Jobman and Cabneo both target cabinet makers, but they sit at different points on the spectrum.

• Jobman is an end‑to‑end ERP for cabinet manufacturers—quoting, production, inventory, scheduling, time & attendance, and accounting integrations.
• Cabneo is an operational layer focused on small–mid sized cabinet shops—quoting, job health, workshop scheduling and job‑level profitability—with the expectation that you'll keep using your existing accounting tools.

This guide is for cabinet businesses asking:

"Should we go all‑in on a full ERP like Jobman, or start with something lighter and more focused like Cabneo?"

Choose Jobman if:

• You want a single system to run everything: quoting, production, inventory, scheduling, time & attendance, and tight Xero/MYOB integration.
• You're ready for an ERP‑style implementation project and have the team/time to adopt it properly.
• You plan to drive a lot of work from CAD/CAM into automated production.

Choose Cabneo if:

• You're a small–mid sized cabinet shop (roughly 3–20 people) and your biggest pains are:
  • Quoting and margin visibility.
  • Keeping jobs moving in the workshop.
  • Not really knowing if jobs made money.
• You already have an accountant and Xero and don't want your job system to be your GL.
• You want software that feels cabinet‑specific without the weight of a full ERP.

Jobman

• Built as an ERP for cabinet and joinery manufacturing.
• Aims to be the central nervous system for the business:
  • Quotes, job files, capacity planning.
  • Machine/CAD integrations.
  • Inventory, purchase orders.
  • Time & attendance, payroll, accounting exports.

In short: it wants to run your whole factory and office.

Cabneo

• Built as a cabinet‑shop operational layer:
  • Lead → quote → job → workshop tasks → install.
  • Quote health, job health, and job‑level Actual vs Budget.
  • Workshop task lists, timelines and calendars.
• Intentionally does not try to be accounting software or ERP.
• Designed to sit comfortably alongside Xero and your existing CAD/CAM stack.

In short: it wants to give you job truth and workshop clarity without taking over everything else.

Jobman

• Deep, integrated quoting tied directly into job files and production.
• Works well with CAD/CAM outputs so your quotes can feed straight into cutting lists and scheduling.
• Strong if you want quoting to be tightly linked to materials, machine time and capacity.

Cabneo

• Built for cabinet quoting with:
  • Products/configurable items (cabinets, drawers, accessories, etc.).
  • Internal cost + margin visible while you quote.
  • Quote Health metrics to flag stalled or risky quotes.
• Includes a client‑facing quote page:
  • Quotes emailed via secure link.
  • Clients can approve/decline online; Cabneo updates status and notifies your team.

If your main quoting pain is "I do lots of design/quotes and I'm not sure which ones are worth the time", Cabneo's lighter quoting + health model can be easier to live with day‑to‑day than a full ERP quote/production chain.

Jobman

• Strong on production scheduling:
  • Job bars/charts.
  • Capacity planning across machines and people.
  • Multiple production stages from order entry to dispatch.
• Great if you need granular control and are ready to adapt your processes to the system.

Cabneo

• Focuses on task‑driven workflow:
  • Tasks at job, job‑item, or account level.
  • Status, priority, scheduled date, due date, estimates and actuals.
  • Step templates for repeatable workflows (cutting, assembly, finishing, install).
• Workshop‑friendly views:
  • Today/Week lists (easy to print or put on a screen).
  • Worker timelines.
  • Calendar view for drag‑and‑drop scheduling.

If what you want most is "everyone can see what's next today and this week", Cabneo's task views are often enough without the overhead of full capacity planning.

Jobman

• As a full ERP, it can provide detailed cost and performance reporting:
  • Material usage.
  • Labour/time entries.
  • Variances vs estimates, if you configure it thoroughly.
• Getting reliable job P&L typically depends on:
  • Correct timesheets and pay codes.
  • Proper use of inventory and job costing throughout.

Cabneo

• Job health is a first‑class concept:
  • Attention levels (Critical, At Risk, On Track).
  • Job health scores driven by timeline, budget, progress and materials.
• Job profitability:
  • Job‑level Actual vs Budget (MVP) based on quote data + simple actuals.
  • Aims for "good enough to trust" P&L without requiring perfect timesheet/payroll integration.

If you want a clear, practical view of which jobs are making money and which are putting you at risk—without wiring your entire payroll and inventory into the system—Cabneo is deliberately closer to that middle ground.

Jobman

• Designed to integrate with:
  • Xero, MYOB, and similar for accounting.
  • CAD/CAM for design and production.
• When done well, you get a single system covering most of your stack.
• It also means:
  • More moving parts.
  • More reliance on correct setup of pay codes, inventory items, etc.

Cabneo

• Takes a "job truth, not GL" stance:
  • Treats Xero (or your accountant's system) as the financial source of truth.
  • Focuses on operational truth: quotes, jobs, tasks, job health and job P&L.
• Integration philosophy:
  • Start simple (e.g., pushing accepted quotes as draft invoices).
  • Keep integrations opt‑in and narrow, rather than mandatory.

If your accounting setup works and you mainly want better clarity inside the shop, Cabneo avoids forcing you into a full ERP stack just to see which jobs are healthy.

Jobman

• Best suited to:
  • Growing or larger cabinet businesses ready to standardise heavily on one system.
  • Teams with the appetite (and budget) for an ERP‑style implementation and training.
• Expect:
  • Higher subscription cost than lightweight tools.
  • A real rollout project—worth it if you use the full breadth of features.

Cabneo

• Designed for:
  • Small to mid‑size cabinet shops that want structure and insight but not a full ERP.
  • Owner‑operators and foremen who still wear multiple hats.
• Aim:
  • Faster time‑to‑value.
  • Fewer moving parts to configure.

If you're a 3–20 person shop and want to improve quoting, job visibility and workshop planning without committing to a full manufacturing ERP, Cabneo is intentionally in that space.

Ask yourself:

1. Do we want one system to run absolutely everything, or a focused layer that plays well with the tools we already have?

• If "everything": Jobman is built for that.
• If "we already have Xero and CAD/CAM, we just need better quoting + workshop control": Cabneo is the better initial fit.

2. Where is the pain right now?

• Production bottlenecks, inventory, and fine‑grained capacity planning → Jobman.
• Free design overload, messy quote pipeline, unclear job profits, no simple daily plan for the workshop → Cabneo.

3. How much change can the team absorb this year?

• If you have the appetite for a full ERP rollout and the discipline to use it deeply, Jobman can be powerful.
• If you want to start by fixing quoting and job flow, and keep using the systems that already work, Cabneo is designed to be a smaller, more focused step.