Every question we get asked, answered.

We read it ourselves and reply by email to set up a first call. The call is free, and you’re not committed to anything by having it.

It depends on what you need, so we don’t publish a price list. After the first call you get a written scope, timeline and price, and nothing starts until you’ve agreed to it.

It depends on the size. A small website is a matter of weeks; a full app takes months. Your proposal gives you a timeline before you commit.

You do. Once the project is paid for, the code and designs we made for you are yours.

No. You describe the problem in your own words. We handle the technical side and explain the choices in plain English.

Usually. Send us what you have and we’ll tell you honestly whether it’s worth fixing or better to start again.

We offer monthly maintenance: updates, fixes and regular reviews. If you’d rather run it yourself, it’s yours to run.

Nobody can promise that, and Google says so itself: its advice on hiring help with search states that no one can guarantee a #1 ranking, and that it never accepts money to include or rank a site. What we do is make the site easy for Google to read, with a clear title and description on every page and your hours, phone and address in the format it reads. Google’s own guide says a change can take from a few hours to several months to show, and to allow a few weeks before judging it.

Both depend on how many pages there are and on what the site has to do, such as taking bookings or orders. The first call is free, and you get a written scope, timeline and price before any work starts. The work runs in phases, and you see working pages on your own phone at the end of each one.

No. If you already have a domain, we use it. If you don’t, we help you register one in your business’s name, so it belongs to you. Hosting is set up the same way, in an account you own, and we can look after it month to month if you’d like.

You know your business best, so we start from what you tell us on the call and shape it into pages, and you approve every word. If you have photos, we use them. If you don’t, we plan the design around that and tell you which few pictures would be worth taking.

Yes to both. Hours, prices, photos and news have their own editing screen, so those changes don’t need us. The site is built with Astro, a tool that produces plain, light pages, and the code, the domain and the hosting account are in your business’s name. Monthly maintenance is there if you want it, and the site is yours either way.

Often a website is enough, and it costs less to build and to keep. Saved to the Home Screen, a website can even send notifications, on iPhone since iOS 16.4. An app earns its place when customers use it again and again, when it has to work with no signal, when it needs the phone’s location while it is closed, or when people expect to find you in the App Store and Google Play. Apple’s review guidelines also say an app should offer more than a repackaged website. We tell you which you need on the first call.

You can, and the code allows it. But in StatCounter’s figures for September 2026, iPhones made 53.6% of mobile page views in the US and Android phones 46.4%, so launching on one alone leaves out roughly half of that use. Because the app is written once, the second platform is the same project with its own testing and store submission. We plan to launch both together unless you have a reason to wait.

Yes. React Native is a tool for writing one app for both phones. Meta released it in 2015 and still maintains it, and version 0.87 came out in August 2026. From version 0.82, released in October 2025, React Native runs only on its rebuilt core, which the project calls the New Architecture. The app is drawn with each phone’s own controls, is installed from the App Store and Google Play, and uses the same camera, location and notification features as other apps. Where iPhone and Android really differ, that part is written for each.

Both depend on what the app has to do, so we don’t quote before we understand it. A full app takes months, not weeks. After the free first call you get a written scope, timeline and price, and no work starts until you agree to it. The work is done in phases, and each one ends with a working build on your own phone.

You do. The developer accounts with Apple and Google are opened in your business’s name, so the listings belong to you, and the code is yours. If you want us to keep the app current after launch, monthly maintenance covers updates, fixes and regular reviews.

Often, yes, and we’ll say so on the first call. When every business does a job the same way, as with email, bookkeeping or payroll, a ready-made product usually costs less and its maker keeps it up to date. Building makes sense only for the part of your work that is particular to you.

To start with, usually. The difference is how the bill grows. Slack’s own billing page says most enterprise software charges per user whether or not each person is using it, and that Slack bills only for active members. Some vendors sell seats in blocks: as of October 2026, monday.com’s help page says a team of 6 has to select its 10-seat plan. A custom tool has no seats. It has a build price, which you get in writing before any work starts, then hosting and whatever upkeep you choose. Put the two side by side for the years you expect to use it.

You do, and the agreement should say so. The US Copyright Office explains that copyright starts with whoever wrote a work, that only nine listed kinds of commissioned work can be “made for hire” (a computer program is not named among them), and that a transfer of copyright generally has to be in writing and signed. So ask whoever builds your software, us included, for a signed transfer of the code. This is general information, not legal advice.

