Your camera and lighting gear is double-booked across two shoots because the kit list lives in a spreadsheet
Custom inventory management software for a Wellington gear house or maker runs NZD 60,000 to 220,000 over 3 to 7 months. Build custom when your stock is serialised, bookable, or batch-tracked in ways generic tools can't model: camera and lighting kit hired across overlapping productions, or craft-food stock gated by production batch. Fishbowl, Cin7, and spreadsheets handle warehouse counts. They can't tell you a specific lens is double-booked next Tuesday.
Your Wellington gear house rents camera bodies, lenses, lighting, and grip across productions that overlap, and the booking lives in a spreadsheet. So a specific serialised lens gets promised to two shoots on the same Tuesday, gear goes out against a job that slipped, and damage and maintenance history for an individual piece is a paper note nobody can find. Fishbowl and Cin7 count stock; they don't model a bookable, serialised asset with a calendar and a maintenance log.
Craft producers hit a parallel version: a brewery's stock is gated by what's been kegged, a roastery's by what's roasted, and a generic inventory tool that assumes fungible units oversells a small batch that doesn't exist yet. The thing each business needs to track, the individual asset or the specific batch, is exactly what off-the-shelf can't see.
- You rent or move serialised assets that get booked and double-booked
- Per-item maintenance history matters to safety or quality
- Stock is gated by production batch, not fungible units
- Bookings need to follow the production schedule
- Your stock is fungible and a warehouse count is all you need
- Cin7 or Fishbowl already model your products well
- You don't track individual assets or batches
- You can't fund the process change scanning requires
- A booking calendar per serialised asset that physically can't double-book a lens or camera
- Per-item maintenance and damage history, so a fault is known before it ships to a shoot
- Gear bookings tied to the production schedule, so a rescheduled job moves its kit too
- Batch-gated stock for craft producers, so a small-batch item can't oversell before it exists
- One source of truth feeding ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) job costs and project management software
- Serialised, calendar-aware tracking is more complex and costly than a counting tool
- Barcoding or RFID for individual assets adds hardware and process change
- Staff must actually scan and log, or the system drifts from reality like the spreadsheet did
- A business with simple fungible stock may not need this over Cin7
The honest cost picture for Wellington
| Project scope | Typical cost | Timeline |
|---|---|---|
| Serialised asset and booking system | $60k to $110k | 3 to 4 months |
| With maintenance and batch tracking | $110k to $170k | 4 to 6 months |
| Full build with ERP and schedule integration | $170k to $220k | 5 to 7 months |
Feature priorities for Wellington teams
Inventory Management services we deliver in Wellington
Digital Heroes builds the full inventory management stack for Wellington teams. Typical engagements cover real-time inventory, purchase order management, demand forecasting, inventory management software and stock control system.
Exactly what you get
A system that tracks the actual thing: a serialised lens with its own booking calendar that can't double-book, a maintenance log per camera, and craft-food stock gated by what's been brewed. Bookings follow the production schedule, scanning keeps it honest, and it feeds ERP job costing and project management software so the kit list and the budget finally agree.
How to choose a developer in Wellington
Hire a team that has built serialised, bookable inventory, not just stock counters. Ask them to model a single lens booked across two overlapping shoots and how the calendar prevents the clash. Wellington's gear houses live on exactly that detail, so a developer who only knows warehouse counts will miss the point of the whole build.
Timeline: what happens, and when
- !They treat gear as fungible stock. Ask how they'd stop a specific lens being double-booked.
- !No per-asset history. Ask how maintenance and damage attach to an individual item.
- !They ignore the production schedule link. Ask how kit follows a rescheduled shoot.
- !No batch tracking for craft producers. Ask how they'd gate stock by production.
- !They skip the scanning process. Ask how the system stays accurate day to day.
If inventory management is on the roadmap, accounting, project management, lms usually follow within the year. Budget them as one conversation.
Rohan advises mid-market and enterprise teams on ERP, CRM and custom software, and has led delivery on dozens of business-software builds.
Writes for Digital Heroes, shipping business software for 2,000+ brands across 55+ countries since 2017.
Frequently asked questions
Why can't Fishbowl or Cin7 handle gear rental?
They count fungible stock. A Wellington gear house rents serialised assets, a specific lens or camera, that get booked across overlapping productions. Custom software gives each asset a booking calendar and maintenance log so it can't be double-booked, which counting tools can't do.
How does batch tracking help craft producers?
It gates available stock by what's actually been produced (kegged, roasted, printed), so a small-batch item can't be sold before it exists. Generic inventory tools assume fungible units and happily oversell stock that isn't ready.
Does it connect to our job costing?
Yes. Gear and stock movements tie to ERP job codes and the production schedule, so the cost of a hired lens lands on the right production and a rescheduled shoot takes its kit with it.