How long does custom software take? Phase by phase.

Build weeks and calendar weeks

When I say a project is five weeks, I mean about 150 hours of building, at roughly 30 hours a week. That does not include the days you spend away from it: reviewing a preview, finding the supplier list, deciding what the quote template should say.

So treat the weeks on this page as the build, and expect the calendar to stretch around your own availability. Most of the stretch is in your hands, which is good news, because you can shorten it.

The phases, and the hours inside them

Every project I run follows the same five steps. The build hours below are the ranges the quote builder uses, so you can add them up yourself.

• Brief and fixed quote. The quote builder takes about five minutes and gives me a scoped brief. I reply with a fixed quote and a phase plan, with the must-haves first.
• Groundwork. 30–50 hours, once per system: logins, roles, admin, hosting and backups.
• Modules, in priority order. For example customer records 40–80 hours, quotes and invoicing 50–100, bookings 40–90, stock and orders 50–110, a client portal 55–130.
• Integrations. Gmail or Outlook 20–40 hours, WhatsApp 17–30, accounting software 20–40, Google Calendar 10–20, your current website 10–20.
• Moving your data. 10–25 hours from spreadsheets, 25–60 from another system. The data migration checklist covers how that goes.
• Launch, then care. A walkthrough with your team, then fixes and new features on a monthly support plan or pay as you go.

Three sizes, in weeks

The quote builder labels a project by its size, and the weeks follow from the hours. These are examples, not promises.

• A focused tool: customer records alone is about 70–130 hours, 3–5 weeks. Quotes and invoicing alone is about 80–150 hours, also 3–5 weeks.
• A business system: customer records, invoicing, stock, staff and reports on one database is about 225–470 hours, 8–16 weeks.
• A phone app on top: an iPhone and Android app on the same backend adds 130–270 hours. A CRM with an app comes to about 200–400 hours, 7–14 weeks.

Why phasing beats one big launch

A larger platform is not built in one go. A CRM, invoicing, a client portal and reports together is about 200–420 hours, 7–14 weeks. Ship the CRM and invoicing first and that first phase is about 120–230 hours, 4–8 weeks. You start using it, find what you actually wanted, and the later phases get better because of it.

Storex is the real example. It started as a client and invoice tracker synced with its Wix site and grew in phases into the platform the office and the crew run on every day.

What makes a project take longer

In my experience a project runs late for the same few reasons, and none of them is typing speed:

• Decisions that wait. A quote template, a price list or a workflow nobody has agreed yet stops the module that depends on it.
• Messy data. A spreadsheet with three versions of every client takes longer to clean than to import.
• Changes after the preview. Cheap while a screen is being built, expensive once other parts depend on it.
• Several people with different answers. One person who can say yes is worth more than a committee.
• Scope that grows quietly. Anything that is not in the brief becomes its own phase, with its own hours.

How to shorten it, and when custom is the wrong call

Write the brief before we talk, put the must-haves and the can-waits in two lists, and hand over a sample of your real data early. That alone removes most of the avoidable delay.

If you need something working next week, custom software is the wrong route. An off-the-shelf tool can be live the same day, and the custom versus off-the-shelf comparison shows when that is the better trade. For the hour ranges behind these weeks, see the custom CRM cost guide.