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[case_003] · § Manufacturing · Advanced

NetSuite Escape · US Surfaces — $108k/yr saved · 90% software cost cut.

US Surfaces — one of North America's largest importers and distributors of natural stone and quartz slabs (LETA, LECN brands) — replaced NetSuite with a purpose-built Production Portal and kept QuickBooks Online for the GL. Software cost dropped from $10k/month to $1k/month (~$108k/yr saved) and the factory data loop that ran on Excel + email is now live webhooks.

NetSuite migrationCustom ERPQuickBooks OnlineVueSuiteQLFactory webhooksContainer logisticsDistribution

client · US Surfaces — natural stone & quartz slab distributor (LETA, LECN)

  • [1] · annual savings vs NetSuite
    ~$108k
  • [2] · software cost reduction
    90%
  • [3] · shipments auto-linked to SOs
    18,500
  • [4] · purpose-built dashboards (was 36)
    8
NetSuite Escape · US Surfaces — fig. 01 illustration

fig. 01 · netsuite escape · us surfaces accent = $108k/yr saved · 90% software cost cut

[01]
§ Challenge

Challenge

US Surfaces had been on NetSuite for years and accumulated 36+ saved searches nobody fully understood, custom fields stacked on stock NetSuite that made every report fragile, a $10k+/month licensing bill (full users, sandbox, SuiteAnalytics), and workflows that almost fit the business but always required spreadsheets to bridge the gaps. Their factory data flow with overseas suppliers was, in practice, email + Excel + manual re-keying. They didn't need NetSuite's depth — they needed a system that mirrored their actual operation: containers in transit, slabs by gauge and grade, customer POs against drop-ship factory orders, shipment-to-SO linking, and a daily production view the warehouse team would actually open.

[02]
§ Approach

Approach

Phased rollout. We rebuilt the operational layer on a custom Vue + Postgres stack and kept QuickBooks Online for the parts ERPs are genuinely good at (GL, AR, AP). Built a Production Portal with 7 live operational dashboards (LETA FCL slabs, LECN FCL slabs, FCL cut-to-size, FCL samples, LETA planning, daily factory output, change-history audit log) — each tuned to the way the team actually triages work. Reverse-engineered all 36 legacy saved searches against verified SuiteQL output and consolidated them into 8 purpose-built dashboards. Mirrored before we cut over — every number tied out before NetSuite turned off. Built an Order Processor for PO ingestion (Excel/PDF), SO preview + creation, shipment tracking; auto-linked 18,500 of 21,900 historical shipments to their originating sales orders by PO number. Wired live webhooks from overseas factories to replace the Excel-and-email loop.

[03]
§ Outcome

Outcome

Software bill dropped from $10k/month to $1k/month — roughly $108k/year saved, and the factory data integration alone has paid for the entire project. NetSuite wound down for the distribution arm; QBO retained for accounting; the Production Portal owns operations. Warehouse, purchasing, and sales each get a view tuned to their job, not a single mega-dashboard nobody owns. Three things made this work where most "rip out NetSuite" projects fail: we replaced the parts they actually used (not the whole platform), we mirrored before cutting over (no "trust me, the new number is right"), and the system is built around operators, not the org chart.

"We were paying ten thousand a month for software that almost fit. Now we pay a tenth of that for a system that actually fits — built around how we move containers, not around a generic ERP's idea of a distributor. The factory data alone has paid for the entire project."

— Operations · US Surfaces

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