Usually, through that product’s export, and it pays to read what the export leaves out. Intuit’s help page says the Export Data tool in QuickBooks Online covers the main financial reports and the customer, supplier and employee lists, while estimates, purchase orders and attachments are exported from their own screens. Salesforce says its export service can be run by hand once every 7 days or once every 29 days, depending on the edition. Google says data from core Workspace services such as Gmail and Drive is excluded from its export tool if the subscription is canceled or suspended. Export before you cancel anything. Loading that data into the new tool is part of the build.

It is yours either way. The code and the accounts it runs on are in your business’s name, and it is built with widely used tools (Next.js, Node.js, MongoDB and AWS), so another developer can pick it up. Everything in it can be exported. If you want us to keep looking after it, monthly maintenance is there.

Apple says it typically reviews at least half of submissions in under 24 hours and 90% in under 48. We plan the launch date around that, prepare what reviewers ask for, and answer them if they come back with questions.

You need an Apple developer account in your business’s name, which costs $99 a year in the US and which we help you open. You don’t need a Mac: you test on your own iPhone.

Yes. What you sell decides how. Physical goods and services you deliver in person use ordinary card payments; digital goods used inside the app generally go through Apple’s own purchase system. We tell you which applies before we start.

When you want one. The app is written so the Android version comes from the same code, not from a second project.

Every autumn Apple releases a new version, and every spring it requires uploads to be built with its newest tools. An app nobody maintains eventually can’t be updated. Monthly maintenance covers this, or you can ask us when it’s needed.

It depends on the developer account. A personal account created after November 13, 2023 must first run a closed test with at least 12 testers opted in for 14 days in a row, then apply for production access, which Google says usually takes seven days or less. Separately, Google says app review can take up to seven days, or longer in exceptional cases, for certain accounts. We plan the launch date around whichever applies to you.

We agree the oldest supported version with you before work starts and write it into the scope. In Google’s figures, last updated in December 2025, Android 9 and newer covers about 95% of devices. The layout rearranges itself for small phones, large phones and tablets, and it is tested across phone sizes and on an older version as well as the newest.

Yes, in your business’s name, and we help you open it. Google charges a one-time US$25 registration fee. A business registers as an organization, and Google asks for its D-U-N-S number, a nine-digit business identifier that Dun & Bradstreet issues for free. Getting one can take up to 30 days, so we sort it out early. You own the account and the app in it.

When you want one. We build Android and iPhone apps from one codebase, using a tool called React Native, so the iPhone version is the same project with its own store submission.

Google Play keeps raising the Android version that apps must be built for. Since August 31, 2026, new apps and updates must be built for Android 16. An existing app must be built for Android 15 or higher to stay available to new users whose phones run a newer Android than it was built for. Monthly maintenance covers this, or you can ask us when it’s needed.

Stopping that is the main job. Every request is checked on the server against who is signed in, and nothing is decided by what a browser sends. OWASP ranks failures of this check as the number one risk in web applications, so we test it directly: we sign in as one test customer, ask for another’s records in every way the portal allows, and confirm the answer is no each time.

Without a password. They type their email and get a one-time code, or they use a passkey, which signs them in with the face, fingerprint or PIN that already unlocks their phone or computer. In a FIDO Alliance survey of 11,000 people in ten countries, run in April 2026, 75% had turned on a passkey for at least one account.

It depends on what is behind the door. A code is as safe as the customer’s mailbox, which is what a “forgot my password” link relies on too. For order status and invoices that is usually a fair trade for never handling passwords. For more sensitive material we would add passkeys: NIST’s 2025 guidelines for U.S. government systems rule out email for sign-in codes, because a mailbox may be reachable with a password alone.

Yes. Then we follow the same NIST guidelines, published in July 2025. A password that is the only thing protecting an account must be at least 15 characters, and each new one is checked against a list of common and leaked passwords. The system must not demand a mix of capitals, digits and symbols, and must not force a change every few months, only when there is evidence the password was exposed.

The price depends on how many kinds of record the portal shows and how many of your tools it reads from. You get a written scope, timeline and price before any work starts. The code and the accounts it runs on are yours. Axel Diaz writes the code and is the person you talk to. We built the operator portal of Said & Done, the product we have been the whole engineering team of since 2023.

It depends on what it holds. A page that keeps nothing about anyone and takes no payments carries little risk. Once it stores customers’ details or takes their money, have a person read the code first. The builders say so themselves: Lovable’s documentation tells you that you are responsible for your app’s security, and suggests a professional review for apps that handle sensitive data.

