Enterprise DNA

Instead of Ostendo

Stop renting Ostendo. Own your manufacturing job shop system.

We build your version around how you quote, schedule and invoice jobs, bring your Ostendo data across, and run it for you. No plan tiers, and the system is yours.

Ostendo charges per concurrent user licence, plus an annual renewal fee from year two, plus separate consulting days for setup, training and custom reports.

Get your version built See it working
  • check_circleYour data in a database you own
  • check_circleOpen source, no lock-in
  • check_circleBuilt and run by Enterprise DNA

What you are paying for

Most of an Ostendo bill is the front end

The jobs, the hours, the stock and the invoices are yours. The screens around them are what you buy, per concurrent user, and then rent again every year through the renewal fee.

paid

A licence for every concurrent seat

Everyone who needs the system open at once is another upfront licence: the estimator, the office, the store, the owner checking WIP.

autorenew

The annual renewal on software you bought

A licence renewal fee lands every year from year two, priced as a share of list, to keep the updates coming for the thing you already paid for.

build

A partner project to switch it on

Implementation, configuration and training are a consulting engagement priced in days, before the floor books its first hour to a job.

dashboard

Reports behind a report writer

The question you actually have is a custom report, and the custom report is another visit from the partner who set it up.

hub

The link to your accounting system

Ostendo sits on top of MYOB or Xero through a connector that is the vendor's to maintain, and everything waits on it.

schedule

Admin instead of making

Keeping items, statuses and screens tidy inside the vendor's forms is work the tool creates, not work it removes.

What you get instead

A job shop system you talk to

The floor

A job board that answers back

Every open job with its promise date, how much of the fixed quote the cost has eaten, and what has gone quiet. The numbers a workshop manager actually walks the floor with.

  • check Days late measured against the date the customer was promised
  • check Quote burnt: cost against the fixed price, flagged at 80% while there is still time to act
  • check Jobs that have gone a week with nothing booked or issued
  • check Shortages per job, against the promise date, with what is on order and when it lands

The money

Job costing and WIP, live

Cost is one view: materials issued, hours at captured rates, outwork received. The board, WIP, billing and the attention list all read it, so they can never disagree.

  • check WIP any day of the month: cost sitting in open jobs that no invoice covers
  • check Margin per job: materials, hours, outwork against what it billed
  • check Progress claims, completion balances and the time-and-materials meter draft themselves
  • check Rates captured onto every hour and issue, so a rate change never rewrites a running job

Compliance

The paperwork the trade actually demands

The rules a fabrication shop lives under are commands and gates, not a module on the next tier, and every rule cites its source.

  • check Traceable steel refuses to issue to a structural job without a heat number (AS/NZS 5131)
  • check Construction work bills as a payment claim by default, statement rendered (CCA 2002)
  • check Retentions tracked to their due date: your money, held on trust, chased on the day
  • check Work centre service clocks, PPSR positions and time-record gaps on one attention list

Yours

a database you own, paperwork in your brand

Plain records, documents with your name on them, and a system you reshape by describing the change.

  • check Import your Ostendo customers, items and job history in one command, dry run first
  • check It automatically creates invoices, quotes, job travellers and cost reports in your brand
  • check Add a field, a rule or a whole command by describing it in plain language
  • check MIT licence, no per-seat licence, no renewal fee, no vendor to leave

Make it yours

Design your own Ostendo replacement

Everything starts from the open-source base. Then it gets your name, the parts you run, your rules and your data from Ostendo. Try it here, and we build the real one.

2. What it runs

3. Make it fit

4. Your colour

Your business · your Ostendo replacement Your version
YB Your business

auto_awesome

Answered from your own database

Build my version

We build it from the open-source base, bring your Ostendo data across and run it for you.

What it looks like

Ask it like you would ask a colleague

Real answers from the demo data that ships with Job Shop for Claude Code. It runs in Claude Code inside the Claude app, so it feels like any chat you already use.

forum

Job Shop for Claude Code

Connected to your own database

What jobs are open on the job board right now?

The job board (8 open)

J-1201

Customer
Waikato Dairy Services Ltd
Job
Stainless platform and walkway,...
Status
in-progress
Promised
2026-09-14 (3d LATE)
Quoted
$24,000
Cost
$19,740
Burnt
82%
Hours
160.00
To bill
$24,000

J-1202

Customer
Rototuna Transport Ltd
Job
Truck deck rebuild, unit 14
Status
in-progress
Promised
2026-09-26
Quoted
T&M
Cost
$834
Hours
14.00
To bill
$1,806

J-1200

Customer
Kahu Structural Builder...
Job
Mezzanine floor steelwork, Te R...
Status
in-progress
Promised
2026-09-27
Quoted
$48,500
Cost
$3,488
Burnt
7%
Hours
20.00
To bill
$28,500

J-1207

Customer
Ray Cootes
Job
Tandem trailer build
Status
in-progress
Promised
2026-10-01
Quoted
$6,800
Cost
$1,138
Burnt
17%
Hours
16.00
To bill
$6,800

J-1205

Customer
Piako Orchard Machinery...
Job
Hydraladder chassis repairs
Status
in-progress
Promised
2026-10-17
Quoted
T&M
Cost
$449
Hours
5.00
To bill
$881

J-1203

Customer
Hamilton City Council
Job
Playground shade structure fram...
Status
accepted
Promised
2026-09-29
Quoted
$16,800
Burnt
0%
To bill
$16,800

J-1206

Customer
Frankton Freight Ltd [S...
Job
Container ramp
Status
on-hold
Promised
2026-10-01
Quoted
$7,400
Burnt
0%
To bill
$7,400

J-1204

Customer
Southbridge Sheds & Bar...
Job
Barn door sets x6
Status
complete
Promised
2026-09-03
Quoted
$9,200
Cost
$4,466
Burnt
49%
Hours
55.00
To bill
$9,200

Burnt is cost against a fixed quote. Anything at 80%+ and unfinished is on `attention`.

