The system behind a 70-year-old jeweller, rebuilt for the next generation
Appleby is a family jeweller on Johnson's Court, off Grafton Street in Dublin. Margaret Appleby began making jewellery at the family kitchen table in 1956 and opened the shop with her husband John in 1960. Seventy years on, all four of their sons run it, a third generation is coming through, and around 90% of what it sells is made by hand in its own workshop. A three-year Salesforce programme had promised to transform the business and fell short; the family was ready to go back to FileMaker. They asked us for honest advice instead. We recommended neither, and built a web system of Appleby's own that nine months later runs the shop, the workshop and the accounts.
- Client
- Appleby Jewellers
- Working together
- Since 2025
- Pillars
- Systems, Data and analytics, Marketing
- Partnership
- 360
From a system that had to be replaced to a partnership across the business.
Appleby came to us in 2025 wanting a second opinion. The system the business ran on was built on Oracle by a developer who was retiring. A FileMaker project and then a three-year Salesforce programme had each promised to replace it, over several years and a great deal of money, and Salesforce in particular had become more of a hindrance than a help. The family's instinct was to go back to FileMaker, which they knew, and they asked us, a FileMaker house, for honest advice on direction. We began with an unbiased workshop, and the answer was neither a return to FileMaker nor another platform to configure, but a web system built around Appleby's own work.
Nine months after that first conversation the new system went live and the Oracle-based system was switched off. Today it is the till, the stock book, the workshop's job sheet, the diary, the customer record and the end-of-day journal to the accounts. The partnership has grown with it, from systems into reporting, and now into the website, marketing and brand positioning that will carry the business through its succession.
Appleby Jewellers · RetailA till that handles deposits, balances and collections in one flow
Appleby Jewellers' point of sale on the web: four steps from the piece to the receipt, with sales orders, works orders, vouchers and refunds inside the same till.
Business systemNext.js
Appleby Jewellers · RetailWorks orders that carry a ring from the counter to the bench and back
Appleby's bespoke and workshop jobs on one record: the bill of materials, the stone's GIA report by number, progress at every stage, and the finished piece booked to stock.
Business systemNext.js
Appleby Jewellers · Retail34 reports, an explorer and a dashboard for every role
Appleby Jewellers' reporting suite: period performance against last year, an explorer that drills any hierarchy, scheduled emails and dashboards for the manager, the floor and the workshop.
Reporting dashboardNext.js
Appleby Jewellers · RetailEnd of Day posted to Xero as one balanced journal, every night
Appleby Jewellers' takings, deposits, balances, refunds and VAT added up at the counter and posted to Xero in one step, with the cash declared against what is expected.
Financial reportingNext.js
Appleby Jewellers · RetailA jeweller moved off its legacy system in nine months, history intact
Customers, suppliers, pieces, historic sales and deposits worth millions of euros moved from an Oracle-based system into Appleby's new portal, the old references kept, and the old system switched off.
MigrationNext.js
More from the partnership
Work told on the story, without a case study of its own yet.
- Appleby Jewellers · Stock
Goods In, with the exchange rate and metal price filled in
Supplier invoices booked through a wizard, the day's exchange rate and precious-metal spot price fetched for it, and consignment stock marked as it arrives.
Business systemStockNext.js - Appleby Jewellers · Printing
Labels printed from the stock book
A piece's label sent to the right printer from its record, and gift voucher slips printed onto Appleby's own stationery.
Business systemPrinting
The partnership in numbers
70
Years of Appleby, 1956 to 2026
9
Months from the first conversation to go-live
34
Reports in the library, from End of Day to stock age
Millions
Of euros in customer deposits migrated from the old system without loss
How we work together now
One system, the numbers it produces, and the brand that will grow on top of it.
- 01SystemsThe foundation
The one system the shop and workshop run on
The till, sales orders and deposits, customers, stock and Goods In, works orders for make-up, remount and remodel jobs, gift vouchers, label printing, and the End of Day journal posted to Xero. Built on the web, used by every role, and still growing with the team's requests.
- 02Data and analyticsThe loop
The numbers the directors run the business on
A library of 34 reports with an explorer for grouping, filtering and drilling into any of them, period performance against the same point last year, saved views and scheduled emails, and dashboards that put the day's takings, the workshop pipeline and stock health on one screen.
- 03MarketingThe growth
The brand, the website and the go-to-market
With the system in and the numbers trusted, the work turns outward: connecting the website to stock and the diary, and a long-term marketing strategy and brand positioning for a business that competes on craft and service against the jewellers on every side of it.