Try it, and run the checks your builder offers. As of October 2026, Lovable runs a quick security scan every time you publish, and Bolt has a security audit on its paid plans. They catch common gaps. They can’t know your own rules, such as which member of staff may see which customer. The models also still write the gaps: in Veracode’s 2026 report, AI-written code passed 56% of security tests on average, about the same as a year earlier.

We don’t start there. The first step is reading what you have. The written review then sorts it into what stays, what gets fixed and what would be quicker to rebuild, with the reason for each. You decide after reading it.

No. You can keep building new screens in it. Lovable and Bolt can both sync a project’s code with GitHub, a shared home for code, so your changes and ours meet in one place. The app can also stay on the builder’s hosting with your own domain, an address such as yourbusiness.com, attached to it. As of October 2026, Lovable and Bolt both offer that on paid plans. We move an app only when it needs something that hosting can’t give, and the review says so.

That depends on what the review finds, so we don’t guess before reading the code. After a free first call you get a written scope, timeline and price before any work starts. The review comes first, then the fixes in phases, with working software at the end of each.

Mostly it isn’t. Where a rule can do the job we use a rule, because it gives the same answer every time and you can read it. An AI model comes in only for what rules can’t read, such as an email in someone’s own words, and its answer is treated as a suggestion. The model makers advise the same caution: Anthropic tells developers to always validate critical information, and OpenAI recommends having a person review output before it is used wherever possible.

The ones you could explain to a new hire on one page: what starts it, what to look at, and what to do in each case. Copying figures between tools, sending reminders, filing what arrives and building the same report every week are typical. Work that rests on judgment or a relationship, such as pricing a job for a difficult customer, stays with you. On the first call we tell you honestly which kind yours is.

It is built so a mistake is small and easy to find. Whatever fits no rule is set aside, not guessed, and every action is in the log with the rule behind it, so a wrong rule can be found and fixed. We start with steps where an error is cheap. Steps that send money or messages to customers can wait for your tap, which is also what Anthropic’s documentation suggests for decisions with real-world consequences.

Only where a step uses an AI model, and then only the text that step needs, such as the one email the rules couldn’t read. It goes through the model maker’s service for businesses, on an account in your name. As of October 2026, OpenAI says data sent through its API, the connection other software uses, is not used to train its models unless you opt in, and that it keeps logs for up to 30 days by default to watch for abuse. Anthropic says that by default it does not train on inputs or outputs from its commercial products. If you’d rather nothing leaves, the chore can be built with rules alone.

Yes, and you do. The numbers and wording inside a rule, such as how many days to wait or what the reminder says, are settings you can change yourself. A new rule or a new step is a change to the code, which we make and test against your past examples first. The code is yours and it runs on accounts in your business’s name.

Any tool that offers an API, which is an official way for other programs to read and write its data. Online shops, payment systems, booking calendars and accounting packages commonly have one. Stripe, Square, Shopify and Google Calendar, for example, each publish theirs. If a tool has none, we look at what it can export or email, and tell you what is possible before we quote.

Often a ready-made connector will do, and we’ll say so on the first call. It suits a simple job: one thing happens, one other tool is updated, and volume is low. Custom work makes sense when each order touches several tools and the rules have exceptions, or when a missed item would cost you a customer.

The tool that sent the message keeps trying for a while. Stripe says up to three days, Square up to 24 hours, and Shopify eight times over four hours. After that the sender gives up, so the program doesn’t depend on messages alone. It holds and retries whatever it could not write, and on a schedule it asks each tool what changed and fills in what it missed.

It is built not to. Stripe, Square and Shopify each warn that the same message can arrive more than once, so the program records every message it has handled and ignores repeats. Before it creates a customer or a product in another tool, it looks for an existing one.

The price depends on how many tools are involved and how many kinds of event move between them. You get a written scope, timeline and price before any work starts. The code is yours, and it runs on an account in your business’s name.

Try it first; on a small sheet it may be all you need. Know the limits Microsoft documents. Validation, Excel’s check on what a cell accepts, acts only when someone types straight into the cell, so data that is copied in or filled down gets past it. Microsoft also says sheet protection “isn’t intended as a security feature.” Anyone who can open the file can still save a copy of their own.

It comes with you. We read in every copy of the file, merge the duplicates and show you the rows where the copies disagree, so you decide which is right. The original files are left untouched.

