Custom business software.
Internal tools built around how your business actually works, so the spreadsheets can finally retire.
Growing businesses end up running on a patchwork: a spreadsheet for quotes, another for stock, a whiteboard for who is doing what, and a lot of copying between them. Off-the-shelf software asks you to change how you work. A custom tool works the other way round.
If two people on your team have ever had different versions of the same spreadsheet open at once, you already know what this is for.
What gets built
Each tool is put together from modules. Most businesses need three to eight of them.
- 01
Dashboards
The numbers you check every morning, on one screen: sales, jobs in progress, overdue invoices, stock running low.
- 02
CRMs
Every customer, enquiry and conversation in one place, with a pipeline that shows what is waiting on whom.
- 03
Quoting tools
Pick the options and get a priced quote and a PDF, using your own prices and rules. No more rebuilding a quote from last month's file.
- 04
Job and build trackers
Each job from deposit to handover, with stages, dates, parts and who is on it. Made for businesses working through a queue of builds.
- 05
Stock and parts
What you have, where it is, what is set aside for which job, and what needs ordering.
- 06
Reports and PDFs
Monthly reports, job sheets, invoices or certificates generated from the data instead of typed out by hand.
- 07
Roles and permissions
Staff see what they need and nothing else. Owners see everything.
- 08
Customer portals
Where it helps, customers log in to see their order, build progress, documents or photos, which saves a great many phone calls.
How it comes together
Custom software gets its bad name from projects that run for a year and miss the point. These are kept short, phased, and grounded in how your team works today.
Learning the current process
Work starts with how things run now: the spreadsheets, the forms, the shortcuts people take. The tool is designed around the real process, not an idealised one.
A fixed scope, in writing
One proposal lists every module, what it does, the price and the schedule. Once it is signed, the number does not move.
Built in phases
The most painful part gets built first, so the team is using something real early on rather than waiting for everything at once.
Your data moved across
Existing spreadsheets and records are migrated into the new system, checked, and cleaned up on the way in.
Handover and training
A walkthrough for your team, written notes for the parts people forget, and support while it beds in.
What it costs
Tools are priced by the number of modules and how involved they are. If the website needs rebuilding too, the two can be built together as one system.
Custom Business Tool
3 to 8 modules
$4,000to $7,000+
or $400 to $700+ per month, 12 month minimum
Custom internal tools built around the way your business actually works.
Complete Digital System
Site and tool, built together
Custom quote
A combined package for businesses that need the website and the internal tool behind it built together, as one system rather than two projects.
For people who build things
A lot of the studio's work is with made-to-order businesses, and they run into the same walls: a waiting list nobody else can see, a quote rebuilt by hand for every enquiry, and build progress chased by phone. A build tracker with a customer portal, and a quoting tool that knows your options and prices, take care of most of it.
If that sounds familiar, the page on web design for custom builders covers how the website and the tool behind it work as one system. For the website on its own, see web design and development.
Common Questions
Why not use off-the-shelf software?
Often you should. If a well-known product fits how you work, use it, and I will say so. A custom tool makes sense when you are bending your process to fit the software, paying for five subscriptions that do not talk to each other, or running the business on spreadsheets only one person understands.
How long does it take to build?
It depends on the number of modules. The proposal sets out a fixed schedule before work starts, and the build is phased so the first module is in use early rather than everything landing at the end.
Can it connect to the tools we already use?
Usually, yes. Accounting software, payment providers, email, calendars and most tools with an API can be connected, so data is entered once and goes where it needs to.
Is our data secure?
Access sits behind logins with roles and permissions, data is backed up, and the system runs on hosting built for it. On monthly pricing, hosting, backups and monitoring are included.
Who owns the data?
You do, and it can be exported at any time. How the code itself is handed over is set out in the proposal before anything is signed.
What if we need changes later?
Businesses change and the tool should change with them. On monthly pricing, a set number of hours of fixes and changes each month is included. Otherwise, changes are quoted as they come up.
Not sure which package fits?
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