 4–5× what you pay us, or it shouldn't exist.
Built by a builder.
I'm Christian Amondson. I've spent two decades starting and running businesses — and getting burned by the exact things you're dealing with: jobs slipping, never really knowing my numbers, working in the business instead of on it.
Harkhamer is the system I wish I'd had. And I don't build it from a distance — I'm in your shop, on your real numbers, with your crew, until it runs.
— Christian, Harkhamer
Not for everyone. Maybe for you.
A short call — no pitch, no obligation. Tell me how your shop runs today, and I'll tell you straight whether Harkhamer fits, what I'd install first, and what it'd be worth.
Best fit: owner-run custom-project trades (awnings, fencing, decks, metal, cabinetry, pools) with a crew, real demand, and a business you want to grow — not run forever. Not a fit: solo operators, pure service-call trades, or a shop that's fine the way it is.