Yes. Every list has an export button that gives you an Excel file with one row for each record and one column for each field. Send it to your accountant or run your own numbers in it. What you export is a copy to work on, and the app keeps the record.

Often, and we’ll say so on the first call. If a ready-made product already matches how you work, as accounting and payroll products usually do, buy it. A custom build earns its place when the spreadsheet holds the particular way your business does things and nothing on the shelf fits it.

It depends on how many jobs the spreadsheet is doing. After a free first call you get a written scope, timeline and price before any work starts. We build in phases with working software at the end of each, so the busiest part of the sheet can move first.

Often they can, and we start there. Power Query, Excel’s built-in import tool, records each cleaning step and runs them again on refresh. Office Scripts with Power Automate, and Apps Script in Google Sheets, run steps on a schedule. Their makers also publish the limits: a script run from Power Automate times out at 120 seconds and can’t refresh most data, and one Apps Script run ends at 6 minutes. We add a program of our own only where those limits get in the way.

Very little, as a rule. The new rows need one tab to land in, and your summary tabs, charts and formulas go on reading from it as they do now. If a formula behind the report is wrong or misses rows, we show you before we change it.

Yes. In Sheets the scheduler is Apps Script, which Google runs for you. Google’s published limits are 6 minutes for one run, and 90 minutes of timed runs a day on a free account or 6 hours on Google Workspace. Google also picks the exact minute inside the hour you choose, so we set the run an hour ahead of when the report is due.

Yes, and we read it first, because a macro that works is worth keeping. Two things Microsoft documents are worth knowing. Excel in a web browser can’t run VBA macros, the kind most older workbooks use. And Excel on Windows blocks macros by default in files that came from the internet, such as email attachments. If either one is getting in your way, we move the same steps somewhere that doesn’t depend on the macro.

The run checks the file before it touches the workbook: that the columns it expects are there, and that the totals match. If a check fails it stops, leaves the workbook as it was, and emails the person you named with the reason. Once the cause is fixed, the same week can be run again without adding its rows twice.

UI stands for user interface: what each screen looks like and how it reads, down to the sizes, colors, spacing and wording. UX stands for user experience: the route a customer takes through those screens, and where they give up. This page is about the first. We do both, and on most projects they happen together.

Yes. Every screen is drawn in your colors, along with its empty, loading and error versions, and you go through them before any code is written. A change at that point is a change to a drawing. The screens on this page are examples drawn for it, not client work.

It depends on how many screens there are and how many of them are forms. The first call is free. After it you get a written scope that lists the screens, with a timeline and a price, before any work starts.

Yes, we start from them. What we check is contrast, because some brand colors can’t carry text. On the amber this site uses, a white label measures about 1.8:1 against a minimum of 4.5:1, and a black one about 12:1, so a color like that gets a dark label. Your colors stay. Where each one is used may change.

One design, adjusted where the two differ. Apple asks for buttons with a hit area of at least 44 by 44 points and Google recommends 48 by 48 dp (points and dp are the units each system measures screens in), so we draw to the larger. On the web the W3C’s minimum for most controls is 24 by 24 CSS pixels, and we use the phone sizes there too. In 2025 both companies announced a new look: Apple’s is built on a material it calls Liquid Glass, and Google’s is called Material 3 Expressive. Apple’s guidance is to keep Liquid Glass to controls and navigation and out of the content itself.

UX is short for user experience: what it is like for someone to get something done with your site or app. In a review we take one job, such as booking a visit or placing an order, and go through it the way a customer would, on a phone and on a computer. We note every place a person could get stuck, watch a few people try it, and give you a short list of changes in order of effect.

Two ways. If your site or app keeps visitor statistics, we count how many people reach each step; Google Analytics has a funnel report made for this. And we watch people try it. Nielsen Norman Group’s long-standing advice is to test with no more than five people at a time, because the first five find most of the problems, as long as they are similar kinds of customer. Five people give you reasons. The percentages come from the statistics.

Nobody can promise that, and be wary of anyone who does. A review removes known reasons people leave, and then the result is measured: we count the same steps before and after the change, so you can see what happened in your own numbers.

Fewer screens is not the goal by itself. Baymard’s research on checkouts found that the number of steps matters less than the number of fields a person has to deal with. In the example on this page four screens go, but the larger change is 17 things to fill in becoming 3.

If you want. The review stands on its own, and the list is written so that whoever looks after your site or app can act on it. If you’d like us to build the fixes, you get a written scope, timeline and price before any work starts, and the code and the accounts are yours.

