Custom builds
We build the one thing your business is missing.
Weeks, not months
Because most of the hard parts are already built and already running
One person
The person who takes your call writes the software
The price comes first
In writing, before anybody starts, and it does not move
Before anything else
Is a custom build the right answer for you?
It probably is, when
- The way you do the job is the reason customers pick you, and nothing you can buy does it that way.
- The same information gets written down twice. Once on paper on site, once in the office.
- The whole business lives in a spreadsheet and you are the only one who understands it.
- You pay every month for three tools and the actual job still happens on paper in between them.
- You cannot take a week off, because the part that matters is in your head.
It probably is not, when
- What you need is a smart-looking website and nothing more. There are good ones you can rent for forty dollars a month.
- What you need is bookkeeping. That problem is properly solved already and we will not beat it.
- You are hoping software will fix something that is really a staffing or a pricing problem. It will not.
- The thing you want is genuinely the same as what every other business in your trade does. Then buy it, do not build it.
- Somebody has already built most of it. In that case take a ready-made tool and keep the difference.
The cheap way to find out
A fit check is $390, once. You answer some questions and you get a written two-page plan: what you should build, roughly what it costs, what you should buy off the shelf instead, and whether you need us at all. It comes back in three working days. If you go ahead with any build within sixty days, the whole $390 comes off it.
Sometimes the right answer is a tool you can buy for forty dollars a month. We will tell you that on the first call, and you will not have paid us anything.
Why it is quicker here
Most of this is already built, and that is your money saved.
Filling the form in on site, with no signal
It saves on the phone and sends itself when the bars come back. Photos taken on one bar are shrunk on the device and finish uploading later.
The booking that cannot be double-sold
Availability comes from your own rules, and two people reaching for the last slot in the same second cannot both get it.
A download that cannot disagree with the screen
Twenty-nine reports, where the file and the screen are worked out from the same figures rather than built twice.
Bringing the spreadsheet in
It works out which column is which even when the headings are your own words, shows you the rows it does not trust, and writes nothing until you agree.
Three quotes, priced like for like
It re-prices a supplier’s bid as if they had included what they left out, so the one that looked four thousand dollars cheaper stops looking cheaper.
The button for when something is wrong
Whoever finds it circles it on the screen they are looking at and sends it. We get the exact page without having to ask which one they meant.
Every one of those took weeks to get right the first time, and they are the parts that quietly cost you money when they are done badly. The photo that never left the phone. The second person who got the same appointment. The download that says something different from the screen. None of that is charged to you again.
So a build that would take an agency six months takes weeks here, and it costs less, because you are paying for the part of your business that is only yours instead of paying to have the plumbing invented for the fifth time.
Said plainly
The part that makes you different still gets built from scratch. It has to be, or it would not fit. That is the part you are paying for, and it is the part worth paying for. What is already built is the ground it stands on.
What we build
Five sizes of build, named after what the software does.
[ A ] About 2 to 3 weeks
A website that sells for you
$6,000 to $9,000
A site that looks expensive, that Google can find, that looks right when somebody shares it, and that turns up in the map results.
Who takes this: An owner whose current website is embarrassing them, or who has never had one.
- Home, about, services and contact pages, written with you.
- An enquiry form that emails you and cannot quietly lose a message.
- Set up so Google can find you, and so your link looks right when somebody texts it to a friend.
- Your own address, on accounts in your own name.
An example
An excavation contractor: five pages, an enquiry form, and a map result that finally says the right thing.
What is already built
The page layouts and the part that gets you into the map results are already written and already live on a working site. Almost none of these three weeks goes on that.
Half when we start, half when it goes live.
See the work →Rocky View County and north
Excavation and site services
Basements, water and sewer, site prep and snow clearing. Family run since 1998, and the person who quotes the job is the person who runs the machine.
Excavation and grading
Basements, footings, rough and final grade.
Water and sewer service
Service lines, tie-ins, inspections booked for you.
Snow and site clearing
Seasonal contracts and one-off callouts.
