PaintNuts

PaintNuts, a leading provider of colour-matched automotive paints, faced mounting inefficiencies as order volumes and credit account complexity grew. Staff were manually managing sales and invoicing across Magento and Xero – a process that quickly became unsustainable. Errors, duplication, and slow reconciliation created resource strain, increased the risk of data inaccuracy, and limited the business’s ability to scale. The introduction of credit orders added further complexity, turning an already fragile workflow into a bottleneck. It became clear that without integrated systems and automation, growth would stall, threatening both operational performance and customer experience.

Door4 tackled the challenge with a commercially-led mindset, focusing on meaningful efficiency gains over technical bells and whistles. A discovery workshop with PaintNuts’ stakeholders surfaced every friction point and clarified where automation would have the greatest impact. From the outset, we proposed a phased delivery model — enabling PaintNuts to weigh return on investment at each step. Selective data syncing and closed-loop feedback soon emerged as priorities, and the project evolved accordingly. Open dialogue ensured alignment throughout, helping the client balance complexity with cost and shaping a solution that directly supported their business goals.

Execution was highly collaborative, with PaintNuts engaged throughout workshops, requirements capture, and iterative testing. Door4 established trust by clearly defining deliverables for each phase, helping the client choose the best feature set for their needs and budget. The solution delivered a secure, bi-directional integration that passed only relevant credit account data between Magento and Xero, eliminating manual reconciliation. Finance staff could now work entirely within Xero, reducing exposure to Magento and streamlining workflows. When post-launch challenges emerged due to differences in how each system structured orders, Door4 collaborated quickly to resolve them and provided clear next-step recommendations for future iterations.

Success was measured by the removal of manual handling, increased data accuracy, and enhanced staff productivity. Key performance signals included the elimination of duplicate data entry, reduced reconciliation time, and the ability to process more credit orders without extra admin burden. The project’s success was reinforced through direct staff feedback, streamlined monthly reporting, and fewer error-related queries. For both teams, the clearest indicator was that the finance function could now operate independently of Magento — a shift that unlocked tangible resource savings and improved day-to-day confidence in the data.

The outcome for PaintNuts is a robust, scalable financial workflow that frees their teams from repetitive admin and supports business growth. Staff now focus on higher-value work, while finance operations benefit from cleaner, more reliable data. The phased approach leaves room for future automation — including deeper closed-loop integrations — and the experience has shaped how the client approaches future investments in system architecture. Crucially, operational issues that once caused disruption can now be identified and addressed early. The project didn’t just solve a problem — it strengthened the business’s ability to adapt, optimise and scale with confidence.