Custom business software
Stop renting your software. Build around how your team actually works.
If your team pays for software it avoids while the real work happens in spreadsheets, chat and copied records, another subscription won’t fix it. We help you decide what to keep, what to connect and what is worth building, then build only the part off-the-shelf software can’t do well.
Software that fits the work, so the work stops happening around it.
- Shared inbox read and forwarded
- Spreadsheet copied in by hand
- CRM retyped, fields left as “tbc”
- Team chat “who’s taking this?”
- Invoice rebuilt from memory
Five tools, one client, and a person carrying the record between them.
01 You’ll recognise this
The software is paid for. The work happens somewhere else.
Most service businesses don’t have a software shortage. They have records split across tools, and people quietly holding them together.
Not every workaround is a software problem. Tools also go unused because a process was never agreed, onboarding was rushed, or the setup was copied from a business that works differently. We check for those first, because fixing them costs far less than any build.
The same details, typed three times
A new client goes into the CRM, then the project tool, then the invoicing system, by hand, by whoever remembers.Seats nobody really uses
Licences renew every year for people who log in when they’re reminded, because their real work happens somewhere else.A report someone builds by hand
Every Monday, exports from three tools are pasted into a spreadsheet so the leadership team can see last week.Handoffs that live in chat
A deal closes and delivery finds out from a message, without the scope, the price or what the client was promised.Mandatory fields filled with a dot
Required fields get “n/a” or “tbc” so the record will save, which means the data nobody trusts is the data you report on.
02 The real bill
The subscription is only the part you see.
The workaround has three costs: seats you pay for and don’t use, the hours people spend moving information between tools, and the errors and delays that copying creates. Here is how to add them up.
| Cost | In the example | How to find yours |
|---|---|---|
| Seats paid for but not used weekly | 6 of 20 | Compare seats billed with seats active in the last 30 days (most tools show this to an admin). |
| Re-keying client and project details | 4 people × 2 hours a week | Ask the people who do it; count one typical week. |
| Building the Monday report | 3 hours a week | Time the next one, from first export to sent. |
| Fixing what re-keying breaks | 2 hours a week | Wrong scopes on invoices, missed handoffs, chasing the latest version. |
| Admin time in total | 13 hours a week, about 56 a month | Roughly a third of one full-time person in this fictional firm. |
On top of that sit the costs that don’t show up as hours: an invoice that goes out a week late because the sign-off was buried in chat, or a client who hears the same question from two people. Count those as delays and lost goodwill rather than inventing a figure for them.
Work out your own
Your numbers, in your currency. The starting values are the fictional example above; fees start at zero for you to fill in.
- Admin hours each month
- 56
- Unused seats each month
- 0
- Admin time each month
- 0
- Over a year
- 0
A way to size the problem, not a forecast of savings. A new system has running costs of its own.
03 The decision
Keep, connect or replace: decide tool by tool.
Off-the-shelf software is often the right answer. The point is to spend custom work only where it earns its place.
| Question | Keep the SaaS | Connect what you have | Build custom |
|---|---|---|---|
| Right when | The work is standard and the tool fits it. | Each tool is good at its job, but they don’t share records. | The workflow is how you compete, or no product fits it. |
| Signs | People use it without being chased. Its fields match how you work. Problems are about training or habits, not missing features. | The same data is copied between tools. Handoffs depend on someone remembering. Reports need exports from several places. | The team works around the tool every day. You have configured it as far as it goes. The same gap appears in every tool you trial. |
| What changes | Better setup, onboarding and agreed rules. No build. | Integrations and automation between the tools you keep. | Software built for that workflow, connected to everything else. |
| Typical example | Accounting, payroll, email, calendars, e-signature. | A closed deal in the CRM creating the project and the first invoice. | Your own quoting, approvals, client onboarding or casework. |
Most businesses end up with all three: standard tools kept, a few connections added, and one or two workflows built because nothing else fits. If connecting the tools you keep is the bigger problem, that is what our Business OS work is for.
04 A worked example
One enquiry, from first email to paid invoice.
Illustrative: a fictional engineering consultancy, not a client. The steps are typical of the service businesses we map.
-
01 Enquiry
Today
Arrives in a shared inbox. Someone copies the details into a spreadsheet when they have a minute.
Built around the work
Lands as a record with its source, once, and is checked against existing clients.
