A custom app replaces work your staff now do by hand, such as retyping orders from one program into another or keeping a separate spreadsheet because your software has no field for the information.
Signs your business needs a custom app
- Someone retypes the same information into two programs. Website orders get copied onto the production sheet, or finished jobs get copied from the estimate into an invoice.
- Staff keep a separate spreadsheet. The software has no field for some of the information they need, such as customer notes or which jobs are finished.
- The software can't follow your rules. The booking program gives every appointment the same length, even when some services take longer than others.
- Your systems disagree. The register and the online store show different stock counts, or month-end sales never match the bank deposits.
- Mistakes cost you money. Extra work goes unbilled, deposits go missing, or a customer arrives for an appointment that is not on the schedule.
If two or three of these happen every week, compare the cost of a custom app with the hours your staff spend on the workarounds.
What makes an app cost more
- Who uses the app. Customers, staff and the owner each need their own pages in the app. For example, customers book appointments, staff see the day's schedule, and the owner sees reports. Each added group means more pages to build.
- Rules. Each rule the app follows takes time to build and test: how long each service takes, who approves a discount, which days the shop is closed, when a reminder goes out.
- Old records. Customer lists, price lists and past orders need cleaning before they move into the app. Duplicates, mixed date formats and missing fields take time to sort out.
- Connections. Sending orders to your accounting software or reading stock from your register means building a link to that program and testing what happens when it is down.
Questions to ask before you hire someone
- Is the price fixed, and is everything it includes written down? With an hourly estimate, you pay for every extra hour.
- Who owns the finished app and its source files? If the builder keeps them, every change has to go through that builder.
- What does support cost after launch, and what does it include?
- Can they show you apps they have built for other businesses?
What to gather before you ask for a price
- A list of the tasks your staff do by hand today
- Copies of the spreadsheets, forms and printouts you use now (blank copies are fine if the real ones hold private information)
- The programs the app must work with, such as your accounting software or register
- The three mistakes or delays that cost you the most
- A rough count of your records: customers, products and orders per month
A builder who sees these can give you an accurate price, and you can compare quotes for the same work.
Working with Zahed Solutions
Zahed Solutions builds custom web apps for small businesses across the United States. We start with the tasks your staff do by hand today, build an app that does those tasks, and train your staff to use it.
You get a fixed price in writing before any work starts, and you own the finished app and its source files. A custom web app starts at $14,000. If your app needs old records moved in or a connection to another program, the quote lists each one with its price. The pricing page lists what every service includes.
Examples for small businesses
- Online booking for a dog grooming salon. The salon booked every appointment by phone into a paper book. The booking app sets each visit's length by the dog's size, coat and service, and sends reminder texts that customers confirm by reply.
- Estimates and invoices from one price list. A landscaping company's owner copied prices from a spreadsheet into each estimate at night. Estimates and invoices now come from one price list, and change orders go onto the invoice.
- Bakery preorders connected to the production sheet and the books. Staff retyped online preorders onto the bakers' sheet and into the books. Each order now reaches both with no retyping.