The pains we set out to solve
Appleby's reputation rests on the personal touch: a customer sits down, has a coffee, and leaves with a ring made a few hundred metres away, around a diamond Gerry Appleby chose from the hundred he turned down. Appleby describes itself as defined not by scale but by standards, and the standards are real: 100% recycled 18ct gold and platinum, natural diamonds only, and goldsmiths who have been at the bench for more than 30 years. Behind that sat a system from another era. An Oracle-based system held the stock, the sales and decades of customer history, in German field names, and the developer who understood it was retiring. Deposits were tracked on paper. Reports were whatever the system could print.
The business knew this and had tried to fix it. A FileMaker project came first. Then Salesforce, sold as the system that would transform the business. Three years and a great deal of money later it was doing a fraction of what had been promised and getting in the way of the work it was meant to speed up. The shop still ran on the old Oracle system, the workshop still found out about jobs by asking, and the directors still could not see the business in numbers the day they needed them. The family's instinct was to go back to FileMaker, which they knew. With a third generation coming into the business and a succession programme under way, the next attempt had to be the last.
What we set out to do together
Replace the Oracle-based system completely, with no loss of history, and do it without stopping a shop that sells on Grafton Street six days a week: one web system for the till, stock, customers, orders, the workshop and the accounts, shaped around how Appleby actually works rather than how a platform expects a retailer to.
Then use what the system knows. Give the directors the reporting a growing business needs, and take Appleby's name to market with the same care it puts into a ring.
The shop and the workshop
Johnson's Court, and the bench a few hundred metres away where around 90% of what Appleby sells is made.
Johnson's Court, off Grafton Street, the shop since 1960. 
The workshop, led by goldsmiths who have been at the bench for more than 30 years. 
A finished ring at the bench peg. 
CAD before the bench: a mount modelled, then a wax the customer can try on. 
An apprentice at the round bench. Designs start on paper, in the weekly design session. 
The polish, by hand, at the wheel. 
Mounts on the soldering block, before their stones. 
The design wall: sketches, stones and the references behind a collection.
How the work grew, one piece at a time.
From the workshop that chose the direction, to a system that runs the business, to the brand that will grow on it. Scroll to watch Appleby's estate come together.
Appleby's estate in three stages. Foundations: the workshop and recommendation, the migration off Oracle, the till and sales orders, stock and Goods In. Connect: works orders between the shop and the workshop, GIA certificates, End of Day to Xero, customers and the diary. Grow: the website connected to the system, and the brand and go-to-market. Beneath them, the reporting suite and dashboards measure all of it and feed back.
The honest answer: not FileMaker, not Salesforce
Appleby came to us, a FileMaker house, expecting to be told to go back to FileMaker. We ran an unbiased workshop across the shop, the workshop and the office, mapped the work from enquiry to collection, and recommended a web system of Appleby's own instead. Building started straight away.
Building the foundations
Customers, suppliers, stock, Goods In, the till and sales orders, each built around how Appleby works and each tested as it went. By early summer the team was trying it with real work.
Moving seventy years of history
Customers, suppliers, pieces, historic sales and deposits worth millions of euros migrated from the old system's German-language Oracle tables, with the old packet numbers kept so an envelope in the safe still matched a record on screen.
Go-live, and the old system switched off
The shop opened on the new till, and End of Day posted its first journal to Xero that week. The system has kept improving since, each change asked for by the team using it.
The workshop and the shop on one screen
Works orders for make-up, remount and remodel jobs, with a bill of materials, the gemmologist's specification and a finished piece booked to stock or collected at the till. The sales floor sees progress without asking; the bench sees what was promised.
The stone's paperwork, filled in from GIA
Type a GIA report number and the stone's shape, carat, colour, clarity, cut, polish, symmetry and fluorescence arrive with the certificate attached, on a works order or a piece of stock.
The numbers the directors run the business on
Thirty-four reports, an explorer for any question not already answered, period performance against last year, and dashboards for the manager, the sales floor and the workshop. The quarterly diamond target the directors set is on the screen every morning.
The website, the brand and the go-to-market
With the system in and trusted, the partnership turns to growth: the website connected to stock and the diary, and a marketing strategy and brand positioning for the next generation of Appleby.
Set up for the next generation.
The directors' job, in their own words, is to set the business up for scale and then take their hands away. The system now gives them the structure and the numbers to do that. The next phase ties efficiency to growth.
- The website connected to the system: live stock, appointments and bespoke enquiries flowing in
- A marketing strategy and brand positioning for the next generation
- Stock takes by barcode and the appointments diary, rolled out to the whole team
- RFID stock scanning, building on the labelling already in place