Internal tools and automation
Stop renting the software that runs your business.
We build the internal tool that replaces your subscription stack: dispatch, quoting, inventory, approvals, reporting, and the automations between them. One fixed quote. You own the source code and the data at handover.
Ten-year cost comparison
- $120K
- 10 yrs at $12K/yr SaaS
- $60K
- Build plus hosting, 10 yrs
- 2.5 yr
- Break-even point
- 100%
- Source and data yours
Why this changed
You do not rent your trucks. Why rent your software?
Renting software was the economical choice for one reason: custom used to cost roughly ten times what it costs now. That is no longer true. In 2026 a generalized tool that fits nobody is both worse and more expensive than commissioning one that fits.
Run the numbers on a modest stack. $12,000 a year in subscriptions is $120,000 over ten years, or about $151,000 once you allow for a 5% annual escalation. A $30,000 build with no subscription is $30,000 over the same ten years. Break-even lands at year 2.5. By year ten you are $90,000 to $121,000 ahead, and the software is yours.
Put your own numbers in and see where your break-even falls.
What we build
The tools that usually replace the stack.
A single build normally absorbs three to five subscriptions plus the spreadsheets holding them together. These are the pieces that show up most often.
For BC and Canadian businesses running real operations. Trades and contracting, property and facilities, clinics, multi-site retail, professional services.
Dispatch and scheduling boards
A drag-and-drop day that matches how your crews are actually assigned: skills, certifications, truck stock, travel time, and the customer who will only take a Thursday.
Quoting from your real price book
Your pricing rules, your markups, your labour rates. A quote comes out in minutes with the right numbers instead of being rebuilt in a spreadsheet and pasted into a template.
Invoicing and accounting handoff
Invoices generated from the work that was actually done, pushed into the accounting system you already use so nobody rekeys a line twice.
Field capture and sign-off
Crews log arrival, photos, materials used, and a customer signature from a phone. The office sees it before the truck leaves the driveway.
Inventory across trucks and sites
One stock picture across the warehouse, every van, and every job site, so the part gets ordered once and gets found when someone needs it.
Approvals and document control
Purchase approvals, change orders, safety paperwork, and insurance certificates in a chain that records who approved what and when.
Client and job portals
Your customers check status, approve a quote, and pay without phoning the office. Your staff stop being a lookup service.
Operations reporting
Revenue, receivables, job margin, and crew utilization on one live screen, pulled from the system of record instead of from a monthly CSV export.
Smaller than a rebuild
Automations, when the whole stack can wait.
Not every problem is a platform. Plenty of businesses do not need a new system this quarter, they need one repetitive job to stop consuming a person. These are quoted small, ship fast, and are often how a longer engagement starts.
- Intake forms that create the job, the customer record, and the calendar entry in one pass
- Reminders and follow-ups that fire on their own instead of living in somebody's head
- Nightly reconciliation between two systems that were never designed to talk
- Documents generated and filed automatically: quotes, work orders, certificates, closeout packages
- Alerts when a number crosses a line you care about, such as an expiring insurance certificate or a job going over hours
- Bulk data cleanup and migration when you are leaving a tool behind
Signs you are ready
When a custom internal tool is the cheaper option.
Three or more of these usually means the build pays for itself before year four, and that is before counting the hours you get back.
- You pay four or more subscriptions that each do one part of a single job
- Your team works around the software with spreadsheets and a group chat
- Hours go into reconciling numbers between tools every week
- The report the owner actually wants has to be assembled by hand
- The tool you need does not exist, so you picked the closest thing years ago
- Someone is paid to retype information that one system already has
Switching over
The switch is scoped into the build.
The reason most businesses stay on software they dislike is the thought of moving. So moving is our job, not yours. Migration of your existing data is scoped and priced as part of the build, and the time we need from your team is agreed up front.
We take the data out
Customers, jobs, history, price book, documents. Exported, cleaned, and loaded into the new system before anyone is asked to switch.
Your team gets a login
New login, new password, done. The time we need from your team is agreed up front. If the tool needs a training week, it was built wrong.
You cancel the subscriptions
You cancel on your schedule, not ours, once the new system is carrying the work. Nothing is deleted on the old side until you say so.
One application, sized to your operation, absorbs three subscriptions, retires two spreadsheets, and ends the standing argument about which system has the right number.
Cost and support
One fixed quote. No retainer attached to it.
Most internal tool builds run $15,000 to $35,000 CAD as a fixed quote, billed on milestones. Hosting is normally around $250 a month and it is paid to your hosting provider, not to us.
Financing is available where it helps: we can broadly match what you already spend on subscriptions, spread it over two years, and at the end of that you own the software outright rather than renewing.
After launch there is no mandatory monthly fee. Take the code and owe nothing, or keep us on with each piece of work quoted in writing before it starts and triaged by severity. There is no hourly rate. Critical means now. Simple means the next available week.
Before you write
The three questions we get first.
What happens to the data sitting in the subscriptions we are replacing?
We move it. Exporting your customers, jobs, price book, and history out of the tools you are leaving is scoped and priced as part of the build, not a line item you discover later, and the time we need from your team is agreed up front.
What does a custom internal tool cost compared to the SaaS?
Most builds land between $15,000 and $60,000 CAD as a fixed quote, with a focused internal tool usually at the lower end of that range, plus hosting paid directly to the provider, which varies with the build. A business paying $12,000 a year in subscriptions spends $120,000 over ten years and owns nothing at the end. The build is a one-time cost, and the software is an asset on your side of the ledger.
Do we have to pay you forever to keep it running?
No. There is no mandatory retainer and no hourly rate. You can take the code and owe us nothing. If you would rather we stay on, each piece of work is quoted in writing before it starts and triaged by severity, so a critical outage is handled now and a cosmetic request waits for the next available week.
Due diligence
Coverage you can verify before you sign.
You are handing an outside firm the system that runs your company. Ask for these. We send certificates the same day.
- Commercial general liability
- $5,000,000
- Professional liability (E&O)
- $2,000,000
- Cyber liability
- $2,000,000
- WorkSafeBC account
- 201966367
Bound and in force.
Bound and in force.
Bound and in force.
Active. Clearance letter on request.
No pitch · Reply in one business day
Bring your subscription list.
Send us the tools you pay for and where the work actually gets stuck. Within one business day you get a written summary of what one system would replace and what it would cost to build.
Further reading
- VancouverInternal Tools for Vancouver Businesses: A Buyer's GuideVancouver businesses run on a different mix of tools than the average. Here's a grounded buyer's guide for trades, professional services, and multi-site operators across the Lower Mainland.Read the note
- StrategyHas Your Business Outgrown Spreadsheets? The Signs It's TimeSpreadsheets run more businesses than anyone admits, until they quietly become the bottleneck. Here are the signs you've outgrown them, and the cheapest way to move off without a big-bang rebuild.Read the note
- TradesWhy Trades Businesses Need Custom Internal Tools (And What to Build First)Electricians, HVAC, plumbers, and GCs are drowning in manual workflows. Here's what the right internal tool looks like for a field service business.Read the note