Tell us about the job
Name
Phone
Where is the job
What needs doing
[ B ] About 3 to 4 weeks
A website you keep up to date yourself
$9,000 to $14,000
The above, plus you change your own prices, hours and photos — and a box you clear by accident cannot take a section off your live site.
Who takes this: An owner who is tired of paying somebody to change a price.
- You change the words, the prices and the opening hours from your own screen.
- Clear a box by accident and the page keeps what was there, rather than going blank.
- Add a new page yourself, laid out the same way as the rest.
- Nothing goes live until you press save.
An example
A bridal boutique that changes her own opening hours, her own booking fee and her own photographs, without phoning anybody.
What is already built
The editing screen and the falls-back-safely behaviour were written once for a boutique and are used again as they are. That is the expensive half, and it is already done.
Half when we start, half when it goes live.
See the work →juniperandash.ca — edit this page
What you change
Opening hours
Tue to Fri 10–6, Sat 10–5, Sun and Mon by appointment
Phone
403 555 0148
Booking fee
$50
Bridal consultation description
Ninety minutes, one bride at a time, in a room to yourselves.
Second look description
cleared
What the page says
Bridal consultation
Ninety minutes, one bride at a time, in a room to yourselves.
Second look
Sixty minutes, no fee, for when you want to see two again.
[ C ] About 4 to 6 weeks
A shop or clinic site with a real booking button
$9,500 to $16,000
The above, plus customers take a time slot themselves and pay a booking fee by card that comes off what they buy. This exact combination is live and answering today.
Who takes this: Boutiques, clinics, salons and anybody whose day is a diary.
- Customers book themselves in, offered only the times your opening hours, your rooms and your staff time off leave free.
- A booking fee taken by card when they book, and credited against what they buy.
- Two people clicking the last slot cannot both get it.
- The day at a glance behind the counter, one column per room.
An example
A bridal boutique: fittings booked at ten at night, ninety minutes each, one bride at a time, with a fifty dollar booking fee credited to the dress.
What is already built
Both halves are live and answering today. The awkward part, two people reaching for the last slot in the same second, is already solved and already tested.
Half when we start, half when it goes live.
A bridal boutique’s version of this →Book an appointment
Bridal consultation
90 minutes
$50 booking fee, credited to what you buy.
Second look
60 minutes
No fee.
What to expect
Bring whoever you actually want an opinion from, and no more. Three is a good number. Wear the underwear you would wear on the day. We will pull six to eight gowns to start and go from there.
[ D ] About 6 to 10 weeks
One tool that fixes one job in your business
$12,000 to $22,000
A single job done properly — the schedule that moves itself when a trade runs late, the ticket-expiry tracker, the costs ledger that will not let you close a month with unattributed bills in it.
Who takes this: An owner with one expensive job that a spreadsheet has stopped coping with.
- One job, done properly, in the stages you name yourself.
- Bring your spreadsheet across, with the rows it distrusts shown to you first.
- What you print or download always matches the screen, because both are worked out from the same figures.
- A figure nobody has entered says so, rather than showing zero.
An example
A home builder: mark framing finished six days late and every stage after it moves, except the dates the builder pinned by hand.
What is already built
The schedule that moves every later stage when one trade runs late is already running on a builder’s jobs. So is the ledger that refuses to close a month with bills nobody has attributed.
Half when we start and half when it goes live, or 40 percent at the start, 30 percent halfway and 30 percent at launch.
A home builder’s version of this →buildtrack — Lot 12, Ravenswood
Excavation
Nose Creek Excavating
Foundation
Springbank Concrete
Backfill and services
Nose Creek Excavating
Framing
Wheatland Framing
Roofing
Sundance Roofing
Windows and exterior doors
Prairie Sky Windows
Rough-in — plumbing
Highwood Plumbing & Heating
Rough-in — electrical
Ridgeline Electric
Insulation
Chinook Insulation
Drywall
Copperfield Drywall
Millwork and cabinets
Glenmore Millwork
Flooring
Beaverdam Flooring
Exterior finishing
Sundance Roofing
Wide bar — planned. Thin bar underneath — what actually happened. The vertical line is today.
