Systems we build and run
Bespoke business management systems
One system for the way your business runs. Customers, quotes, jobs, scheduling, stock, documents, staff and reporting, built as parts of the same thing and working from the same records. The parts you need, added when you need them, and none you don't.
What it is, and where it fits
Where this kind of system fits
- Builders, contractors and trades
- Skip, plant and equipment hire
- Field service and engineering
- Manufacturing, wholesale and distribution
- Legal, accountancy and professional services
- Letting agents and property management
A business management system is the one place a firm runs from. Each part of the work has its own screens, and every one of them reads and writes the same set of records, so a customer, a job or a part is entered once and is the same wherever you look at it.
Larger firms call this an ERP. The idea is the same at any size: the enquiry, the quote, the job, the people doing it, the stock it uses, the paperwork it produces and the money it brings in are one connected record rather than separate lists that have to be kept in step by hand.
Because it is built for one business, it carries that business's own stages, terms, numbering and checks. Nobody has to learn somebody else's idea of how a hire desk or a works order should run. The system already works the way your team does, because that is what it was built from.
Everything you need, nothing you don't
These are the parts a system like this is built from. Most firms start with two or three and add the rest as the business asks for them. Each one links to a page with more detail.
Customers and enquiries
Every customer, contact and site, with every enquiry, conversation and follow-up kept on their record.
Quotes and pricing
Your price lists and rules, the same numbers whoever is quoting, and a yes that turns straight into a job.
Jobs and works orders
Every job through your own stages, from booked to invoiced, with what is waiting on whom.
Scheduling and run sheets
Who is doing what, where and when, planned in the office and sent to their phone.
Phone apps for the team out
Job sheets, photos, signatures and checks done on site and back in the office the moment they are saved.
Stock and materials
What is on the shelf, on order and out on which job, taken off as it is used.
Assets and equipment
Machines, vehicles, containers and tools, where they are, who has them and what is due on them.
Compliance and inspections
Checks, certificates and expiry dates that come round on their own, with the evidence attached.
Documents and certificates
Every file stored against the customer, job or asset it belongs to, and found by searching for it.
Forms and e-signatures
Letters, packs and certificates produced from the record, signed on a phone and filed back.
Timesheets and staff
Hours against real jobs, holidays, training and licences, ready for payroll.
Texts, WhatsApp and email
Messages sent from the record, with the replies landing back on it for anyone to pick up.
Customer and supplier portals
Customers and suppliers seeing their own side of the same records, and asking for work in it.
Management reporting
The figures you run the business on, live, from the same records the work is done in.
Accounts and other systems
Your accounts package, payroll and anything else you rely on, connected so the figures pass across by themselves.
AI and automation
Documents read in, notes summarised and routine steps done for you, inside the system rather than beside it.
Why one system rather than several
Most growing firms end up with a good tool for each job: one for quotes, one for the diary, one for stock, a shared drive for documents, and the accounts package. Each works well on its own. The time goes on the gaps between them, where somebody copies a name, a price or a date from one into the next.
When every part works from one set of records, those gaps close. Wanting the office to spend its day on the work rather than on moving it between screens is reason enough.
- Entered once. A customer, a site or a part number typed in at the start is the same record on the quote, the job, the job sheet and the invoice.
- The parts talk to each other. A quote accepted opens the job. A job booked appears on the schedule. A part used on site comes off stock. Nobody passes it along by hand.
- One answer to every question. Where a job is, what a customer owes and what is in the yard are looked up in one place, and everybody sees the same answer.
- One login, one look. The team learns one system, laid out the same way throughout, instead of five.
Your processes, written into the system
Every business has a way of doing things: the checks before a job goes out, who signs off a price over a certain figure, what has to be on file before an invoice is raised. Often that lives in a few people's heads.
A system built around your business holds those steps itself. Work follows the same route whoever is doing it, the next person is told when it is their turn, and nothing moves on until what should be done has been.
- Stages in your words. The steps a job, an order or a case goes through, named the way your team already says them.
- Checks that hold the line. A job can't be marked complete without the sign-off, and an invoice can't go out without the certificate behind it.
- Approvals where they belong. A discount over your limit or an order over a set value waits for the right person, who sees it on their phone.
- Reminders that come round. Follow-ups, renewals, inspections and overdue jobs raised on the right day without anybody keeping a list.
- A business that runs without you watching it. When the route is in the system, new starters follow it from day one and the owner can step back from checking.
One job, through every part
A heating and plumbing firm with an office of four and eight engineers, as an example. One enquiry, followed from the first message to the money in the bank, and nobody types the same thing twice.
- Mon 09:12
An enquiry comes in
A landlord asks through the website for a boiler replacement at one of their properties. The landlord is already a customer, so the enquiry lands on their record with the property attached.
- Mon 11:30
A survey is booked
The office books a survey into an engineer's day. It appears on their phone with the address, the access notes and the landlord's contact.
