What a custom CRM covers
A CRM is the tool that keeps track of your customers and prospects: who they are, what you have offered them, where each deal stands and what needs to happen next. A custom CRM takes that base and adapts it to your trade: your sales stages, your fields, your documents, your rules.
In practice, it can include:
- A customer record with the history of conversations, quotes and invoices.
- Deal tracking by stage, with the follow-ups to do.
- Quotes created from your price list, without re-entering anything.
- A dashboard showing what is in progress and what is running late.
- Different access by role: owner, salesperson, assistant, technician.
- Connections with your website, email, calendar or accounting software.
What changes the cost
The cost of custom software is mostly a matter of design and development time. The more screens, rules and connections, the longer the work. Three questions help you see clearly.
How many screens and rules?
A customer record and a list of deals is a short scope. An approval workflow, price calculations based on several criteria or a job schedule add screens and rules to test.
How many connections?
Each tool to link (website form, email, invoicing software, payment platform) is a piece of work in itself. A well-built connection removes double data entry, but it has to be designed, tested and maintained.
What data needs to be brought over?
Importing your existing files looks simple. In practice, you often need to clean up duplicates, harmonise formats and decide what to keep. This work should be included in the quote.
Our price benchmarks
Our custom software and CRMs are quoted individually, from €2,500 excl. VAT. The price is set in writing before we start, based on a scope we agree together. Further development after launch is priced the same way, case by case.
If you first want to know where artificial intelligence and automation can save you time, our AI audit costs €790 excl. VAT. This amount is deducted if you then start a project worth more than €3,000 excl. VAT with us.
If your main need is to sort your emails, prepare quotes and follow up with customers, Aristide, our AI assistant, starts from €79 excl. VAT per month. It can complement a CRM or, in some cases, put off the need to build one.
Costs after launch
A CRM is not finished on the day it is delivered. It has to be hosted, backed up, updated and fixed if a bug appears. Your needs will change too: a new type of quote, an extra field, a new user.
- Hosting and backups: where is your data stored, and who can access it?
- Maintenance: security updates and fixes.
- Further development: priced on request or in a package, to be set out in the contract.
- Ownership: the code and the data must be handed over to you if you change provider.
Scoping the project to stay on budget
The best way to control the cost of a custom CRM is to start small. List what you do each week, spot the re-entry and the missed tasks that cost you the most, and build what removes them first. The rest can come once the team has adopted the tool.
- Write down your sales stages as they really happen, not as they should happen.
- Gather your standard documents: quotes, job sheets, follow-up emails.
- Choose one person in the team to test each version.
- Keep a list of ideas for later, rather than putting everything into the first version.
When an off-the-shelf CRM is enough
If the way you sell looks like that of many other businesses, a well-configured off-the-shelf CRM may do the job. Custom software makes sense when you are adapting your work to the tool rather than the other way round, or when you are paying for several pieces of software that do not talk to each other. We will tell you honestly during the free 30-minute first call.