Advanced software development
Software built for the way your business actually works.
Custom apps created from scratch for unique business needs and workflows: that is what custom software development is for, and it starts the moment an off-the-shelf solution falls short of how you really do things.
When custom software is the right answer.
And when it isn’t.
The best candidates are processes that already work but cost too much time. Quotes assembled by hand, bookings juggled in a diary, data re-typed between systems, reports built in a spreadsheet every Monday. Software built around exactly how you do those things pays for itself in hours saved every week.
The worst candidates are things a good off-the-shelf tool already does well. If a subscription product fits ninety per cent of what you need, I will usually recommend it and build only the missing ten per cent as an integration or a plugin. Custom is a means, not a badge.
What I build.
Scoped and priced stage by stage.
- Booking and scheduling systemsAvailability, rules, deposits, reminders and the admin side, built around how you actually take bookings.
- Customer and trade portalsAccounts, orders, documents and pricing specific to each customer, behind a login.
- Quoting and configuration toolsTurn a manual quote into something customers can do themselves, with your rules built in.
- Dashboards and reportingData from several systems in one place, updated automatically, readable at a glance.
- Integrations and APIsConnect the systems you already use: accounting, CRM, stock, delivery, payments, marketplaces.
- Internal toolsThe small applications that replace spreadsheets and remove double entry.
- WordPress and WooCommerce extensionsWhen the right home for the software is inside the site you already run.
- AutomationEmails, documents and updates that happen when they should, without someone remembering to do them.
- Documentation and handoverWritten so you, or another developer, can understand and maintain it.
How a software project runs.
Map the process first.
Before anything is designed, I sit with the people who do the job and map how it really happens: the inputs, the decisions, the exceptions, the bits done on paper. Most of the value is found here, and the written scope that comes out of it is what gets priced.
- Process map of how work flows today
- Written scope with stages and prices
- Clear success measures agreed up front
Build the smallest version that works.
Stage one does the core job end to end, in use within weeks rather than months. Real use tells us what to build next far better than a long specification would, and you are never paying for features nobody asked for.
- Working software early
- Improvements driven by real use
- Fixed price per stage
Keep it running.
Software lives in a changing world: operating systems, browsers, APIs and payment providers all move. A monthly arrangement keeps it updated, monitored and improving, or I hand over cleanly to your team.
- Monitoring and backups
- Updates as platforms change
- Small improvements without a new project
Software in practice.
Software work usually sits alongside a website: the web design and development page covers the public-facing side, and custom plugin development is the route when the right home for a feature is inside WordPress, WooCommerce or Shopify.
Often paired with.
Web Design & Development
Bespoke, fast websites designed to win customers, not just look the part.
Learn more about web design & developmentSearch Engine Optimisation
Technical, local and content SEO that moves you up Google and Bing for the searches that matter.
Learn more about search engine optimisationBrand Design & Strategy
Logos, identity and the visual rules that make a business look like one.
Learn more about brand design & strategyCustom Plugins
Plugins for WordPress, WooCommerce and Shopify built for exactly what your site needs.
Learn more about custom pluginsSoftware questions, answered.
Anything that does a job rather than describes one: a booking system with rules of its own, a customer portal, a quoting tool, a dashboard pulling data from several places, or an integration between two systems that do not talk to each other. If the phrase “we do that bit in a spreadsheet” comes up, it is probably software.
Often you should, and I will say so. Custom software development makes sense when the off-the-shelf tool is almost right but not quite, when the subscriptions have grown past what a build would cost, or when the process is the thing that makes your business different.
Modern PHP and JavaScript on the web, with WordPress and WooCommerce when a plugin is the right vehicle, and whatever APIs your other systems expose. I choose boring, well-supported technology so the software is easy to maintain and another developer could pick it up.
By mapping the process first and building the smallest version that works, then improving it against real use. Scope is agreed in writing with a fixed price for each stage, so there are no open-ended invoices.
You do. Once a stage is paid for, the code and the data are yours, with documentation and access to everything.
Software is never finished, because the platforms and APIs it depends on keep moving. A monthly arrangement covers updates, monitoring and small improvements, or I can hand over to your own developer with proper documentation.
Describe the process that needs fixing.
A few lines about what happens today and what you wish happened instead is the best possible brief; I’ll tell you whether custom software development would help and what it would take to build.
- 1You send a few lines.What the business does and what the website needs to do.
- 2I reply, personally.Usually the same day, with questions and a time for a call.
- 3You get a written proposal.Scope, stages and price for exactly that. No obligation, no hard sell.
Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm. The person who answers is the person who builds.