Ashwell Mercer Interiors

Early April: At the 2 Apr 2026 QBR Craig Ashwell said the usage case needed to be better than six or seven people. Valerie Okon wanted any price change in writing with the order form.

Billing: Rachel Dunmore sent a first reminder for INV-155-0008 (£13k) on 1 Apr 2026. On 15 Apr 2026 Debbie Rowntree said it awaited sign-off; further reminders followed on 11 May 2026 and 8 Jun 2026 with no reply.

Adoption: On 13 Apr 2026 Craig said he could not defend forty seats with five or six active. On 8 May 2026 he said project managers had gone back to spreadsheets, and on 14 May 2026 about five of forty were active.

Support: Seven tickets covered a Salesforce permissions reset, missing projects fixed by a manual sync, a lockout with a first response of 730 minutes, and duplicate supplier records. Jamal also built a variations dashboard on 29 May 2026.

Renewal: Marcus Bell gave formal notice on 22 May 2026 that the £44k Growth term ends 22 Aug 2026. On 9 Jun 2026 Valerie said renewal must wait for a July refinancing and board approval.

Late June: On 11 Jun 2026 Craig said a higher price could not go to the board with four users. On 29 Jun 2026 Valerie accepted only a usage call with no terms.

Open at the end: The invoice was unresolved and the accounting connection ticket was open. The renewal outcome is not shown.

Usage: The 2 Jan 2026 QBR found about four of forty Growth users active. Valerie Okon, Finance Director, said a higher price would be hard to put to the board.

Check-ins: The 19 Jan 2026 and 23 Feb 2026 calls found three or four, then five or six, daily users. Craig Ashwell, Commercial Director, said he could not justify the spend without a clear value picture.

People: Amara Obi introduced herself as new to the account on 15 Jan 2026. On 20 Jan 2026 Jamal Edwards showed dispute evidence built in the brain, and Craig said it earns its keep.

Support: Three tickets: a how-to on variation orders, a projects connector fixed by manual sync on 30 Jan 2026, and a 31 Mar 2026 count mismatch traced to source-side lag.

Turn: On 6 Mar 2026 Craig said project managers find client history useful. On 12 Mar 2026 he said the brain answered a variation question in a minute.

Money: Invoice INV-155-0007 (£13k gross, due 24 Dec 2025) drew reminders on 14 Jan 2026 and 9 Feb 2026, with no reply. A 13 Mar 2026 note said nothing was outstanding, yet on 31 Mar 2026 a past-due invoice was chased and Craig gave no date.

News: On 24 Mar 2026 Fit-Out Ledger reported late accounts and a loss after two contract disputes.

Open at the end: Renewal on 23 Aug 2026 at £44k was unresolved. Project managers were not yet users, and the reason for non-payment was not shown.

QBR: On 1 Oct 2025 Craig said just over six daily users out of forty Growth seats does not justify the price, and he will ask hard questions at the renewal. Marcus Bell followed up on 2 Oct 2025 with a training proposal; there was no customer reply.

Billing: Rachel Dunmore sent reminders on invoice INV-155-0006 (£13k gross, due 10 Sep 2025) on 1 Oct 2025, 27 Oct 2025 and 24 Nov 2025, the last being the fourth. None drew a reply, and the reason for non-payment is not shown.

Value: On 3 Nov 2025 the brain caught a priced but unsigned ceiling variation live, and Craig called it worth the call. He still wants a value case before renewal and asks a large share of the questions.

Support: Sunil Kapoor's tickets on dashboard joins, variation reconciliation and a dashboard filter show growing builder use. On 16 Dec 2025 the project connector stopped refreshing; Olivia Grant found a fault on BG-Demo's side and it was resolved within six days.

The 1 Dec 2025 check-in found a variation search returning an old quote, and about two thirds of questions coming from two people. Invoice INV-155-0007 (£13k gross, due 24 Dec 2025) was issued on 24 Nov 2025 and chased on 31 Dec 2025.

Open at the end: On 29 Dec 2025 Craig admitted teams went back to spreadsheets in the year-end rush. A QBR was booked, both invoices were unpaid, and the contract end on 22 Aug 2026 was unresolved.

