ERP & CRM systems
ERP and CRM systems that fit the business, not the other way round
An ERP ties operations, customers, billing and reporting into one set of records. A CRM keeps every customer, conversation and follow-up in one place. I build both, together or apart, for businesses that have outgrown spreadsheets, or found that the big packages assume a way of working they don't have.
Signs you have outgrown what you use now
- Month-end means copying figures between sheets and hoping they agree
- Nobody can say when a customer was last contacted, or what they were promised
- Invoices are put together by hand from records kept somewhere else
- You run more than one company or branch, and each keeps its own books
What goes into it
- Customers and contacts, with their history and what they owe
- Jobs, orders or trips, from booking to delivery
- Invoices, payments and statements produced from the same records
- Accounts, payroll and reporting
- Fleet, stock or assets, with alerts before an important date is missed
- Several companies, branches and languages under one system
How it is built
- One set of records, so a customer, a job and its invoice never disagree
- Access set by role, so each person sees what their job needs
- Automatic backups, and a restore that has actually been tested
- Modules added as the business grows, without starting again
- Code, data and accounts in your name
Work that shows it
When a ready-made ERP is the better choice
Packages like Odoo, Zoho or QuickBooks are the right answer when your process is close to standard. They are cheaper to start and come with support. Custom makes sense when the package forces workarounds every day, when licence costs grow with every user you add, or when your industry works in a way those packages do not model. I'll tell you which fits on the first call.
Run your own numbers with the free build vs buy calculator →
Questions
- Can the ERP and the CRM be one system?
- Yes, and that is usually the point. The customer in the CRM is the same record that appears on the job and on the invoice, so nothing is typed twice.
- Can you bring over our existing spreadsheets?
- Yes. Moving existing records across is scoped in writing like everything else, so you start with your history rather than an empty system.
- Desktop or web?
- Either. The transport ERP runs on a local machine and works offline. A web system suits teams that work from several places or on their phones. The choice comes from how your team works.
- How long does it take?
- It is delivered in phases. The first working release lands in weeks, and each phase after it is scoped and agreed in writing before it starts.
- Who owns it?
- You do. The code, the data and the accounts are in your name on launch day.
Related services
Not sure it is worth building? Tell me what is not working and I will tell you straight.