Do I need a custom app?

Spreadsheets are brilliant, until they aren't

Almost every business runs on a spreadsheet at some point, and for good reason. They're flexible, everyone has one, and you can build a job tracker or a price list in an afternoon. The problem is that the flexibility that makes them easy to start makes them fragile at scale: anyone can type anything anywhere, formulas break silently, and there's no record of who changed what.

A well-known UK example: in autumn 2020, around 16,000 positive Covid test results were left out of England's daily figures for about a week. Public Health England later put the number at 15,841 cases. Reports at the time, including the BBC's, linked it to an old spreadsheet format that ran out of rows, so the extra results were simply cut off without an error. If it can happen in a national system, it can happen in a busy office.

None of this means spreadsheets are bad. It means there's a point where the business has grown and the tool hasn't. These are the signs.

The 10 signs your business has outgrown spreadsheets

1. There are several versions of "the" spreadsheet

"Jobs FINAL v3 (Sarah's copy).xlsx" on one laptop, an emailed version on another, a printout in the van. Nobody is sure which is right, so people ring each other to check.

2. Someone retypes the same information into several places

A customer's details go into the enquiry sheet, the job sheet, the invoice and the calendar. Every retype is time, and every retype is a chance to get it wrong.

3. Only one person really understands it (and they're off on holiday)

There's a workbook with hidden tabs, colour codes and macros that one person built. When they're on holiday, things wait. If they left, nobody could run it.

4. Mistakes are found by customers, not by you

The wrong price on a quote, a double-booked appointment, a missed renewal. If customers are spotting errors before your systems do, the system isn't checking anything.

5. You can't get a straight answer to simple questions

"How many jobs are booked next week?" "Which quotes haven't been chased?" "What did we make on that contract?" If answering means an hour of copying, filtering and adding up, you don't have a live picture of your own business.

6. Your team in the field works on paper, WhatsApp and photos

Job sheets on paper, photos sent in a group chat, signatures on a clipboard, all typed up back at the office later. Information arrives late, incomplete or not at all.

7. Customers chase you for updates

"Has my order shipped?" "When is the engineer coming?" "Did you get my documents?" Each call or email interrupts someone, and most of them could be answered by a simple status page or an automatic message.

8. Everyone can see, and edit, everything

Spreadsheets aren't good at "this person can see these rows but not those columns". If staff can see salaries, client contact details or margins they don't need, that's a data protection risk under UK GDPR as well as a business one, and there's rarely a reliable record of who changed what.

9. You're paying for software you've bent out of shape

You bought a package that does 70% of what you need and filled the rest with exports, spreadsheets and workarounds. Now you pay per-user fees for software your team half uses, plus the time spent on the workarounds.

10. Growth means hiring admin, not doing more work

Every time sales go up, the paperwork goes up in step and you need another pair of hands just to keep the spreadsheets current. That's the clearest sign of all: your processes, not your people, are setting the limit on growth.

Score yourself

Count how many of the ten signs apply to you today. This is a rough guide, not a formula, but it's a useful starting point for a conversation.

Cheaper options to try first

Custom software is a real investment, so it's worth ruling out simpler fixes. In rough order of cost:

1. Fix the spreadsheet. One master copy in shared online storage, a clear structure (one row per record, no merged cells), data validation drop-downs, and sharing permissions. It won't fix everything, but it can buy time.
2. Off-the-shelf software for your industry. There are good products for job management, salons, clinics, letting agents, field service and more. If one fits 80% or more of how you work, use it.
3. Connect what you already have. Often the problem isn't the tools but the gaps between them. Linking your website, CRM, booking system and accounts can remove most of the retyping. Our plain-English guide to integrations explains how.
4. No-code database tools. Products that look like a spreadsheet but behave like a database, with forms, views and permissions. Good for internal processes, though they get expensive and awkward as they grow.

A custom app makes sense when the process is central to how you make money or serve customers, nothing on the market fits it without heavy workarounds, and the process is stable enough to build around. If you're still working out how you do things, wait.

What a custom app actually is

"App" covers a few different things, and the cheapest one is often the right one:

• Web app. Runs in a browser on any phone, tablet or computer, with a login. No app store approval or fees, one version to maintain, and updates reach everyone instantly. Most internal business tools, customer portals and dashboards are best built this way.
• Mobile app. Installed from the App Store or Google Play. Worth it when you need things a browser does less well: working offline in a basement or field, heavy camera use, push notifications, or a polished experience for a large customer base. It adds store fees and review processes.
• Internal tools and dashboards. A secure replacement for the spreadsheet everyone's afraid to touch: job tracking, quoting, stock, scheduling, reporting.

A good custom app also connects to the tools you keep, usually payments and accounting software, so it fits into your business rather than becoming another island.

What it costs and how a project runs

Custom software costs depend on how many screens, user types, rules and connections it needs, so honest developers quote after understanding the job rather than from a menu. What you should expect is a clear, staged process:

1. Discovery and design. Learning how the work happens today, then a written specification and screen designs, so you can see and agree it before anything is built.
2. Build in stages. A first usable version focused on the most valuable part, then improvements. You see progress regularly.
3. Launch and support. Hosting, fixes and improvements once your team is using it.

For reference, our list prices are £2,200 for system design (specification and screen designs) and £3,300 for system set-up and development, with larger web and mobile apps quoted per project in writing before work starts. Not VAT registered - no VAT added. Remember to budget for running costs too: hosting, support and occasional updates as phones, browsers and connected services change.

To judge the return, add up the hours spent on retyping, checking, chasing and fixing each week, what mistakes cost you, and what work you turn away because admin can't keep up.

How to get started

Before you speak to any developer, write down:

• The process in plain steps, from first contact to job done and paid
• Who uses it (office, field team, customers, managers) and on what devices
• The three things it absolutely must do, and the things that would be nice
• The software you want to keep, and what it should connect to
• The spreadsheets and forms you use today (bring copies)

That one page will make every conversation faster and every quote more accurate. Then read our guide to choosing an app developer for the questions to ask, including who owns the code.

Custom app questions

Sources

• Public Technology: Lost data on 16,000 coronavirus cases pinned on Excel
• The Conversation: Why you should never use Excel to count coronavirus cases
• ICO: A guide to data security