[ E ] About 3 to 6 months
The system you run the business on
$25,000 to $60,000
Several jobs, several kinds of person, your customers and your staff both in it. The scored checklist, the board-grade report, the site walk in walking order and the printed day pack all belong here.
Who takes this: An owner whose business is the software, or soon will be.
- Your customers and your staff both in it, each seeing only the part their job needs.
- The whole job, start to finish, instead of five tools and paper in between them.
- Money taken up front held as money you owe, and counted as income only on the day you deliver.
- The finished document at the end of it, not just a screen that says the work is done.
An example
A safety and compliance consultancy: the enquiry, the site visit, the scoring, the report and the follow-up plan, all in one place.
What is already built
This is where the most is already built. A safety and compliance consultancy runs its entire assessment business on one, and every part shown below is lifted from it.
Half when we start and half when it goes live, or 40 percent at the start, 30 percent halfway and 30 percent at launch.
A consultancy’s version of this →88 Sagebrook Link, Chestermere
Larkspur Homes
Active stage — drywall.
| Stage | Trade | Dates | State |
|---|---|---|---|
| Excavation | Nose Creek Excavating | 4–15 May 2026 | Complete |
| Foundation | Springbank Concrete | 16 May – 8 Jun 2026 | Complete |
| Framing | Wheatland Framing | 17 Jun – 24 Jul 2026 | Complete |
| Rough-in | Highwood, Ridgeline | 27 Jul – 12 Aug 2026 | Complete |
| Insulation | Chinook Insulation | 17–21 Aug 2026 | Complete |
| Drywall | Copperfield Drywall | 24 Aug – 11 Sep 2026 | Running |
Every name, figure and date on these screens is invented. The layouts are exactly what the software does.
Inside the biggest one
A whole assessment business, from the enquiry to the report.
The scored checklist
Every question in the standard scored one at a time, area by area, with what is missing named rather than implied. Anything it cannot evidence is handed to a person instead of guessed at.
The site walk, in walking order
Thirteen stops, sorted by where you physically are rather than by reference number, so one lap of the yard closes everything. It opens on a tablet with nothing installed, nobody signs in, and it works with no reception.
The report the board reads
Cover, one-page summary, scores by area, the detail behind each one, and a plan for the first thirty days, the first ninety and the year. It prints to a PDF that looks like a document, not a screenshot.
The printed day pack
Cover sheet, route card, one sheet per person to be interviewed, a photo log, and real ruled lines. For the day the tablet stays in the truck and somebody still has to do the walk.
A new standard is a file, not a rebuild
Load a new checklist standard and the scoring, the evidence and the reports pick it up. Adding one is an afternoon rather than a second build.
It writes the first draft
Findings, wording and the month ahead come back as a draft you read and change. If it cannot point at the line in your own document that a statement came from, it hands that item to a person rather than inventing an answer.
Nothing goes out on its own. You read and approve every piece before it can leave. An approved email arrives in your own mail tool as a draft for you to send, and an approved post only goes anywhere if you have connected a scheduling account of your own. With nothing connected, you copy it and post it yourself.
On the day
B-05
Hazard controls in place at the work site
- What to look at
- Guards fitted on the bench grinder and the chop saw. Eye wash within ten seconds' walk. Extension cords off the floor in walkways.
- Good looks like
- Guards in place, eye wash unobstructed and dated within the month.
- Gap looks like
- A guard removed and set aside, eye wash blocked by stock.
Notes
Chop saw guard fitted. Eye wash station blocked by a pallet of filters. Cord across the walkway at the parts bench.
IMG_2026-08-05_1142.jpg
IMG_2026-08-05_1143.jpg
Every rating, name and date on this screen is invented.
A fortnight later
Safety assessment report
- Client
- Redstone Aggregates Ltd.