It can shift for a while. Google’s own guidance says to expect temporary fluctuation when page addresses change, and that a small or medium-sized site can take a few weeks for most pages to move over. Nobody can promise a ranking, and Google’s advice is to find someone else if they do. What we do is follow Google’s published steps: keep an address where we can, redirect each one that changes to its closest match, and check the results after launch.

Yes. The domain stays registered to you and the new site opens at the same address. Email is a separate setting on the domain, so we leave it alone and confirm mail still arrives after launch. If your mailboxes come bundled with the company that hosts your current site, we tell you before anything is switched off.

No. We start from the words and photos you already have and move them across. Where something is out of date or missing we point it out, and you decide. A page that has no place on the new site still gets its address redirected to the closest match.

The proposal gives you a timeline before you commit, and it depends mostly on how many pages there are. Your current site stays live the whole time. The new one is built at a private address, and the switch is a change to where your domain points.

Not always. Send us the address and we’ll tell you honestly whether it’s worth fixing or better to rebuild. When we rebuild, we use Astro, which produces simple pages that are light for a phone to download, and the code and the accounts are yours.

That figure is the share of the year the server was answering. Over a year, 99.9% still allows about 8.8 hours of downtime, and a site can answer the whole time while its contact form delivers nothing or its certificate has run out. We check what a visitor would trip over, and a person hears when a check fails.

Often. It depends on how the site was made, so we look at it first and tell you on the free call whether it can move as it is. A site made in a closed builder such as Wix has to stay on that company’s servers, so giving it a new home means rebuilding it, which is a different job.

The move is planned so that it doesn’t. We copy the site to its new home and test it there, then point your web address at it, and the old hosting stays on until the new one has been checked. Before anything is switched we look at where your email is handled, so it isn’t disturbed.

Every night, by the 3-2-1 rule: three copies, on two kinds of storage, one of them somewhere else. US-CERT, the US government’s computer emergency team, recommended it in 2012, and the cybersecurity agency CISA still calls it a trusted guideline. We also test restores, because that is the only way to know a backup works. How far back yours go is written in your proposal.

You take the site with you. Your web address and the hosting account are in your business’s name from the start, and we hand over the site’s files, its data and the latest backup. There is nothing to buy back.

Usually, if you can get us the code and a way into the store accounts. We start with a first look at both and tell you in writing what state the app is in, before any promise or price. If the key that signs your Android updates went missing with the old developer, Google can reset it for apps that use its Play App Signing. We build with React Native, a toolkit that makes the iPhone and the Android app from one set of code, so it also depends on how yours was built. If we’re not the right people for it, we’ll say so.

It keeps running on the phones that already have it, and the stores close around it. Apple accepts no upload that isn’t built with the tools it currently requires, so a bug can’t be fixed until the app is rebuilt. On Google Play, since August 31, 2026, an app still built for Android 14 or older is no longer offered to new users whose phones run a newer Android. Apple also removes apps that crash on launch, and asks for an update within 90 days from apps that have gone three years without one and fall below its download threshold.

Most often it is one of the stores’ yearly dates. In 2026 Apple’s was April 28, when uploads began to require Xcode 26 or newer, and Google Play’s was August 31, when updates began to require Android 16 or newer. Google lets you ask for an extension to November 1, 2026. From February 1, 2027, Google Play also won’t release an update that doesn’t support a newer way phones arrange memory, called 16 KB pages. Send us the email and we’ll tell you what it asks for and what happens if the date passes.

Not on either store. Apple says an app stays available during a transfer, keeps its ratings and reviews, and its users go on receiving updates. Google Play moves the app’s users, statistics, ratings and reviews to the new account. The transfer has to be started from the account the app is in now, so we find out early whether its holder will cooperate.

It depends on the state the app is in, which is what the first look is for. You get a written scope, timeline and price before any work starts. Once the app is up to date, keeping it there is a monthly arrangement if you want one. The code and the accounts are yours either way.

If one fits how you work, use it, and we’ll tell you so on the first call. As of October 2026 Fresha lists its plan for one person at $19.95 a month and Booksy charges $29.99, and both give you a working schedule and reminders today. A booking page of your own earns its cost when you want your own name and web address on it, a rule those services don’t offer, or bookings joined to software you already use.

The best evidence comes from clinics, not salons. A Cochrane review of randomized trials found that 67.8% of patients attended with no reminder and 78.6% with a text, and a 2016 review of 26 studies found that patients who were notified were 25% less likely to miss the appointment. We’d expect the direction to hold for a haircut, but nobody can promise you a number.

