How we work
How a project with us runs
Most people hiring a software company for the first time don’t know what to expect, and it’s fair to ask before you spend anything. This page sets out how we estimate, how the work is done, what you own at the end and what happens if you decide to move on.
Before any work: getting in touch
- 1You get in touchBook a time online, call or email. You don’t need to know exactly what you need yet.
- 2We reply within one business daySomeone from our team confirms your call or answers your message. If you booked online, your time is already held.
- 3The assessment callYou walk us through how things run. There’s nothing to prepare, and it takes as long as it needs to.
- 4You get next stepsWhat we noticed, the first thing we’d change and a rough sense of how big that job is.
- 5You decideBooking a call isn’t hiring us. Act on the next steps yourself, bring in someone else, or ask us for a written fixed-price proposal.
More on how projects run, what you own and what happens if you move on: how we work.
How we estimate
We don’t publish prices, because the same name can describe very different amounts of work. Instead, the free assessment tells us how your business runs, what the software has to do and what’s out of scope.
If there’s something worth building, we write it up as a fixed-price proposal in plain language: what’s included, what isn’t, and the stages it will be delivered in. You know what you’re paying for before any work starts. Our guide on what drives the cost of a project explains the factors that make a job bigger or smaller.
What makes a project bigger or smaller
Tick the ones that apply to yours. None of them sets a price on its own; they’re the things we ask about in the free assessment so the proposal describes the right amount of work.
Each kind of user, such as owners, staff and customers, needs its own sign-in, views and permissions, and each of those has to be designed and tested on its own.
Every other system the project talks to, such as accounting, a CRM, payments or a shipping provider, has its own way of exchanging data, and the connection has to cope with conflicts and failures, not just the normal case.
Information in old systems and spreadsheets usually needs cleaning up before it can move, and the moved copy has to be checked against the original before anyone relies on it.
Software that keeps working offline has to save changes on the device and then sort out what happens when two people have edited the same thing before they reconnect.
Payments bring in a payment provider, refunds, receipts and the record-keeping that goes with them, all of which have to be right the first time.
Rules such as who can approve what, or which staff can do which services, each become logic the software has to follow and your team has to be able to check.
Screens that are variations of a template are quick to add. Each one that is genuinely different has to be designed and built on its own.
Words, photos and product information that aren’t ready yet have to be written and gathered, and the project waits on them.
How the work is done
We build in stages. Each stage ends with working software you can see and use, so you can change direction between stages instead of waiting until the end to find out what you’re getting.
Sometimes the right answer is a well-set-up product you can buy rather than something built from scratch, and we’ll say so. When part of your process doesn’t fit a product, we build only that part and connect it to what you already use.
You have a dedicated contact on our team from the first call through to support after launch, so you’re never passed between departments.
A project, stage by stage
Pick a stage to see what you do, what our team does and what you come away with.
1. Free assessment
- What you do
- Walk us through how your business runs and where it gets stuck. There’s nothing to prepare, and you don’t need to know what you want built.
- What our team does
- Ask questions about repetitive admin, tools that don’t share data, slow reporting and anything at risk. The call takes as long as it needs to.
- What you receive
- What we noticed, the first thing we’d change and why, and a rough sense of how big that job is. Nothing to sign and nothing to commit to.
2. Proposal
- What you do
- Decide whether to go further. You can act on the next steps yourself, bring in someone else, or ask us for a written proposal.
- What our team does
- Write up a fixed-price proposal in plain language: what’s included, what isn’t, and the stages the work will be delivered in.
- What you receive
- A fixed-scope, fixed-price proposal you can read before any work starts, so you know what you’re paying for.
3. Build in stages
- What you do
- See and use working software at the end of each stage, and change direction between stages if you need to.
- What our team does
- Build in stages, use products you can buy for the parts that are ordinary, and build only the part that doesn’t fit. You have a dedicated contact throughout.
- What you receive
- Working software you can use as it lands, rather than everything at the end.
4. Launch and handover
- What you do
- Take the logins for your hosting account, your domain and the code repository, and put your staff through any training the project needs.
- What our team does
- Hand over the code, the design and the content, and train your staff where the project needs it.
- What you receive
- The code, the design and the content, once the project is paid for, with full access to the repository, hosting and domain.
5. After launch
- What you do
- Choose whether we keep looking after it. Maintenance is optional, and nothing stops you moving the work elsewhere.
- What our team does
- If you’d like us to: security and software updates, uptime monitoring, backups and a set number of hours each month for small improvements.
- What you receive
- A system that stays updated and monitored, and someone to call who already knows it.
What you own
- The code, the design and the content, once the project is paid for
- Full access to the code repository
- Your hosting account and your domain, with the logins in your hands
- Training and handover for your staff where the project needs it
After launch, and if you move on
If you want us to keep looking after it, maintenance covers security and software updates, uptime monitoring, backups and a set number of hours each month for small improvements. It’s optional.
If you’d rather move the work to someone else, nothing stops you. You already hold the code, the hosting and the domain, so there’s nothing to negotiate to get them back. Our guide on what maintenance includes lists the questions worth asking whoever looks after your system.
Tell us what you’re working with
Book a free assessment and we’ll talk through your current setup. You’ll come away with next steps.
Prefer the phone? Call us at +1 204-770-0005.