- Site
- Strathmore yard
- Reference
- RA-2026-014
- Date
- 9 Aug 2026
3.5
out of 5 overall
118 criteria · 106 rated · 12 held for a person
Management commitment and policy
4.4 / 5
Established
14 of 14 rated
Hazard assessment and control
3.1 / 5
Developing
19 of 22 rated
Safe work practices and procedures
3.8 / 5
Developing
16 of 16 rated
Worker orientation and training
4.1 / 5
Established
18 of 18 rated
Inspections
2.6 / 5
Early
11 of 14 rated
Incident reporting and investigation
3.4 / 5
Developing
12 of 12 rated
Emergency response
4.6 / 5
Established
9 of 9 rated
Contractor oversight
2.2 / 5
Early
7 of 13 rated
Strengths
- Policy is current and signed. Reviewed 4 Feb 2026 by the general manager.
- Emergency drills are run and recorded. Four in the last twelve months.
- Orientation records exist for all 34 workers hired since August 2025.
Where to focus
- Two sites’ hazard assessments are more than two years old.
- Thirty-one open inspection findings carry no completion date.
- No evidence that contractors’ safety records are checked before they start.
First 30 days
- Review the Strathmore and Beiseker hazard assessments
- Put a named owner against each of the 31 open inspection items
- Add a contractor check to the purchase order process
First 90 days
- Close or re-date every open inspection item
- Record a review after each equipment change
- Run one supervisor session on the refusal-of-work process
Within the year
- Move inspections onto a scheduled cycle with sign-off
- Re-check contractor records at renewal
- Add a management review of the whole plan each February
Detail extract
| Ref | Criterion | Rating | Priority |
|---|---|---|---|
| B-02 | Hazard assessments reviewed at set intervals | Partial | P2 · within 90 days |
| B-05 | Hazard controls in place at the work site | Gap | P1 · within 30 days |
| D-08 | Inspection findings tracked to closure | Gap | P1 · within 30 days |
| A-04 | Written safety policy signed by senior management | Meets | — |
RA-2026-014 · Confidential · Prepared for Redstone Aggregates Ltd.
Every score and finding on this document is invented.
What this one costs
A build of this size is $25,000 to $60,000. A consultancy buying the assessment work described above sits in the lower half of that range, because so much of it already exists. Where it goes higher is when the business behind it comes too: the customers, the staff, the money and the paperwork all in the same place.
Half when we start and half when it goes live, or 40 percent at the start, 30 percent halfway and 30 percent at launch.
How the work runs
Five stages, and something in your hands at every one.
A call
30 minutes, free
A written price
within a day
First working stage
you open it
Going live
your own address
Looking after it
optional
[ 01 ] A call
Thirty minutes, free, with the person who would write it. You describe the part of the week that is worst. We say whether this should be built at all.
What you get: A straight answer, including "do not build this", and nothing owed either way.
[ 02 ] A written price
Usually within a day. One page: what is being built, what is deliberately left out, what we need from you, the dates, and who owns it.
What you get: That page, and a fixed price on it. Nothing is charged until you have read it and said yes.
[ 03 ] The first working stage
We build the parts everything else sits on first, so nothing has to be pulled apart later. Then you get a link.
What you get: Something you can open and use, not a picture of it. Every week after that, the same.
[ 04 ] Going live
It moves onto your own address, on accounts opened in your business name, with your information in it rather than invented information.
What you get: The working software, a short screen recording so whoever uses it knows how, and the keys to the locker it is kept in.
[ 05 ] Afterwards
A button on every screen for when something is wrong. Whether we keep changing it for you every month is your choice, not a condition.
What you get: Everything above, whether you take a monthly plan or not. Stopping the monthly fee does not switch anything off.
How it is paid
- Half when we start, half when it goes live.
- Half when we start and half when it goes live, or 40 percent at the start, 30 percent halfway and 30 percent at launch.
The number does not move
If you ask for something that was not in the written price, we price that separately and you decide, before it is built. What does not happen is an invoice for something nobody agreed to.
If you stop halfway
You keep what has been built and paid for, and you keep the files. There is nothing to unpick and nothing to buy back.
What you read before anything is charged
One page. What is being built, what is deliberately left out, what we need from you, the dates, and who owns it. You read it, you say yes or you do not.
Scope and fixed price
- Project
- A private area for a trades business
- Prepared for
- Nose Creek Excavating
- Dated
- 3 Sep 2026
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.
