Ashwell Mercer Interiors / BG-Demo – Kickoff
Callcompleted
Ashwell Mercer Interiors · 30 Aug 2024 16:15
Kickoff for the Growth build. Craig Ashwell wants client, project, variations, calls and invoices in one place. Sunil Kapoor flagged mismatched client lists, and finance access to the accounting system was still outstanding.
What was said
What this says
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Kickoff for the Growth build. Craig Ashwell wants client, project, variations, calls and invoices in one place. Sunil Kapoor flagged mismatched client lists, and finance access to the accounting system was still outstanding.
What happened: Kickoff on 30 Aug 2024 for the Growth build. Craig wants the client, project, variations, calls and invoices in one place, and Sunil said the project and commercial client lists do not match.
Customer view: Craig has logged in once and expects to be the heaviest asker. Marcus Bell warned that value sitting with one person is better spread.
Commercial: Marcus said Growth is forty users, 23 Aug 2024 to 22 Aug 2025, at £40k, and that the order form and invoices match. Sunil's single sign-on question is open, and Marcus owes a written answer.
Watch: Finance has not yet given accounting access, so the first refresh may slide.
Themes
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Theme
Growth kickoff and data reconciliation
Importance
neutral
Sentiment
mixed
Voice
decision-maker
Who was there
BG-Demo
CRMmade from
Them
CRMmade from
Follow-up
Next steps
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Marcus Bell to send finance a short access note and a written answer on single sign-on.
- Callie Brennan to send the access checklist and build plan after the call.
- Craig Ashwell to chase finance for read-only accounting access by the end of next week.
Risks
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Mismatched client lists across project, commercial and the ledger could make the brain answer wrongly.
- Finance has not yet agreed read access to the accounting system, so the first refresh date may slide.
- Usage may sit with Craig alone at first, which is a key-person risk.
Opportunities
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- A credit control view of invoices beside the last call and email could be built with the dashboards builder.
- Sunil's single sign-on question touches Enterprise, which adds SSO and SCIM.
- Named users per team could spread use across all forty licensed seats.
Transcript
Callie BrennanHello, can you hear me alright? I've got Marcus on already, and I think Craig and Sunil are just joining.
Marcus BellAfternoon all. Yeah, I can hear you, Callie. Sound's fine this end.
Craig AshwellAfternoon. Sorry, I'm still in the car park. Give me a second, I'll find a room with a door.
Sunil KapoorAfternoon. Can everyone hear me? I've got the headset on this time.- Callie BrennanLoud and clear, Sunil, lovely. Craig, take your time, we'll start gently.
- Craig AshwellRight. In. Door shut. Sorry, busy week.
- Marcus BellNo problem at all. Has the weather turned your way? It's been properly grey up here all week.
- Craig AshwellGrey as ever. Better than the site this morning though, we had a ceiling grid delivered to the wrong floor. Anyway. Carry on.
- Callie BrennanHa, that's the job, isn't it. Okay, let me give you the plan for the hour, because I'd like you to leave with a clear list. First, a few minutes on what you want the brain to do for you, in your own words. Then the sources: what we connect and in what order. Then who owns what on your side. And last the dates, so you know what lands when. Does that work?
- Craig AshwellWorks. Can I start with the thing that's worrying me?
- Callie BrennanPlease, that's what this is for.
- Craig AshwellOne of our office fit-outs. We've done a lot of extra work on it and I can't tell you what the client has signed. Where's the variation? I've got three versions of the story in three places. The project side says one thing, commercial says another, and credit control are chasing an invoice that nobody is sure is right. That's why we bought this. I want to see the client, the project, the variations, the calls and the invoices in one place.
- Marcus BellYeah, and that's what I wrote down from the sales conversations too. Project, commercial and credit control looking at the same client. Callie, that's the thread for the whole build, I think.
- Callie BrennanIt is. And it's a good one to start with, because it tells me which sources matter first. Sunil, you're the admin, so before I go on, anything from your side?
- Sunil KapoorYes. I found something this week, so I'll just say it now. The client list in the project system and the one in commercial don't match. Same clients, spelt differently in places, and a few that are in one and not the other. That doesn't tie to the ledger either.
- Craig AshwellOf course it doesn't. Which is the whole problem, Sunil, you've been saying it for a year.
- Sunil KapoorI have. I'm not saying it's anyone's fault. I just don't want it carried into the brain and then have the brain answer wrongly with a straight face.
- Callie BrennanGood, and that's exactly what I'd want you to say. That maps cleanly once there's one client key that all the sources agree on. What I'd suggest is we don't try to fix the lists first. We connect the sources, run the first refresh, and let the brain show us where the names disagree. Then you decide which spelling wins, and you only decide it once.
- Sunil KapoorThat's fine. I'd rather see the list of mismatches than guess. I'll reconcile it from there.
- Callie BrennanPerfect. Marcus, can you remind us what's in the contract, so we're all working from the same page?