- Tue 10:05
The quote is built from the survey
The engineer's measurements and photos are already on the record. The office builds the quote from the price list, and because it is over the firm's limit it waits for a director's approval, given on their phone.
- Tue 16:40
Accepted, and the job opens itself
The landlord accepts in their portal. The job opens with the quote lines on it, the boiler is reserved from stock and the supplier order for the flue kit is raised.
- Fri 08:00
Fitted, signed and certified
The engineer works through the job sheet on site: readings, photos and the tenant's signature. The commissioning certificate is produced from what they entered and filed against the property.
- Fri 15:20
Invoiced without retyping
The job is marked complete only once the certificate is on file. The invoice goes to the accounts package with the right lines and codes, and the landlord sees it in their portal.
- Next year
It comes round again
The boiler's annual service is set to come due, with a reminder to the landlord and a slot suggested on the schedule. The reporting already shows the job's margin, the engineer's hours and the stock it used.
What it does
One database underneath
Every part reads and writes the same records, so there is nothing to keep in step and no overnight copy to wait for.
Every record joined to the rest
Open a customer and see their jobs, quotes, documents, messages and money. Open a machine and see every job it has been on.
Built in parts, live in parts
Each part goes live when it is ready, and the next one joins the same records rather than starting another system.
The right screens for each person
The office, the engineers, the managers, customers and suppliers each see their own part, laid out for what they do.
Access that follows the role
Who can see prices, approve discounts, delete records or export data is set by role, and every change is kept against who made it.
The figures, live
Work booked, work done, money owed and margin by job or by customer, worked out from the records rather than gathered at month end. More on management reporting.
Your accounts package, kept
Invoices, customers and payments pass across to the package your accountant already works in. Works with Xero, QuickBooks and Sage, and with Stripe and GoCardless for taking payment. More on joining up your systems.
More than one site, one business
Depots, branches or yards each run their own day, and the figures add up across all of them. More on multi-site operations.
How it gets built, and how it gets run
| Starting point | We start with the part that matters most to the business, often jobs or customers, and get it live in weeks. The next part is planned once the first is in use and the team has said what they would like next. |
|---|---|
| Fixed price | Each part is scoped, priced and dated in writing before it starts, with what isn't included written as plainly as what is. |
| Your existing records | Customers, jobs, assets and history worth keeping are loaded in, so the first day starts with your data already there. |
| What you already use | Your accounts package stays, connected. Anything else you like and rely on can stay too and be joined in. Parts are replaced only when the new one is better for you. |
| Training | Each part is introduced to the people who use it, on their own work, with us close by while it settles in. |
| Hosted in the UK | UK infrastructure, backed up nightly to somewhere that isn't the machine running it, kept thirty days, and checked every few minutes that it's up and answering. Built by a Cyber Essentials certified firm. |
| Changes as you grow | A new stage, a new check, a new report or a whole new part. The system changes with the business, looked after by the same people who built it. |
Free Business Systems Assessment
An hour with whoever runs the day to day. Clear recommendations to act on.
We look at how the work actually runs and what it runs on, then send you a list of what we would change, what each change would do for the business, and what it would take. In person or online, whichever suits you. Nothing to pay, nothing to sign.
- One hour
- In person or online
- Recommendations we talk you through
Honest answers
- Is this an ERP?
- In the sense that it brings customers, work, stock, people and money together in one system, yes. The difference is that it is built for your firm, so it has the parts you use and the way you work, rather than every module a large company might need.
- We only need one part at the moment.
- Then that is where it starts. A single part built on the same foundations is a complete system in its own right, and it is ready for the next part whenever you want one.
- Can we add parts later?
- Yes, that is how most of these systems grow. A new part joins the records that are already there, so nothing is re-entered and the existing screens carry on as they were.
- What happens to our accounts package?
- It stays. Your accountant keeps working in it, and invoices, payments and customers pass across from the system so they never have to be typed in twice.
- What if the way we work changes?
- The system changes with it. New stages, checks, approvals and reports are ordinary changes, and because we built it we know exactly where they go.
- How long before it is in use?
- The first part is usually live in weeks. A system covering most of a business is built over months, a part at a time, and in use the whole way through.
- Who does it suit?
- Firms whose work passes through several hands on its way to an invoice, with an office, a team out and customers who ask where things are up to. It suits any business that wants its way of working held in one place, from a team of five to several depots.
- What happens to our data if we stop?
- It is yours. You can export everything at any time, and if you ever leave, we hand it over in a form another system can read.
Talk to us
Tell us how a piece of work gets from enquiry to invoice in your business, and what you use along the way. That's usually enough for us to say where a system would start.
Ring, 8am to 6pm Monday to Friday and Saturday mornings, or use the form below. Pick what you'd like to keep track of, add a line if you want to, and leave a name and a way to reach you.