GoNano manufactures and distributes roof-life extension products across the U.S. and Canada. The business involves hundreds of contractor accounts, fluctuating monthly order volumes, and inventory spread across multiple warehouses. For years, GoNano ran everything through Excel spreadsheets, email chains, and Google Forms.
The setup worked fine when the company was smaller. But as SKUs multiplied and contractor demand picked up, the cracks became impossible to ignore.
Manual data entry consumed hours every week. Inventory updates depended on someone remembering to make them. Every vacation or holiday left a trail of missed handoffs and preventable mistakes. And here's the part that really stung: there was no connection to QuickBooks, so the GoNano team entered the same information twice and constantly worried about mismatched records.
When you're processing anywhere from 50 to 300+ orders per month (sometimes closer to 400 during busy seasons), that kind of friction adds up fast.
"We reached a point where the spreadsheet approach just couldn't keep up," explains Joel Stark, Chief Operating Officer at GoNano. "Too many SKUs, too many orders, too much manual work."
The real problem wasn't any single task. It was the cumulative weight of all of them, day after day, with no system connecting the pieces.
GoNano didn't rush into a decision. They looked at roughly four inventory management solutions and also considered whether they could extend their existing spreadsheet setup with additional integrations.
Here's what they were looking for:
Cin7 checked every box. But the deciding factor wasn't just the feature list. It was the pre-sale experience and the responsiveness of the support team.
"The price point made sense compared to the 'zero cost' spreadsheet approach that was actually consuming significant time," Joel notes. "And the service experience gave us confidence we'd actually get this thing running."
Today, GoNano's day-to-day operations look completely different.
Contractors place orders through the Cin7 B2B Portal whenever it works best for them, whether that's at 2 am on a Thursday or Sunday afternoon. Orders flow directly into the system without anyone interpreting email requests or deciphering form submissions.
Here's how a typical order moves through the workflow now:
That's roughly six fewer back-and-forth communications per order. Across hundreds of monthly orders, GoNano estimates the time savings at "a couple hours per order" that used to disappear into coordination and follow-ups.
The QuickBooks integration handles different transaction types (quotes, estimates, orders) depending on the situation. The finance team isn't constantly reconciling mismatched records anymore. Everything stays connected, and the data flows where it's supposed to go.
One thing worth noting: contractors enter exactly what they want, which means fewer misinterpretations and less rework. When the person placing the order is also the one inputting the details, a whole category of errors simply goes away.
Here's where things get interesting.
GoNano uses Cin7's AMA (Ask Me Anything) feature, a custom AI Agent, as their first stop for inventory questions, troubleshooting, and quick analysis. Rather than running reports or waiting for someone to respond, Joel can ask a direct question and get back an answer, a supporting graph, and the underlying data source, all within seconds.
One example: Joel noticed a product showing as unavailable to a contractor when it shouldn't have been. In the old days, figuring out why would have taken 1 to 1.5 hours of investigation between pulling data, checking equations, and tracing the source of the issue manually. With AMA, the diagnosis took about 30 seconds.
"It doesn't just give you an answer," Joel explains. "It returns the data, the graphs, and the source links so you can verify and act with confidence."
That combination matters. What previously required three separate steps, finding the number, locating the supporting data, then building out a trend, now happens in a single query. It's not just faster; it changes the quality of the decision being made. The difference between "I think we have that in stock" and "I know we have 47 units in the warehouse" is the difference between guessing and deciding. AMA closes that gap.
The use cases span the full scope of GoNano's operations. Joel uses AMA across all of GoNano’s operations. From checking inventory levels across warehouse locations, forecasting annual purchases ahead of supplier conversations, understanding product mix over a given period, and generating the kind of analysis that used to require dedicated report-building time. For year-end reporting alone, what once meant hours of compiling data now takes minutes.
|
Before Cin7 + AMA |
After Cin7 + AMA |
|
1–1.5 hours to diagnose inventory discrepancies |
Around 30 seconds to find an inventory issue |
|
Hours spent compiling year end reports |
Graphs and reports available in minutes |
|
Guesswork on stock availability |
Data-backed answers on demand |
AMA has also proven to be a tool with broad applicability across different business functions. From purchasing and distribution to sales and accounts receivable, virtually any role that touches Cin7 data stands to benefit. For a business like GoNano, where one person often covers ground that would span multiple departments in a larger organization, that versatility is especially valuable.
"I wish every program had it," Joel says. "It's become my first stop every time."
Here's the result that really stands out: GoNano doubled their contractor network to over 400 accounts in roughly 18 months, without proportionally increasing back-office staff.
That's the kind of growth that manual processes simply can't support. When every new contractor means more emails, more forms, and more follow-ups, expansion becomes a burden instead of an opportunity. But now with Cin7 the operational lift is minimal.
"We're not adding headcount just to keep up with order volume," Joel says. "The system handles the coordination, and we focus on growing the business."
This is what scalability actually looks like in practice. It's not about handling more work with the same effort. It's about building systems that grow with you instead of against you.
GoNano isn't slowing down.
Their goal is to expand contractor coverage toward a national presence, with a long-term vision of being available for 50–100% of homes that could benefit from their roof-refurbishment products within the next decade.
They're also continuing product and R&D expansion into new surfaces and membranes. That kind of innovation is much easier to pursue when your operational foundation isn't held together by spreadsheets and hope.
"Cin7 gave us the infrastructure to grow without the growing pains," Joel reflects. "Now we can focus on what we actually do, extending the life of roofs, instead of chasing down order details."
That shift from operational firefighting to strategic growth is what happens when your systems work for you instead of against you.
And with AI-powered features like AMA, GoNano isn't just managing inventory; they're making smarter decisions, faster.
If you're ready to move beyond the spreadsheet-and-email approach, we'd love to show you what's possible. Request a free demo and let's explore how Cin7 can help you scale smarter, just like GoNano.