A prototype 7 days after the audit call. Pay only if you like it.

Monday, you open the sheet.

For some owners it is the crew schedule and the job log. For others it is the order tracker for the metal parts or machines they make.

Yours lives in Excel or in Google Sheets. The whole team works in it, and the whole team edits it.

The planner wants the open orders due this week. You want to see where every order stands. So you both dig through the same rows.

Then the questions start. "Where's that order at?"

You scroll to the row. It says one thing, and the person who typed it says another. You pick up the phone.

Tuesday, if you run crews, the foremen call the office to find out where they go tomorrow. There are three versions of the crew sheet, and nobody knows which one is right.

And a date has moved. "Who changed this?" Nobody is sure, so you ask around until someone remembers.

Wednesday, a change order gets approved on site. It never reaches the log.

Back in the office, someone says it: "We type the same thing in twice." Each order goes into the sheet, then into accounting or an email.

Thursday, someone sorts one column and breaks the whole sheet.

"Everyone sees everything." The person who needs a few columns scrolls past all the rest. Columns meant for you alone sit open to the whole team.

Friday, you want one thing before the weekend. "I can't see where everything stands without asking around."

You ask around again. You call, you message, you walk the floor.

Every answer runs through you. When you are out, the questions pile up.

The sheet still sort of works, so fixing it never becomes the week's priority

Orders still go out. Crews still turn up.

There is always a customer to call back or a job to finish. The fix needs your signature, and your week is already full.

You have looked at other systems. You may have said it yourself: "We've outgrown the spreadsheet, but every system we look at wants us to change how we work, or charges for every user."

Three worries sit under all of it. Your data would have to leave the sheet. You could get locked in to one vendor.

And if the tool breaks or loses data, who fixes it?

The day-to-day admin holds the business back

Add up the week. The chasing, the retyping and the asking around take up hours of it.

This keeps owners up at night. All that bureaucracy keeps the business from growing.

Every extra order means one more row to chase, one more call and one more thing to type twice.

You can see the work you could take on. You can also see what it would do to the sheet. So the sheet sets the pace of the whole company.

Skip to what you get

We call our method The Column-First Build. It starts from your column headers: the top row of your sheet.

Those headers already describe how your team works. So we build the app from them, and your team keeps its columns and its way of working.

This is how we turn Excel into an app, or a Google Sheet into one. Four steps take you from your headers to a prototype on day 7. The finished app follows about three weeks after you go ahead.

1. 1Your column headers
2. 2The audit call
3. 3Days 1 to 6
4. 4Day 7

1. You send your column headers with the form

You paste the top row of your sheet into the form on this page. The headers are enough for this step.

We read them before the call, so the call starts from your own columns. Later, the prototype runs on sample rows we make from your headers, so nobody on your team types test data. Your real sheet moves in with the finished app.

2. On the audit call we talk through what you need

The audit call takes 30 minutes. We see how your sheet runs today and what you need from it.

Then we write down together the 3 to 5 things the prototype must do. Each line names a screen, a role and an action. The list is capped at 5 screens and 2 roles.

That short written list is the prototype's scope. We also agree what the finished app must do, if you go ahead with it. Before the call ends, we book the day-7 walkthrough.

3. Days 1 to 6: each role gets its screen, and every change gets a link

The 7 days start once the list is agreed and your column headers have arrived. Then we build a screen for each role on your list.

For example, the planner's screen shows this week's work, and the owner's shows the whole picture.

Every change comes with a private progress link. The earliest arrives within 48 hours of the audit call. You watch the prototype take shape in your browser, and you comment when it suits you.

4. Day 7: you click through your prototype and decide

On day 7 we meet for a 30-minute walkthrough. You click through the prototype yourself, screen by screen. Then you tell us whether you like it.

You judge a prototype of your app, made from your own sheet. It does the 3 to 5 things on your list, on sample rows made from your headers.

The build plan for the finished app is on the table too: what we agreed for it on the audit call, in writing. Its price is in "What it costs" below, so you know the cost of the next step before you choose it.

Now take the same week with the finished app in place.

Monday, you open one screen. Every order or job is on it, with where it stands. Nobody has to ask around.

Each person logs in to their own screen and sees their own part of it. The planner sees this week's work and gets on with it. The owner sees the whole picture.

Your real sheet moves in, with the formulas we agreed on the audit call. Each thing gets typed once, and the app keeps it. Then the app sends it on to your accounting and email.

The sheet becomes your order tracker app or your crew scheduling app, with the columns your team already knows.

And the day-to-day admin stops holding the business back. When more work comes in, you can decide to take it on.

• Day 0: the audit call: we talk through what you need, agree the list and book the walkthrough.
• Within 48 hours: your earliest progress link.
• Days 3 to 5: the rest of the list, each change on its own link.
• Day 7: you go through the prototype, say whether you like it, and get the build plan.
• About three weeks after you go ahead: the finished app. If you like it, we invoice the rest of its price.
• 30 days after the walkthrough: the prototype comes down, and its fee stops counting toward the finished app.

One thing the prototype leaves out: your formulas and macros. They come into the finished app, for its one price, when we agree them on the audit call.

Weigh each price against the sheet's yearly cost from your sum above.

We take on 3 prototypes a month, so each one gets our full attention. Today's prices are where we start, and they will rise as we grow the team.

At delivery, choose Care or Care Plus, billed monthly, or take the code once the app is paid and host it yourself.

Both plans host your app on our AWS platform. Several copies run at once, so one failed server does not take it offline. Changes are tested on a separate copy before they go live.

We back up your app automatically and test that the backups restore. We watch it day and night, apply security updates and keep its software up to date. Bug fixes never count against your hours.

Send changes by voice note or email. Work past your hours is billed per hour.

• The Build Plan. At the walkthrough: the written plan of your finished app, from what we agreed on the audit call. The connection you named on the call heads the plan.
• The What-Connects-Next Screen. That one connection, grayed out inside your own prototype, so the next step is there before you decide.
• The Sector Starter List. A draft of the 3 to 5 lines for your kind of business, brought to the call, so you edit lines that already fit.
• 30 Days of Free Hosting. The prototype stays up for 30 days after the walkthrough while you decide.

The 7-Day Sheet-to-App Prototype turns your team's shared spreadsheet into a prototype of your app, with a screen for each role.

It starts with a 30-minute audit call, where we talk through what you need. On day 7, you go through the prototype in a 30-minute walkthrough.

If you like it, you pay $2,000. If you do not, you pay nothing.

Start the build within 30 days of the walkthrough, and that $2,000 counts toward the finished app's $7,000. At delivery you go through the finished app. If you like it, you pay the other $5,000; if you do not, you pay nothing more.

To start, paste your column headers below and pick a time.