Custom Software

When spreadsheets stop scaling and off-the-shelf tools don’t quite fit, custom software pays for itself. I build the internal tools, dashboards, and systems that take the friction out of your day.

The problems I get called about

They’re rarely described as “software” problems at first. It’s the quoting spreadsheet only one person can safely touch. Orders re-typed from email into the accounting package, every day, by hand. Compliance reporting assembled manually every quarter. A subscription tool the team fights instead of uses, because it was built for a different business than yours.

If any of that sounds familiar, you’re the customer this page is for. If you’re still deciding whether custom is even the right route, start with my take on custom vs. off-the-shelf. Sometimes it isn’t, and I’ll say so.

What I build

• Internal tools and dashboards: order management, inventory, scheduling, quoting. The systems your business runs on.
• Workflow automation: replacing the manual, error-prone steps between your existing tools.
• Integrations: making the software you already pay for talk to each other properly.
• Compliance and reporting tools: the recurring paperwork that eats someone’s week, generated instead of assembled.

How a project runs

I scope one workflow at a time, starting with the one that hurts most, so you get a real number and a real date instead of a vague estimate for “digitizing the business.”

Billing is by milestone, and there are no retainers. You pay when a piece of working software you’ve seen is delivered, and you’re never locked into a monthly fee to keep me around. Working versions land in your team’s hands early, while the software is still cheap to shape. Not in a big reveal at the end.

Real work

• Backwoods RV Transport: internal compliance tools for IFTA and fuel reporting, replacing manual workflows.
• DIY Flavours: internal dashboards for orders, inventory, label printing, backorders, and purchase orders.
• FMFY Wellness: inventory and order-management tools behind a growing e-commerce brand.

You own the code

The code lives in a repository you control from day one, documented and handed over properly. Accounts and hosting are in your name. If we parted ways tomorrow, you’d keep everything and any competent developer could pick it up. That’s the test, and I build to pass it. Well-built tools like these run for a decade, and upkeep is modest and predictable, not a meter that runs every time you ask a question.

I’m based in British Columbia and work with small and medium businesses across Canada.

Common questions

What does it cost? Depends on scope, and anyone who answers before understanding your workflow is guessing. I’ve published the ranges and what drives them.

Do we own the code? Yes. Repository, accounts, documentation, all in your name, so there’s nothing to be locked into.

What if an off-the-shelf tool already does this? Then I’ll name it and tell you to buy it. It’s the cheapest possible outcome for you, and saying so costs me nothing.

Our last project went badly. Do you take over existing work? Yes. Bring the wreckage. I’ll assess what’s salvageable before anyone talks about rewriting. (And read the red flags so round two goes differently.)