- Marcus BellSure. I'll just share my screen, bear with me. Can you see that? Okay. So you're on Growth, forty users, starting from 23 Aug 2024, and the order form runs to 22 Aug 2025. The annual figure is £39,600, and that's what's on the order form and what's been invoiced, so those match.
- Sunil KapoorThank you. That's helpful for my file. Forty users across the three teams?
- Marcus BellForty licensed users, yes. How you split them between project, commercial and credit control is up to you. Growth also gives you the dashboards builder and a quarterly review with me, so I'll be looking at usage with you every few months. I've pulled the numbers so far and it's early days. A handful of people have logged in, which is normal this soon after signing.
- Craig AshwellA handful. Right. I'll be honest, I've been in once. I wanted to see it with real data, not the demo.
- Marcus BellThat's fair, and it's the right way round. There's not much point in everyone logging in before there's something to look at.
- Callie BrennanOkay, sources. This is the part where I'm a bit fussy, so apologies in advance. I never start a connector without written access, and what I need from your side is access for each source, in writing, from whoever owns that system, before we switch on the refresh. Sunil, where are we with that?
- Sunil KapoorMixed. The project system I own, so that's done and I can give you the credentials today. Commercial is mine to administer but the commercial team need to know it's happening. The accounting system, finance own it. I've asked, but I haven't had an answer.
- Craig AshwellI'll chase that. I'm not going to discuss cash on a call like this without our finance team in it, but I'll get them to give you read access. Read only, yes?
- Callie BrennanRead only is all we need. We don't write back to anything. And the brain runs inside your own Snowflake account, so the data doesn't leave your environment. Sunil, I'd like you to have a word with whoever looks after Snowflake on your side as well, so we have a named person there.
- Sunil KapoorThat's me, as it happens. Another hat. I'll confirm in writing.
- Callie BrennanBrilliant, one less thing. So that's project, commercial, the accounting system, and then the call recorder and email. Is that the full list you want connected first, or is there something I've missed?
- Craig AshwellCalls and email, yes. That's where the variations actually get agreed. Somebody says yes on a site walk and it never makes it into a system. What has the client signed? Half the time the answer's in an email from three weeks ago.
- Callie BrennanRight, and that's where the brain earns its keep. Emails and calls sit next to the project record, so you can ask what was agreed with this client about this scope, and it points you at the message. It won't decide whether a variation is valid, mind. That's still you and your team.
- Craig AshwellGood. I don't want it deciding. I want it showing me, before we've built the thing.
- Sunil KapoorOne question on that. Which project code does it use to join an email to a project? Because people don't put the code in the subject line, not reliably.
- Callie BrennanGood question, and I'd rather be straight with you than say it should be fine. Where the code's in the message, it matches. Where it's not, it falls back to the client and the people on the thread, and that will be weaker. I'd want to look at a sample of your real emails before I tell you how well it maps. Could you give me a handful of examples, ones you think are tricky?
- Sunil KapoorYes. I'll pick ones where the code is missing, so we test the bad case, not the easy one.
- Callie BrennanThat's exactly right. Thank you.
- Marcus BellCallie, while you're making a note, can I come in on the users side? Craig, who do you see actually asking questions in the first month? Because it helps me to know who we're training.
- Craig AshwellMe, probably too much. Two or three of the commercial team, the quantity surveyors, who live in the variations. And the credit control lot, because they're the ones who'll feel it first if it works. Then the project managers once they trust it.
- Marcus BellThat's helpful. One thing I'd flag, and it's only a gentle one: if it's mostly you asking, the value sits with one person, and it's better spread. So I'd suggest we pick a few named people per team to start with, rather than switching on all forty at once.
- Craig AshwellFair. Sunil, can you work out who? Don't make it a committee.
- Sunil KapoorI'll draft a list and send it round. I'll keep it short.
- Callie BrennanOkay, I'm going to share a plan of the build, so bear with me. Can you see it? It's just a checklist, one line for each source, who owns it on your side, and the date I need access by. I always put a date against every step, otherwise it doesn't happen.
- Craig AshwellI like that. It's got names on it. Nobody gets away.
- Callie BrennanThat's the idea. So, project and commercial first, because you own them and they're quickest. Accounting next, once finance have agreed. Calls and email last, because they're the biggest and I want the client list sorted before they come in, or the mismatches will be everywhere.
- Sunil KapoorThat order suits me. The mismatches on the client list will be easier to see with fewer sources in.
- Callie BrennanExactly. Now, the first refresh. It runs overnight and should be done by 07:00 on business days, and that's the same on every tier. For the first couple of weeks I'll watch it myself and tell you what I see each morning, before you do.
- Craig AshwellAnd if it's wrong? Say it comes up and the numbers are rubbish.
- Callie BrennanThen you tell me, Sunil tells me, and we look at it together. The first refresh is rarely perfect, it's the second and third where it settles. I'd rather you saw it early and told me than waited for it to look good.
- Marcus BellAnd if anything is stuck, raise a ticket, don't wait for the weekly call. It goes to the helpdesk and I see it as well.
