Software built around how your business actually works
Sometimes another subscription or another plugin is not the answer. We build web-based systems around real operational processes, and we do it in the same team that runs your marketing.
A wholesale supplier running on software we built
Greenwood Hargreaves is a UK HVAC wholesale supplier. Their platform covers stock, purchase orders, quoting, sales orders, invoicing, credit notes, staff management, shipping and invoice chasing, with Xero synchronisation behind it.
Built in PHP and MySQL, with barcode scanning in the warehouse and a product catalogue their trade customers order from directly.
Recent orders
| #46102 | Trade account | Picked |
| #46101 | Trade account | Awaiting stock |
| #46098 | Retail | Invoiced |
Step 1 · Choose a customer
- Northern Ventilation LtdTrade · 30-day terms
- Mersey Mechanical ServicesTrade · 30-day terms
- Halton Building ServicesTrade · pro-forma
Step 2 · Choose a product category
Step 3 · Order building
| 420200 | 200 spiral duct × 3 mtr | 39 units |
| 420150 | 150 spiral duct × 3 mtr | 30 units |
Building an order in a bespoke system
The question is not whether software exists that does roughly this. It is what the workarounds are costing you every week, and whether that is more than building the right thing once.
Systems that usually start as a spreadsheet
CRM and customer systems
Leads, contacts, quotes, jobs and invoices in one place, shaped around your process rather than someone else’s.
Job and field-service management
Scheduling, engineer assignment, site photographs, timesheets and sign-off, usually with a separate mobile interface for people on the road.
Warehouse and stock
Stock levels, minimum thresholds, purchase orders, goods-in, picking and barcode scanning.
Quoting and ordering
Product catalogues, trade pricing, quote-to-order workflows and customer-facing portals.
Invoicing and payments
Invoice generation, payment collection, credit notes and reconciliation, synchronised with your accounts package.
Integrations and automation
Xero, Stripe, ecommerce platforms and APIs, joining up systems that currently need somebody to retype between them.
Discovery first, always
Nobody can price a CRM or a warehouse platform responsibly from a first conversation. So we do not pretend to.
Discovery
We map how the work actually happens now, including the workarounds. Produces a specification you own outright.
Specification
What gets built, in what order, and what is deliberately left out of phase one.
Build
PHP and MySQL, in stages you can see, so nothing arrives as a surprise at the end.
Live and supported
Training, handover and ongoing development, because these systems grow with the business.
What people ask about bespoke builds
Why not just buy off-the-shelf software?
Usually you should. Off-the-shelf is cheaper, faster and someone else maintains it. Bespoke earns its place when your process is genuinely unusual, when several systems need joining, or when the workarounds have quietly become a full-time job.
What does discovery cost, and what do I get?
It is a paid stage, priced against the size of the problem. You get a specification you own. If you take it elsewhere to build, that is a legitimate outcome, it is your document.
Who owns the code?
You do. We will also make sure somebody other than us could pick it up, because software you cannot move is a liability regardless of who wrote it.
Can you work with a system somebody else built?
Often, yes. Inheriting and extending existing systems is a normal part of what we do, though we would want to look at it before committing.
Tell us what the workaround is
Most of these projects start with one process that everybody knows is broken. That is a good place to begin.
