Nobody decides one morning to commission bespoke software. It creeps up: one more spreadsheet, one more re-keyed order, one more evening spent finding out what the numbers really were. These are the eight questions we ask every owner who gets in touch, the same ones behind our readiness check. Each one comes with the system a yes usually points to.
The eight questions
1. Does anyone in your business re-type the same information into more than one system? Orders copied from email to spreadsheet to accounts package counts. A yes usually points to integrations: connecting the systems you already use so data flows instead of being re-keyed.
2. Is there a spreadsheet your business genuinely couldn’t run without? Especially one that only one person really understands. That spreadsheet is usually a piece of custom software waiting to be built properly, with the knowledge out of one head and into a system everyone can use.
3. Do you find out your real numbers weeks after the fact? Margins, job costs, stock value: if the truth arrives with the accounts, that’s a yes. BI and reporting is about decisions made on live numbers rather than last quarter’s spreadsheet.
4. Do your main systems fail to talk to each other? Website, accounts, stock, CRM: if data moves between them by hand, that’s a yes. When it’s most of the business, the answer is one ERP system with every department working from the same live information.
5. Has an off-the-shelf tool ever been abandoned because it didn’t fit how you work? Or is one currently being worked around with exports and extra spreadsheets? That’s the case for custom software designed around the way your business actually works, not the other way round.
6. Do enquiries or follow-ups ever slip through the cracks? Leads in inboxes, quotes never chased, callbacks forgotten. A CRM built around how you actually sell means no more leads lost in inboxes and sticky notes.
7. Would your admin headcount need to grow just to handle more sales? If doubling revenue means doubling the back office, the process doesn’t scale. Again, that points to an ERP: the admin absorbed by software rather than by people.
8. Is scheduling people, jobs or resources done on paper, whiteboards or memory? Including the daily phone-around to find out who’s where. A booking system takes appointments, manages rentals and schedules resources around the clock, without the phone tennis.
What the score means
We give the same verdict in the check and in the room.
Zero to two: honestly, probably not yet. Your day to day sounds reasonably well served by your current tools. Bespoke software pays for itself by removing friction, and right now there may not be enough friction to justify the investment. Keep the questions handy: the moment spreadsheets start multiplying or systems stop talking, the maths changes.
Three to five: there’s real money leaking here. Several signs point to processes your business has outgrown. You likely don’t need a full platform on day one. A focused build that removes your biggest pain (often quoting, scheduling or reporting) typically lands in the £10K to £30K range and pays for itself in saved hours. Worth a conversation.
Six to eight: your business has outgrown its systems. You’re running a bigger operation than your tools were built for, and your team is absorbing the difference by hand. Businesses with this profile usually see the fastest payback from bespoke software: one system shaped around your workflow, replacing re-keying, spreadsheets and guesswork.
What a first project looks like
Whatever the score, the first step is the same: a free, no-obligation conversation about your objectives and the challenges in the way, where we work out together whether software can genuinely help, and roughly what it would take. You don’t need a specification. Then a structured discovery phase maps your processes and the people involved, and ends in wireframes, so you see the product before we build it.
If you’d rather score yourself first, the readiness check takes two minutes and asks for no email address. If you’d rather talk, book a consultation.