- Sunil KapoorUnderstood. And the weekly call, is that you, Callie, or Marcus?
- Callie BrennanMe during the build, then it moves to Marcus. That's the handover, and I'll write you a setup note before I step back, so you don't have to remember any of this. What's connected, how it's mapped, what we decided on the client names. Sunil, that note is really for you.
- Sunil KapoorGood. I'd like that in writing. If I'm the one running it, I need to know why a thing was done.
- Callie BrennanThat's the point of it. I want you able to run things alone.
- Craig AshwellCan I ask about credit control specifically? Because that's where I'd like to see the benefit first. Let's get paid for what we've built. I want my people to open a client and see the valuation, the variations, and what's outstanding, and whether anyone's spoken to them.
- Callie BrennanYes. That's invoices from the accounting system next to the project and the conversations. So the credit controller sees a client's open invoices and, next to it, the last call and the last email. That's a view we can build with the dashboards builder, and Sunil can build it, or I'll do the first one with him.
- Sunil KapoorI'd rather the brain answered it than I built a report. If the question can be asked, I don't want to maintain a report for it.
- Callie BrennanQuite right, and I'd start there. Ask first. Only if people keep asking the same thing do we turn it into a dashboard.
- Marcus BellThat's how the quarterly review works too, actually. I look at what people have been asking and we decide together what's worth making permanent.
- Craig AshwellFine. Let's make it work first and then we'll talk about reviews. Right, what do you need from me?
- Callie BrennanThree things, really. One, the finance access, by the end of next week. Two, your view on which teams go first. Three, thirty minutes of your time once the first refresh lands, so you can tell me whether it matches how you think about a client.
- Craig AshwellDone, done and done. I'll chase finance today. Actually, tomorrow, it's Friday and they leave early.
- Marcus BellMonday's fine. I'll nudge on my side too if it helps, I can send a short note you can forward, saying exactly what access is needed and why.
- Craig AshwellYes please. Short. Finance don't read.
- Marcus BellHa. Two lines and a list. I'll send it after this call.
- Sunil KapoorCallie, one more from me. When the first refresh lands, how will I know it's complete? I don't want to look at half the records and think that's the picture.
- Callie BrennanYou'll see, for each source, how many records were indexed and when it last loaded. I'll send you a short note after each of the first refreshes, saying what came in and what didn't. If a source stays flat for several days, I'll tell you, because that usually means something upstream has changed.
- Sunil KapoorGood. That's what I'd check anyway.
- Callie BrennanAnd one thing I'd ask in return: if you change anything in the project system, a field, a status, a code format, tell me before you do it. It's the commonest reason a connector goes quiet.
- Sunil KapoorUnderstood. I'll tell you first. I'm not planning anything, but I'll keep you in the loop.
- Marcus BellCan I pull the dates together? Because I want to be sure I've got them right. Callie sends the access checklist after this call. Sunil gives credentials for project and commercial by early next week. Craig gets finance access by the end of next week. First refresh the week after, as long as that's all in.
- Callie BrennanThat's right. And I'd say it's the week after rather than a hard date, because I won't start anything until the access is in writing. If finance are late, the date slides, and I'll tell you straight away.
- Craig AshwellUnderstood. I'd rather you slid it than switched something on blind.
- Callie BrennanThat's my whole philosophy.
- Craig AshwellOkay, last thing from me. The thing I said at the start, the variation. When can I see that? Not the whole thing, one project.
- Callie BrennanOnce project, commercial and the accounting system are in, I'd like us to pick that one project together and walk it end to end. Tell me which one worries you most and I'll use it for the review after the first refresh. Is it the same one you mentioned earlier?
- Craig AshwellSame one. Sunil knows which. It's the one with the wrong ceiling grid.
- Sunil KapoorI know the one. I'll send you the project code and the client name as it appears in both lists, so you can see the mismatch for yourself.
- Callie BrennanPerfect, that gives us a real test. Thank you.
- Marcus BellAnything else anyone wants to raise? I'd rather hear it now than in a ticket.
- Sunil KapoorJust that single sign-on question I had earlier. I'd assumed we'd log in with our existing accounts. Is that how it works on Growth?
- Marcus BellHonestly, I'd need to check that for the tier before I answer, and I don't want to tell you something wrong. Let me confirm in writing, and I'll copy Callie in.
- Sunil KapoorThat's fine. It isn't blocking. I just want to plan the user list.
- Craig AshwellRight. I've got another meeting in a few minutes, so I'll have to go. Thanks both. Marcus, thanks. Callie, thanks, I feel better than when I came in.
- Callie BrennanGood, that's what I wanted. I'll send the checklist and the plan within the hour, so you've got it for the weekend.
- Marcus BellAnd I'll send the note for finance, and the answer on logging in. Thanks everyone.
- Sunil KapoorThank you. I'll send the credentials and the sample emails early next week. Speak soon.
- Callie BrennanBrilliant. Have a good weekend, all of you, and Craig, good luck with the ceiling grid.
- Craig AshwellCheers. Bye.
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