How it works

What working with us is actually like.

Five stages, one person the whole way through, and a price agreed in writing before any work starts. Most builds run between two and eight weeks. This page walks through every stage: what happens, what we need from you, how long it takes, and exactly when money changes hands.

Nothing is charged before you have the price in writing.

Half when you approve it, half the day it goes live.

You own it from the first day, in accounts opened in your name.

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The shape of it

From the first phone call to it doing the job.

Two payments, five stages, and no surprises in between. The two squares below are the only two moments money moves.

[ 01 ]

A first call

Day one, 30 minutes

You tell us what is going wrong. We tell you honestly whether it is worth building at all.

[ 02 ]

A written price

Usually the next working day

One short document: what gets built, what deliberately does not, the dates, and one fixed figure.

Half is due when you approve this document

[ 03 ]

Building

One to eight weeks

Something you can open and use every Friday, with a short recording of what changed that week.

[ 04 ]

Going live

A day or two

It moves onto your own web address, and you drive it yourself for half an hour while we watch.

The other half is due on this day

[ 05 ]

Looking after it

Ongoing, and optional

Hosting, small changes and somebody to call. Stopping it does not switch the software off.

a stagea payment

How long, roughly, by what you are having built

1 to 2 weeks

A website

2 to 3 weeks

A website you edit yourself

3 to 5 weeks

A tool your staff run the day on

4 to 8 weeks

A private area your customers sign into

These are the usual shapes, not a promise. Your own dates are written into the price document at stage two, and they do not move unless you ask for something that was not on it.

An example

The same five stages, drawn against a real calendar.

A made-up engagement: a first call on 2 September, building through to the middle of October, live on the 19th. The thin line is today.

an example engagement — a private area for a trades business

Stage

Sep

Oct

01 A call

30 minutes, free

02 A written price

within a day

03 Building

working screens each Friday

04 Going live

your own address

05 Looking after it

ongoing, optional

1–2 weeks

A website

2–3 weeks

A website you edit

3–5 weeks

A tool for your staff

4–8 weeks

A private area for customers

One engagement, drawn to the calendar. Your dates are set at the end of the first call.

Every name, figure and date on these screens is invented. The layout is exactly what the software does.

Stage by stage

What actually happens, and what people worry about at each point.

Every stage answers the same four questions in the same order, so you can compare them. Underneath each one is the thing owners tend to be thinking but not saying.

A first call

30 minutes, free

You talk and we listen. Bring the part of your week that is worst: the thing you do twice, the thing you keep in your head, the thing you dread on a Monday. You do not have to arrive knowing what should be built. Working that out is the job.

What you do: Describe the problem in your own words. No preparation, no document, no list of requirements.
What we do: Ask about the awkward cases, the different people who will use it, and the parts that already work and should be left alone.
How long: Thirty minutes on a call. It is free, and nothing is owed afterwards.
What you have at the end: A straight answer on whether this is worth building, and a rough idea of what it would cost.

What people worry about here

What if you tell me I need something I cannot afford?

Then we say so on the call, and we describe what the smaller version looks like. Sometimes the honest answer is a tool you can buy for forty dollars a month. We would rather tell you that than take your money.

A written price

Usually the next working day

A short document arrives. It lists what will be built, what is deliberately not being built, what we need from you, the dates, and one fixed figure. Nothing has been charged and nothing has been started.

What you do: Read it. Ask for anything to be added, taken out or explained. Take it to whoever else has a say before you answer.
What we do: Write it in plain words and price it as a single figure, not a range and not an hourly rate.
How long: Usually the next working day. Two at the busiest times of year.
What you have at the end: A document you could put in front of an accountant or a business partner before deciding anything.

What people worry about here

I have been quoted for something like this before and the number kept moving.

The figure is fixed the moment you approve this document. If you later ask for something that is not on it, we price that separately and you decide before it is built. What does not happen is an invoice for work nobody agreed to.

Building

One to eight weeks, depending on size

We build the parts everything else sits on first, so nothing has to be pulled apart later. Every Friday you get something you can open and use, and a three or four minute recording walking you through what changed.

What you do: Look at it and tell us what is wrong while it is still cheap to change. Ten minutes a week is enough.
What we do: Build it, and tell you the day something looks like slipping rather than the week after it has.
How long: One to two weeks for a website. Four to eight for something your customers sign into.
What you have at the end: Working pieces you have already used yourself, not drawings of them.

What people worry about here

How would I even know whether it is actually progressing?

Because you are looking at the real thing every week. We do not show you a screen full of made-up information and call that progress. If a week goes by with nothing worth showing, we tell you why before you have to ask.

Going live

A day or two

It moves onto your own web address and starts doing the job. Before that we go through it properly: every screen on a phone, every button, and every place a record or a payment could go wrong.

What you do: Sit with us for half an hour and drive it yourself while we watch and answer questions.
What we do: Check it end to end, set up your own sign-in, and record a walkthrough you can hand to the next person you hire.
How long: A day or two, on dates agreed in the written price.
What you have at the end: It working on your own address, in your hands, and the second half of the price is due.

What people worry about here

What if my staff cannot use it?

That is exactly what the half hour is for. Anything that trips you or your team up gets changed before we call it finished. The recording stays with you, so training the next hire is not a phone call to us.

Looking after it

Ongoing, and optional

Once it is live it is yours whether or not you keep paying us. A monthly fee buys hosting, a set amount of change every month, and somebody to call when something goes wrong. Stopping it does not switch the software off.