Ask it anything

Questions Ostendo cannot answer

Every one of these is a real question the demo answers today. Yours will be different, and that is the point.

chat_bubble Which fixed-price jobs have eaten more than 80% of their quote and are still on the floor, and what decision does each one need today?
chat_bubble What steel went onto structural jobs this year with no heat number recorded, and which customer's site is it on?
chat_bubble What is our real WIP right now: cost sitting in open jobs that no invoice covers, job by job?
chat_bubble Which quotes have been out more than two weeks with no contact, and what are they worth together?
chat_bubble What did every job for one customer actually earn after materials, hours and outwork, and should their next quote be higher?
chat_bubble Which retentions fall due in the next 60 days, and which are already overdue for the asking?
chat_bubble Whose timesheets have gaps this week, and what would those unbooked hours have billed?
chat_bubble Which work centre is the bottleneck this month, and which one is idle while it is also overdue for its service?
chat_bubble Which customers' exposure, owing plus WIP, is past their limit, and which of them owe five figures with no PPSR registration behind our terms?
chat_bubble Which materials keep going short against promise dates, and which supplier's lead time is really to blame?

Switching

How to switch from Ostendo

The move itself is one import command against CSV files, but the real work is the walk around the shop floor to re-verify the things the old system just claimed, so treat this as a project with a proper cutover, not a weekend copy job.

  1. 1

    Export your records from Ostendo

    Export your customers, suppliers, items and job list as CSV. That is the path the import command expects. If your Ostendo account only allows a different format, check with Ostendo on what it can export, but CSV is what the import is built to read. Keep the files together, you will point four flags at them in the next step.

  2. 2

    Run the import, dry run first

    Start with your customers, items and jobs files, and bring them in for a test run first so nothing is saved while you check it looks right. Once it does, run the same import again for real and the business lands in the system.

  3. 3

    Check what the import leaves out

    Heat numbers, work centre service dates and open-job costing do not come across on purpose. The old system saying a certificate existed is not the certificate. Walk the racks once with the paperwork in front of you, confirm what is real, and then check compliance afterwards. It lists exactly what is still unverified so nothing gets missed.

  4. 4

    Run both systems side by side

    Keep Ostendo running for a short period while the new system carries the same jobs. Book time and issue stock from cutover day forward in the new one, and use the period to confirm the board, the shortages and the job costing match what you expect before you commit fully.

  5. 5

    Switch off Ostendo

    Once the side by side period has shown the records and the numbers hold up, stop using Ostendo. There is no licence to cancel on a renewal date and no seat count to true up, so the switch itself is just deciding you are done checking and moving on.

construction

Where the real effort goes

The import handles customers, suppliers, items and jobs. The real work is deciding how your fields and your rules map across, retention percentages, quote expiry, work centre names, compliance rules for your region, and how much job history you actually want to carry versus start fresh on the walk around the racks. Enterprise DNA does this mapping and the cutover itself when they install and run it for you.

Not ready for a call?

Get your Ostendo switch plan by email

We will send you the step-by-step plan for moving your business off Ostendo, what the move really involves, and how we would do it for you.

One email with your plan. No spam, and you can unsubscribe any time.

Two ways to run it

Run it yourself, or have it run for you

Open source

Run it yourself

Free

  1. 1 Clone the repo
  2. 2 npm run demo, then open the folder in Claude Code
  3. 3 Type /attention
  4. 4 Import your Ostendo export and point it at your own database
Get it on GitHub

Omni by Enterprise DNA

Have Enterprise DNA install it

One setup fee, then a monthly retainer

  • check We migrate your Ostendo customers, suppliers, items and job history
  • check We connect your accounting system so drafted invoices flow into it
  • check We write the commands and the compliance rules for your shop and your state
  • check It runs inside Omni, our managed Command Center, with the rest of your business
Book a discovery call

Questions

Instead of Ostendo, answered

Is it really free? expand_more

Yes. MIT licence. Run it anywhere, change anything, no account with us, no renewal fee ever.

How do the floor's hours get in without terminals? expand_more

Typed in one line, noting the job, name, hours and work centre. Most shops write the day up at smoko anyway. Here the same habit feeds the job costing and the legal time record at once, and the attention list flags anyone who stops.

What happens to our Ostendo history? expand_more

Export customers, suppliers, items and the job list as spreadsheet files, then bring them in with one straightforward import, doing a test run first so nothing is lost. It all lands, open jobs as live work, finished ones as history on each customer's card. Heat numbers, work centre services and open-job costing deliberately start fresh from a walk of the racks, and the migration guide explains exactly why.

Does it replace our accounting system? expand_more

No, not today. The free version drafts invoices, payment claims included, and a person sends them, while MYOB, Xero or whatever you run keeps the ledger. When Enterprise DNA builds your version, automatic sending or deeper accounting integration can be added.

Can the whole team use it? expand_more

Yes. Point everyone at a shared database and the estimator, the store and the owner run the same commands against the same data, with no per-seat licence and nothing to renew.

Stop paying rent on your own job cards

Thirty minutes with Sam. We look at what Ostendo costs you in licences, renewals and partner days, how your shop actually quotes, costs and bills, and what the installed version would look like for you. If it is a fit, we install it. If it is not, take the free version and run it yourself.

Book a discovery call Get the free version

Job Shop for Claude Code is free and open source, published by Enterprise DNA.

Done paying for Ostendo?

Get your version built