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Facility Management on Zoho Creator

From Excel BOQs to Connected Project Delivery

Raah Consultants replaced spreadsheet BOQs and Focus bookkeeping with one connected workflow across Zoho Creator, Zoho Books and Zoho Projects, from first enquiry to project delivery.

See How It Runs

Industry

Facility management

Use case

Enquiry, BOQ, vendor costing, quotation and project delivery

Platform

Zoho Creator, Books, Projects

Measurable Outcomes

One workflow, fewer hand-offs

Faster BOQ preparation

[X] hrs to [X] min per BOQ

Article-wise BOQs built in a purpose-built Creator widget instead of Excel

Faster vendor requests

[X]% less time on vendor emails

Items grouped by vendor automatically, one email per vendor

Zero re-entry into finance

100% of approved quotes flow to Books

Approved quotations land in Zoho Books as draft estimates

Controlled pricing

Every quote approved before release

A defined management approval stage before any quotation goes out

One connected flow

3 Zoho apps, 1 workflow

Enquiry to project delivery across Creator, Books and Projects

About our client

A facility management company

Client is a facility management company that handles customer enquiries, cost estimation, vendor coordination, quotations, accounting and project delivery.

Every job starts with a bill of quantities (BOQ), priced through multiple vendors and approved by management before a quotation goes to the customer. The team needed a practical system that followed the way they already worked, while giving management tighter control over approvals, pricing and execution.

Project Overview

Business requirement

Replace Excel-based BOQs and Focus bookkeeping with one connected system covering enquiries, costing, approvals, quotations, accounting and project delivery.

Scope

The full enquiry-to-execution process, plus migration of the required records from Excel and Focus.

Solution delivered

Zoho Creator as the operational hub, with a custom widget for article-wise BOQs and vendor costing. Zoho Books takes over approved quotations for finance. Zoho Projects runs execution once the customer confirms the work.

Primary objective

One controlled path from first enquiry to project delivery, with no manual hand-offs or duplicate entry between teams.

Key Challenges Addressed

Connected process, disconnected information

The business process was connected, but the information was not. Every stage depended on separate files and manual hand-offs.

Spreadsheet BOQs

BOQs were created and revised in Excel, making consolidation and version control difficult.

Manual vendor grouping

Procurement grouped line items by hand before requesting prices from multiple vendors.

No single view of vendor pricing

Vendor prices and selected suppliers were not managed in one structured place.

Slow approvals and quotations

Management approval and quotation preparation needed extra back-and-forth.

Re-keying into finance and delivery

Approved commercial details were carried separately into Focus accounting and project tracking.

Technical Solutions Implemented

Nine steps from enquiry to project delivery

The workflow runs in nine connected steps, eight of them handled or triggered from Zoho Creator.

1

Enquiry capture

From email or phone

2

BOQ preparation

Article by article

3

Vendor assignment

Per line item

4

Vendor-wise emails

Each vendor, own items

5

Price comparison

Costing finalised

6

Management approval

Before any quote

7

Quotation download

Customer's template

8

Draft estimate

Created in Zoho Books

Customer PO received
9

Project created

Tracked in Zoho Projects

In Zoho Creator: bill and deliver

  • Enquiry capture: Enquiries received by email or phone are logged in Creator, giving every opportunity a structured starting point.
  • BOQ widget: Procurement builds the BOQ article by article in a purpose-built Creator widget.
  • Line-item consolidation: The team clubs pricing at line-item level and assigns a vendor to each item.
  • Vendor-wise emails: Creator groups items by vendor and sends each vendor one email with only their items.
  • Price capture: Procurement records vendor prices and finalises costing in the same app.
  • Management approval: Completed costing goes to management for sign-off before any quotation is released.
  • Quotation templates: Approved quotations download in the template each customer needs.

In Zoho Books and Zoho Projects: bill and deliver

  • Books integration: The approved quotation is created in Zoho Books as a draft estimate, with no re-entry.
  • Projects integration: When the customer's PO arrives, a project is created in Zoho Projects for planning, task tracking and monitoring.

Why This Solution Worked

Built around how the team already works

The business process was connected, but the information was not. Every stage depended on separate files and manual hand-offs.

Built around the real BOQ process

The custom Creator widget mirrors how procurement already works: article-level entry, line-item consolidation, vendor allocation and vendor-wise communication.

Practical for daily use

A tailored interface, not a generic form-based app, so the team adopted it quickly.

Control without friction

A defined approval stage gives management oversight of every price before it reaches a customer.

Connected beyond Creator

Approved data flows into Zoho Books and Zoho Projects, keeping finance and delivery in step.

Continuity from day one

Required records were migrated from Excel and Focus, so no operational history was lost.

Ready to scale

The platform can grow with transaction volumes, project complexity and reporting needs.

Still building BOQs and vendor quotes in spreadsheets?

Talk to a Zoho Expert

Let's map your enquiry-to-delivery process and show you what a connected Zoho workflow could look like for your team.

Core features and functional capabilities

What users can do

Enquiry register

Log every email or phone enquiry as a structured record

Custom BOQ widget

Build BOQs article by article in an interface designed for procurement

Line-item consolidation

Club pricing across line items and keep one consolidated BOQ

Vendor allocation

Assign the right vendor to each line item

Automated vendor emails

Send each vendor a single email with only their assigned items

Vendor price capture

Record vendor prices and compare them in one place

Approval workflow

Route finished costing to management for sign-off

Multi-template quotations

Download customer quotations in different approved formats

Books draft estimates

Push approved quotations into Zoho Books without re-entry

Project creation

Open a Zoho Projects project once the customer's PO arrives

Project tracking

Plan tasks and monitor execution through to completion

Technologies and solutions provided

Built around how the team already works

The business process was connected, but the information was not. Every stage depended on separate files and manual hand-offs.

Zoho Creator

Operational hub: enquiries, custom BOQ widget, vendor allocation and emails, price capture, approval, quotation templates.

Zoho Projects

Project creation after customer PO, task planning and execution tracking.

Zoho Books

Draft estimates from approved quotations, finance review and bookkeeping (replacing Focus).

Integrations and custom work: custom Creator widget for article-wise BOQs, automated vendor-wise email triggers, Creator-to-Books and Creator-to-Projects integrations, multi-format quotation templates, and data migration from Excel and Focus.

Our approach and development timeline

Live in 12 weeks , in six phases

We delivered the complete solution in 12 weeks, from discovery to go-live, building around how procurement, management and finance already worked.

  1. 1 Discovery BOQ process, vendor flow
  2. 2 BOQ build Creator widget, vendor emails
  3. 3 Approvals Sign-off flow, quote templates
  4. 4 Integrations Zoho Books, Zoho Projects
  5. 5 Migration Excel records, Focus books
  6. 6 Go-live Testing, training, launch support

Ready to replace spreadsheet-heavy operations with one connected workflow?

Book a Free Consultation

Raah Consultants designs and implements Zoho solutions around the way your teams actually work, from first enquiry to project delivery. Book a free consultation and we'll walk through your current process and show you where automation can save your team time.