A spreadsheet, off-the-shelf software or a custom app? When your own system pays off
Most businesses start with Excel, a notebook or a board on the wall. Those are good tools while the business is small. Over time the trouble starts: who has the latest version, who changed the date, how did this job slip through. That is when the question comes: what next?
Excel: a great start, a poor system
A spreadsheet is cheap, familiar and flexible. For one or two people keeping a simple list of jobs, it is often all you need.
Problems start when several people use the same spreadsheet:
- Several versions of the file and no certainty which one is current.
- No permissions: everyone can see and change everything, including prices and customer details.
- A row deleted by accident that nobody notices.
- A spreadsheet is awkward on a phone, so people out in the field call the office anyway.
Off-the-shelf software on a subscription
Task managers, CRMs and cloud job management apps work from day one, have a mobile version and need no developer. If the way you work looks like most businesses, that is often the best choice.
The downsides show over time. You pay every month for every user, so the cost grows with your team. The software is built for everyone: it has dozens of features you never use and lacks the one you need. Then your business adapts to the software rather than the other way round. On top of that, the data sits with the provider, and price rises or the service shutting down are out of your hands.
A custom app
Your own app is built around how your business really works: your stages, your names, your roles. Staff see only what they need, and the office sees everything without picking up the phone.
It costs more up front and takes a few weeks to build. In return, there are no per-user fees, the code and data belong to the business, and you add new features when you need them. You pay for hosting and any further development, not for licences.
An example: a joinery workshop
The joinery workshop I built a job system for ran its work from a notebook, a cork board and the owner's head. Off-the-shelf project tools were made for offices and charged monthly for every employee.
The app takes each job through the stages that really exist in a joinery: survey, design, materials, production, finishing and installation. A worker changes a task status on their phone with two taps, and the office knows straight away what a job is waiting for.
How to work out whether it pays off
No guesswork needed. A simple calculation is enough:
- How many hours a week your team loses looking for information, making calls and retyping data from one place to another.
- What mistakes cost: a forgotten survey, a mixed-up date, a job that never got invoiced.
- What off-the-shelf software will cost over 3 years for your current and planned headcount.
- What the app costs in its first, smallest version that solves the biggest problem.
Where to start
If 5 people lose 3 hours a week each, that is over 60 hours of work a month. That alone is often enough for an app to pay for itself in the first year.
You do not have to build everything at once. It is best to start with the one process that hurts most, test it on real data and grow it in stages. Excel does not have to disappear either: the app can export data to it, for example for your accountant.
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