-
02 Assignment
Today
A partner reads the spreadsheet and posts a name in chat. Nobody tracks whether it was picked up.
Built around the work
Assigned by service and capacity, with an owner and a due date everyone can see.
-
03 Proposal
Today
Built from last month’s proposal, with prices retyped from a rate sheet. Approval happens by email.
Built around the work
Drafted from the enquiry and your rate rules; anything outside them goes to a partner to approve in one click.
-
04 Delivery
Today
The project tool is set up by hand from the signed proposal. Scope changes live in chat.
Built around the work
Created from the accepted proposal, scope attached. Changes are recorded against it.
-
05 Invoice
Today
Finance asks delivery what was done, then rebuilds it in the accounting software.
Built around the work
Sent to your accounting software from the approved work, with nothing retyped.
Notice what stays: the inbox, the accounting software and the people. What goes is the copying, the guessing about who owns what, and the Friday afternoon spent rebuilding an invoice.
05 What we build
The pieces, each tied to a job it does.
Built one workflow at a time, connected to the tools you keep. Each links to the service page with the detail.
-
A CRM shaped around how you sell
Your stages, follow-up rules and records, so the pipeline you report on is the one the team actually works. -
A client portal
Clients upload documents, approve work and see progress themselves, so your team stops chasing by email. -
Internal records in one place
Clients, projects, contracts and the history behind them on one record, so nobody asks which spreadsheet is current. -
Approvals with rules
Discounts, scope changes and spend approved by the right person, with a record of who said yes and when. -
Reporting from the work itself
Numbers pulled from the records people already keep, so the Monday report builds itself and each figure traces to its source.
06 How it runs
Five steps, each decided on the one before.
You see working software early, and you can stop after any step with something useful.
- 01
Map the workflow
We sit with the people who do the work and write down where it actually happens, which tools help and where the workarounds are. You get a written scope, including what we recommend you keep. - 02
Validate a working version
The people who will use it try a working version of the costliest workflow on realistic records. What confuses them changes now, while it is cheap to change. - 03
Build and migrate
The workflow is built properly, connected to the tools you keep, and your existing records are cleaned and moved across, with a plan for what happens to the old tool. - 04
Onboard the team
Training on their own records, not a demo, plus short written guides. The old route is closed off once the new one works, so there aren’t two versions of the truth. - 05
Support and improve
Monitoring, fixes and updates, and the next workflow when the first has earned it. Scoped as an ongoing engagement or as separate pieces of work.
07 After launch
What you own, and what it costs to run.
Owning software isn’t free. You swap per-seat licences for hosting and maintenance you control. Here is what that means in practice.
- Code
- Our published approach: in a repository you control, from the first commit. Ownership and licence terms are written into your contract before work starts.
- Data and exports
- In databases and accounts in your name, exportable at any time, in formats agreed in the scope.
- Hosting
- Hosted in accounts you control and billed to you. Hosting and any third-party services are ongoing costs; we estimate them before the build.
- Maintenance
- Software needs updates, security patches and the odd fix. That is either an ongoing engagement with us or work your own team picks up, with documentation written for that handover.
- Future changes
- When the business changes, the software changes with it, in small scoped steps. You aren’t waiting for a vendor’s roadmap.
08 Is this for you
Worth a conversation, or not yet.
If the answer is a better-configured product, we will tell you, and you will have spent one call finding out.
A good fit when
- Your team works around a tool every day, and you have already tried configuring it.
- The workflow that loses you time or money is specific to how you deliver.
- You pay for several tools that each hold part of the same client record.
- Someone senior can give the work an hour a week while it is built.
Probably not when
- Your process is standard and a well-set-up product would cover it.
- The real problem is that nobody agreed how the process should run.
- You want the cheapest possible build of a fixed feature list.
- You need it next week. Mapping and testing with users take time.
09 Questions
What people ask before they write.
Will custom software remove our monthly software costs?
Do we have to replace all our tools?
How do we know the team will use it?
Who owns the code and the data?
What happens when our process changes next year?
How long before we have something to use?
Discuss your workflow
Show us the workflow your team works around.
Tell us which tools you pay for, where the work really happens and what it costs you to hold together. A partner replies within one business day, and the first call ends with a plain view on what to keep, connect or build.
- A partner reads every enquiry
- A 45-minute working call
- A written scope you can decide on
Or write to us at [email protected]
See what we build