Yes, with the customer’s agreement when they book. A hold on a card doesn’t last: Stripe, the payment provider, says an authorization for an online card payment is usually valid for 7 days, so it can’t cover a booking made three weeks ahead. In practice the customer pays a deposit when booking, which comes off the bill, or agrees to have the card saved and charged if they don’t turn up. Your terms have to say that plainly, and the customer has to opt in.

Google’s help says bookings on a Business Profile are set up through a scheduling provider, found through its Reserve with Google program, and that the provider might charge you for them. A booking page of your own is added to the profile as your own link, which opens your page. If Google’s own booking flow matters most to you, that is a reason to choose one of those providers.

No. The booking page is a web page that opens from a link on your website, your Instagram profile or your Google listing, on any phone. An app is worth adding later if regulars book often and you’d like reminders to arrive as notifications. It is built once for iPhone and Android.

If one fits, use it. Ready-made apps for trades businesses, such as Jobber and Housecall Pro, already write quotes, take approval online and send follow-ups. Having one built makes sense when you need your own price list and terms, your own document layout, or a connection to the accounting package you already use.

In the US, the federal ESIGN Act of 2000 says that, in transactions affecting interstate commerce, a contract can’t be denied legal effect solely because it is in electronic form or was formed with an electronic signature, and the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act of 1999 is the model law written for the states on the same question. Contract requirements vary by state, so check yours or ask a lawyer; this is not legal advice. The software’s part is the record: who accepted, which quote, on what date and at what time.

The customer gets a link to the quote, by text or email, and not only an attachment. When the link is opened, the page records the time and your list shows “Opened”. A PDF copy is there for them to keep.

Yes, if it is designed for that from the start. The quote is saved on the phone as you write it, marked as waiting, and sent by itself when the phone is back in range. Say so on the first call, because it shapes how the app is built.

Often. It depends on whether your accounting package lets other software send it invoices, through what is called an API. Tell us which one you use and we check before the proposal, so you know before you commit.

No. On Gmail, the permission to read mail covers every message, and Google lists it among its restricted scopes, the group it says gives wide access to user data. We don’t ask for it. You add one filter in your own Gmail that forwards payment notifications to an address set up for the program, and nothing else leaves your inbox. On Microsoft 365, an administrator can limit a program to one named mailbox.

Maybe not, and we’ll say so on the first call. QuickBooks Online, for example, can email automatic reminders, up to three per invoice, set anywhere from 90 days before the due date to 90 days after. If your invoices live there and every payment is recorded there promptly, turn that on first. What we’d build is for when the answer is spread out: payments arrive in several places, the list is a spreadsheet, or you want to approve each reminder before it goes.

Mostly no. Notifications from a bank or a payment service are written by a machine and tend to follow a fixed layout, so plain rules can read them, and you can see why each payment was matched. A message a person wrote is different, such as a customer saying the money for the July job is on its way. There a language model can suggest a match, and a person confirms it.

It is set aside and never guessed at. A part payment, one transfer that covers two invoices, or a payment under a different name than the invoice all land in a short list, with what arrived and why nothing matched. You match it by hand in a couple of taps, and the program can remember that name for next time.

Only if you ask for that. As we’d build it, each reminder is drafted and waits for you on your phone, where you approve it, edit it or skip it. Later you can let the first reminder go on its own and keep approval for anything firmer.

Usually not. The program reads what you already keep, in the form it’s in, and tidies it on the way in with rules written for your data. If one column is free text that no rule can make sense of, we’ll suggest a small change, such as picking from a list, and you decide.

If one of them does the job, use it, and we’ll say so on the first call. Google’s Data Studio, the tool that was called Looker Studio, re-reads a Google Sheet as often as every 15 minutes, and Power BI Pro runs up to eight scheduled refreshes a day. A custom dashboard makes sense when your numbers sit somewhere those tools have no connection to, or need tidying before they can be joined.

As of the last read, which is normally the night before. The screen shows when each source was last read, and says so when one couldn’t be. If your till or booking system can report during the day, the reads can run more often.

Most can, as a file, an emailed report or an API, which is an official way for other programs to read a tool’s data. We check each of your tools before we quote. If one has no way out at all, we tell you then, and the dashboard can start with the others.

It depends on how many places the numbers come from and how untidy they are. After a free first call you get a written scope, timeline and price before any work starts. The code is yours, and it runs on accounts in your business’s name.