Value doubts: On the 4 Jul 2025 QBR, Craig Ashwell said he would not sign the renewal unchanged. Six or seven of forty users were active daily, and one client sat under two names.

Data trust: Two project figures did not tie to the ledger (7 Jul 2025), and Sunil Kapoor made a third recent contact on 31 Jul 2025. Three tickets were raised: duplicate finance records (resolved in five days), a permissions gap for new users, and a dashboard timeout (resolved in seven days).

Price: On the 18 Jul 2025 call, Priya Raman set the renewal at £44k against £40k now. Valerie Okon, the Finance Director, needs written payback evidence before going to the board.

Order form: On 6 Aug 2025 Priya sent a Growth order form for 40 users at £44k. Valerie would not commit to a signing date.

Usage: About five of forty were active on 14 Aug 2025 and about four on 3 Sep 2025. Craig owned the adoption gap and called the price hard to defend.

Billing: Reminders went out on 14 Jul 2025 and 17 Sep 2025 for two invoices, with no customer reply in either thread.

Open at the end: No signed renewal appears in these reads. The project manager session, value case, and both invoices were unresolved.

Value and invoice: At the 9 Apr 2025 QBR Craig Ashwell tied value to finding variations earlier, and Valerie Okon opened the first renewal. An invoice showed overdue on her side.

Adoption: Calls on 17 Apr 2025, 14 May 2025 and 16 Jun 2025 put active users at six or seven, about six, then five or six of forty. Craig said on 14 May 2025 the brain is an expensive search box if teams do not use it.

Invoices: INV-155-0004 (£12k gross, due 26 Mar 2025) drew reminders on 2 Apr 2025 and 16 Apr 2025 with no reply in the thread. INV-155-0005 (£12k gross, due 22 Jun 2025) was sent on 23 May 2025 and reminded on 30 Jun 2025, again with no reply.

Renewal: On 23 May 2025 Valerie asked what the £44k covers. Marcus Bell said it is the deal total, not the £40k annual subscription.

On 2 Jun 2025 she asked why renew forty seats for about five daily users. She would not commit to 8 Aug 2025 before the board dates.

Support: Two tickets on 23 Apr 2025: a quick user provisioning, and a Salesforce connector sync fault fixed by re-authentication.

Open at the end: The order form and written breakdown from Priya Raman, the board value case, the seat question and INV-155-0005 were all unresolved.

Value challenge: On 2 Jan 2025 Marcus Bell held the QBR. Valerie Okon questioned paying £40k for roughly four people and would not sign a renewal without board evidence.

Usage: Check-ins on 13 Jan 2025 and 18 Feb 2025 showed three to four, then about six, active users against 40 seats. Craig said the team had drifted back to spreadsheets.

Billing: Invoice INV-155-0003 (£12k gross, due 25 Dec 2024) drew reminders on 2 Jan 2025 and 15 Jan 2025. On 10 Feb 2025 Debbie Rowntree said it awaited internal sign off, with no dispute and no payment date. Invoice INV-155-0004 was issued on 24 Feb 2025.

Recovery: On 13 Mar 2025 Craig said project leads were starting to use it. On the 21 Mar 2025 check-in six or seven people used it daily and he said he was not shopping around. He wants a one page board summary.

Support: Three tickets: adding three users on 25 Feb 2025, an export feature request on 14 Mar 2025, and a Xero connector authentication failure on 26 Mar 2025.

Open at the end: The term ends 22 Aug 2025. Site managers are not users, hours saved cannot be measured, and the evidence does not show the invoice being paid.

Onboarding: On 3 Oct 2024 Craig Ashwell said only two or three people had logged in since signing on 23 Aug 2024. Connectors had not started because written read-only access was missing, and the job code was agreed as the client key.

Support: On 7 Oct 2024 the commercial connector needed re-authentication. On 8 Oct 2024 Craig reported a missing variation and warned his team would return to spreadsheets, with no fix date. On 15 Oct 2024 Sunil Kapoor's duplicate client records were traced to the initial mapping, with a cleanup promised.

Adoption: On 14 Oct 2024 Sunil said under four people a day used it, out of forty licensed. Training stalled on a names list.