What it costs
Every number we have, on one page.
Free
The first call
Thirty minutes. Nothing owed afterwards, whatever you decide.
Half, then half
How it is paid
Half when you approve the written price, half on the day it goes live. Bigger builds can be split three ways.
You keep it
If you stop halfway
You keep what has been built and paid for. There is nothing to unpick.
Custom builds
Both ends of each band. Your fixed price is set after the first call, in writing.
A A website that sells for you
About 2 to 3 weeks
$6,000 to $9,000
B A website you keep up to date yourself
About 3 to 4 weeks
$9,000 to $14,000
C A shop or clinic site with a real booking button
About 4 to 6 weeks
$9,500 to $16,000
D One tool that fixes one job in your business
About 6 to 10 weeks
$12,000 to $22,000
E The system you run the business on
About 3 to 6 months
$25,000 to $60,000
Can be added to any build
Staff hours on a phone
$900
Your staff clock in and out on their phone. Hours are recorded to the minute and never rounded, and every correction stays on the record instead of quietly replacing what was there.
It records the hours. It also works out overtime and statutory holiday entitlement from the real punches, and that half is written to British Columbia employment standards, tested against a table of worked cases. In another province the hours are still right and we price the rules for your province separately rather than hand you somebody else’s. It is not payroll either way.
Ready-made tools
Already built for another business. Set up for yours in weeks rather than months.
From $2,900 to set up, then $250 a month
See the ready-made tools →Buy something small first
No call needed, and no obligation to go further.
Fit check
$390, once · Three working days
Enquiry tool
$750, once · About two weeks
Sessions
One to one, on your screen, until you can do it yourself.
Four sessions
$1,800, once
Eight sessions
$3,600, once
Stay current
$500 a month
After it goes live
Somebody has to look after it. That part is optional.
Keep it running
[ tier 1 ]$290 a month
or $2,900 for the year
It stays up, it stays backed up, and there is a button on every screen for when something is wrong.
- Hosting and backups, both ours to worry about.
- A button on every screen that says "this is broken, here" — they circle it and it files itself with the page name attached.
- One small change a month.
Keep it moving
[ tier 2 ]$850 a month
or $8,500 for the year
The above, plus four hours of changes a month, and the small breakages get looked at overnight.
- Everything in Keep it running.
- Four hours of changes a month.
- Anything reported through the button gets read overnight, and the safe ones are fixed before you open up.
- A written note back to whoever reported it.
We run it with you
[ tier 3 ]$2,400 a month
or $24,000 for the year
The above, plus twelve hours a month, first in the queue, and a named day each week that is yours.
- Everything in Keep it moving.
- Twelve hours a month.
- Your work goes ahead of everything else in the queue.
- A named day each week that belongs to you.
Pay for a year up front and you pay for ten months, not twelve.
What a monthly fee actually buys
Whoever finds the problem presses a button on the screen they are looking at, circles what is wrong with their finger, and sends it. We get the exact page without having to ask which one they meant. It has been built four times over, in four different businesses, because it is the thing people actually use.
| 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
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
What you own
It is yours from the first day, whether you stay or not.
Yours from day one
Your software is kept in a private locker that you hold the keys to, not just us. It starts there on the first morning of the build rather than arriving at the end.
You can take it anywhere
It is built with ordinary, widely used tools, so any competent developer can open it and carry on. There is no fee to leave and nothing held back.
One person builds it
The person who takes your call writes the software and is still there afterwards. There is nobody else here to hand you to, and no account manager in between.
The honest caveat, because it matters more than the promise. Keeping a website online, sending your email and taking card payments are ordinary monthly bills owed to those services, and they carry on being owed whether we are involved or not. Those accounts are opened in your business name from the start, deliberately, so nothing is in ours to hold.
Start a project
Tell us the part of the week that is worst.
We read every one of these ourselves and reply within two business days. The first call is thirty minutes, it is free, and you owe nothing afterwards whatever you decide. If you are not ready for a call, a fit check is $390 and it comes off the build. If you would rather just write, the address is hello@runsolostack.com.