Case studies
Real-shape projects, with the numbers that mattered.
Concrete examples of custom apps we've built and what they actually changed for the business — subscription bills cut, admin hours recovered, no-shows reduced, late filings prevented.
Anonymized composites. These case studies describe real project shapes and real outcome ranges, with identifying details changed to protect client confidentiality. We don't publish client logos or fabricated testimonials. When a client gives us permission to share their actual project, we will.
Trades & home services
Replaced a $480/mo QuickBooks + add-ons stack for a 12-person trades company
12-person plumbing & heating company, Lower Mainland BC
A 12-person trades company was paying $480/month across QuickBooks Online, a job-tracking add-on, a payments processor add-on, and two per-seat add-ons nobody really used. We built a focused custom app that handled invoicing, job tracking, deposits, and basic books, sized to their real workflow.
Monthly SaaS bill
$480 → $0 (one-time build)
Payback period
~14 months
Admin time saved
~6 hrs/week
Build time
9 weeks to launch
Law firms & professional services
Lightweight matter and intake CRM for a 15-person law firm
15-person law firm, BC
A 15-person law firm was running matter intake through a shared inbox, a conflict-check spreadsheet, and individual lawyer notebooks. We built a focused intake + matter tracker that gave them one source of truth without forcing them onto an enterprise platform.
Intake-to-decision time
~5 days → ~36 hours
Conflict checks
Manual → automatic on every intake
Closed intakes/month
+22% in the first quarter
Build time
7 weeks to launch
Clinics & wellness
Cut booking admin from 6 hrs/week to ~20 minutes at a multi-practitioner clinic
6-practitioner wellness clinic, Vancouver Island
A 6-practitioner clinic had outgrown a generic booking tool that couldn't handle practitioner-specific availability, service-dependent durations, and intake forms tied to specific services. We built a custom booking and intake app that the front desk and clients both prefer.
Weekly booking admin
6 hrs → ~20 min
No-show rate
12% → 4%
Phone bookings
~60% → ~15% (the rest self-serve)
Build time
6 weeks to launch
Retail & multi-location operations
One operations dashboard across 5 retail locations, replacing 3 weekly spreadsheets
5-location specialty retailer, BC and Alberta
A 5-location specialty retailer was tracking sales, inventory, and staffing in three different weekly spreadsheets, each owned by a different person. The owner saw last week's reality on Wednesday. We built one operations dashboard that pulled live data into a single screen.
Report freshness
~9-day lag → live
Weekly reporting time
~10 hrs across team → ~0
Inventory stockouts
Down ~40% in first 6 months
Build time
8 weeks to launch
Accounting & financial services
Client portal that cut tax-season email volume by ~60% for an accounting firm
8-person accounting firm, BC
An 8-person accounting firm was drowning in tax-season emails: document requests, missing files, status questions, last-minute uploads. We built a client portal that gave clients a structured place to upload documents, see what was still outstanding, and check status without emailing.
Tax-season email volume
Down ~60%
Average doc-collection time
~17 days → ~6 days
Late-filed returns
Down ~70%
Build time
10 weeks to launch
Why this matters
The pattern across every project
Custom often costs less inside 18 months
When a per-seat SaaS stack creeps over a few hundred dollars a month, a one-time custom build usually pays for itself in a year or two — and you own it afterward.
Hours recovered, not just dollars saved
The bigger win is usually time. Reconciliation work, status emails, manual reporting, all reduced or eliminated.
Focused beats comprehensive
The apps that work are narrower than the SaaS they replace. They do the few things you actually need, well.
Have a project that looks like one of these?
Tell us what you're trying to fix. We'll come back with an honest answer about whether a custom app makes sense, and roughly what it would take.