Invoices: Reminders on the 12 Aug 2024 and 23 Aug 2024 invoices ran to 6 Nov 2024. On 28 Oct 2024 Debbie Rowntree said the £14k invoice was approved but not in a payment run, so it looks like process lag. INV-155-0003 for £12k gross was sent on 25 Nov 2024.

Value: On 4 Nov 2024 Craig set his test: variations agreed before work and valuations paid on time. On 16 Dec 2024 the brain found an unbilled lighting variation, and usage was nearly six people a day.

Open at the end: A QBR was agreed for the second week of January at 10:00, with Valerie Okon expected to test value for money. The finance director had not responded to the 8 Nov 2024 invitation, and the payment dates were unconfirmed.

Sale: On 1 Jul 2024 Growth was proposed at a total deal value of £52k. Valerie Okon needed board approval and called 9 Aug 2024 a target.

Terms: On 22 Jul 2024 Valerie asked for timing, not a lower price. Owen Tallis would not discount twice and said Growth has no credit for freshness.

Billing: The 12 Aug 2024 implementation invoice was £14k gross, due 11 Sep 2024. The 23 Aug 2024 subscription invoice was £12k gross, due 22 Sep 2024.

Kickoff: On 30 Aug 2024 Craig Ashwell asked for one client view, with variations first. Finance access to the accounting system was outstanding.

Adoption: On 16 Sep 2024 Craig said forty licences were used by two people and questioned the cost. Sunil Kapoor held back wider invites until client lists tied to the ledger.

Payment: Nell Ashcombe chased both invoices on 18 Sep 2024 and 30 Sep 2024, with no customer reply shown.

Open at the end: IT and finance read-only approvals were still awaited, Sunil was the only admin, and two invoices were unpaid.

Discovery: Priya Raman held a discovery call on 13 May 2024 with Craig Ashwell and Valerie Okon about unrecorded site variations and cash. She pencilled Growth at £52k including implementation, the total for the deal and not an annual price.

Board: Valerie asked what the £52k covers and when invoices are raised. She would not give a decision date because the board decides.

Demos: On 7 Jun 2024 Hannah Lowe demoed on sample data to Craig and Jamal Edwards. Craig did not react to the price, and Jamal wanted a trial on one live job.

Own data: The 17 Jun 2024 demo used the customer's own extracts with Craig and Sunil Kapoor. Craig said he had seen enough to know it does what he needs, but nothing is signed.

Data concerns: Sunil raised project codes, duplicated clients and where variations come from. He will not trust any client view until the join is shown on his data.

People: Jamal asked how a site-agreed variation links to the invoice and how much project managers must maintain by hand. Nell Ashcombe's webinar invitation of 14 Jun 2024 drew no reply.

Open at the end: On 24 Jun 2024 Craig agreed a proposal walkthrough and will bring Valerie, who signs nothing without the board. The proposal and a draft order form are open items, and the evidence does not show a board date or signature.

Single read: the period has one email thread, so this digest is short.

Invitation: on 7 Nov 2023 Nell Ashcombe invited Valerie Okon to a BG-Demo webinar on 16 Nov 2023 for finance and commercial leaders in contracting.

Offer: Nell asked whether Valerie would like a place and offered a short follow-up call on credit control, with Craig Ashwell included. The invitation refers to a last conversation, which the thread does not describe.

Customer view: the thread records no response from Valerie. Her interest in the credit control question is unconfirmed.

Open at the end: Nell was to offer a call time to Valerie and Craig after the webinar. The evidence does not show whether the webinar was attended or whether the call took place.

Leadership: The 30 Aug 2023 news item said Ashwell Mercer Interiors announced leadership changes, with an orderly handover and no effect on ongoing projects. No individuals or reasons were given.

Expansion: The 27 Sep 2023 news item said the company was expanding its fit-out business, citing growing demand. It said the work would broaden and delivery teams would be strengthened, with no schedule, financial terms, staffing numbers or locations.

What the reads suggest: The leadership item is read as low significance background, and the evidence does not show which roles changed, so a champion may have moved. The expansion item is read as a possible upsell prompt, with extra users or connectors if teams grow.

Open at the end: Nobody has confirmed who now owns the relationship at the customer. It is also unknown which teams are growing and by how much. Both questions were suggested for the next call.

The period holds no calls, emails or tickets, so the evidence does not show the customer's own voice or sentiment.