What you do: Nothing, unless something breaks or you want something changed.
What we do: Keep it up, keep it patched, and make the changes you ask for. Small breakages are usually put right by the next morning.
How long: Month to month. Thirty days notice, no exit fee, no notice period on the build.
What you have at the end: Software that keeps working, and the option to take it elsewhere at any point without asking us.

What people worry about here

What if you get hit by a bus?

It runs in accounts opened in the name of your business, not ours, and the files that make it work are already yours. It is built with ordinary, widely used tools, so any competent developer can open it and carry on. That is inconvenient if it happens, not fatal.

The money

Two payments. Both of them after you have seen something.

No deposit to hold a slot, no hourly billing, and no invoice for anything you did not agree to in writing.

Payment one

Half when you approve the written price

Not before. By that point you have read exactly what will be built, exactly what is not included, and one fixed figure.

Payment two

Half on the day it goes live

Not the day we think we are finished. The day it is working on your own address and you have used it yourself.

Optional

The monthly fee, if you take one, starts that same day

Never on the day you paid the first half. Plenty of clients take nothing at all, and the software carries on regardless.

If you want to stop halfway

You pay for what has been built, and you take it with you. There is no penalty, no notice period on the build, and nothing is held back to make leaving awkward.

Who owns it, and from when

You do, from the first day of the build rather than on handover. It sits in accounts opened in the name of your business. If you ever hand it to another developer, they can carry straight on.

The one honest caveat: the running costs, meaning keeping it online, sending your emails and taking card payments, are ordinary monthly bills to those services. They are owed whether or not we are involved, which is why those accounts are in your name from the start.

Stage two, in your hands

The document that makes the fixed price real.

This is what arrives the working day after the call. Plain words, with the parts we are deliberately not building written down as clearly as the parts we are. Read it, argue with it, then approve it. Only after that does anything start.

Scope and fixed price

Project: A private area for a trades business
Prepared for: Nose Creek Excavating
Dated: 3 Sep 2026

Print / save PDF

What is included

One sign-in for staff, one for each subcontractor
A job list with status, dates, and the trade assigned
Photo upload from a phone, attached to the job
A read-only link for the customer
One spreadsheet import of the existing job list

What is not included, and would be quoted separately

Text messages to subcontractors
Anything connecting to the accounting system
A public-facing website

What we need from you

The logo in the original file
The current job spreadsheet
One hour of a person who knows how the jobs actually run

Timing

Build 8 Sep to 16 Oct 2026. Launch 19–20 Oct 2026.

Price

Agreed in writing before any work starts. Half on signing, half on launch.

Ownership

The software is yours from the first day, in your own account.

No hourly billing and no surprises means a document like this before anything starts. The figure is agreed with you, so it is not printed here.

Every name, figure and date on these screens is invented. The layout is exactly what the software does.

Your side of it

Five things we need from you, and none of them are technical.

Most owners have all of this within a day of approving the price. If you are missing something, say so at the first call rather than after.

Your logo, in the best quality you have

The original file if you can find it. If all you have is a photograph of a sign, say so early and we will work out what to do about it.

Your words, or a rough draft of them

What you do, in the way you would say it to a customer. A page of notes is more useful than a polished paragraph written by someone else.

Your photographs, if it shows any

Your own jobs, your own shop, your own team. Real ones beat bought ones every time, even taken on a phone.

The accounts it needs to talk to

Card payments, bookkeeping, email. These stay in the name of your business, never ours, so nothing is ever held over you.

One person who can say yes

Someone who can make a decision in the week it is asked. Waiting on an answer is the most common reason a build runs late.

The one expensive surprise

The costliest thing that happens in a build is a second person who has to approve things, discovered after the price is agreed. Tell us at the first call who else has a say, even if it is only sometimes. It costs nothing to know, and it costs a fortnight to find out late.

If you do not have a web address yet, we will point you at where to register one. If you do not have a logo, a plain wordmark is usually enough to start with, and we will say so rather than sending you off to pay a designer first.

Stage five

What looking after it actually means.

Every screen carries a button. Whoever finds the problem presses it, circles what is wrong with a finger, and sends it. We get the exact screen they were looking at without having to ask which page they meant.

Customer	Order	Balance	Days
Bev Kowalchuk	OR-2026-0392	2,410.00	74
Naomi Okpik	OR-2026-0401	1,880.00	61
Priya Anand	OR-2026-0418	1,967.75	56
Farah Haddad	OR-2026-0440	940.00	33

Report a problem

Something is wrong here

Something is confusing

I want something added

It can waitIt is slowing us downWe are stuck

This total is counting the two cancelled orders from June. It should be $214,910 not $219,470.

Screenshot 2026-08-09 at 14.22.png

The page name is attached automatically — Reports · Balances owing, by age

Fixed overnightReported 9 Aug, 14:22 · put right by 08:10 the next morning

Every name, figure and date on these screens is invented. The layout is exactly what the software does.

Keep it running

It stays up, it stays patched, and we get told if it goes down, usually before you notice.

Keep it moving

The above, plus a set amount of change every month, so the software keeps up with the business.

We run it with you

The above, plus a named day each week and first call on anything urgent.

None of these is required in order to own your software, and the figures are set out on the pricing page. Anything that stops you trading is a phone call rather than a button, and the number is a real one.

What the monthly options cost

Ready when you are

It starts with thirty minutes and nothing owed.

Tell us what is going wrong. If we are not the right people to fix it, we will say so on the call and point you at what is.

Start a project Or just email us →

We read every enquiry ourselves and reply within two business days.