ClientMrs Claire Laurent · 12 rue des Tanneurs, 69002 Lyon
Item
Qty
Unit price
Total
Fitting and removal of the old unit
Quote checks
Prices from the 2026 grid
Volume discount −5% from 6 units
Minimum margin 28%
Subtotal
Total excl. VAT
!
Demo: fictional company, prices and rules.
€15,000 → €50,000 published
First phase in 6 to 8 weeks
A demo every Friday
Free, capped quote
Code assigned in writing
Custom business software
Custom business software is your know-how written as rules, applied without exception.
Custom business software is software designed to apply the rules of one specific trade: it prices a quote from your rate grids, checks a file against your criteria, routes a decision to the right person for approval and produces the documents that follow. OTTOPILOTE builds this software for SMBs, from writing down the rules to going live.
What it is not.
It differs from off-the-shelf software, built for the rules every company shares, and from an Excel workbook, where the rule lives in formulas only one person still knows how to maintain. Here, every rule is written down, tested and applied the same way, whoever the user is.
When it makes sense.
It makes sense when your way of pricing, checking or approving is part of your value, and off-the-shelf software forces you to work around it. If a packaged product covers the essentials, the right move is often to keep it and build only the missing module, connected to it.
Why in batches.
According to the Standish Group, small software projects succeed about 90% of the time, against under 10% for large ones. That is why we split business software into batches: the core rules first, in production, then the rest based on real usage.
~90%
of small software projects succeed, against under 10% of large ones.
Standish Group, CHAOS Report 2020
The boundary
Business software or web application,where the line falls.
Both are coded the same way and often open in a browser. What separates them is what the tool does with your data: organise and share it, or apply a rule.
Web application
The tool that organises and shares information.
Client portal
Dashboard
Back office, internal CRM
What matters: everyone finds the right information, in the right place, up to date.
Give my clients access to their filesInformation to share, in the right place.
Track my metrics without Excel exportsGathering and displaying existing data.
Centralise contacts and conversation historyOrganising and finding information.
What matters: the rule is right every time, without depending on the person who knows it.
Price a quote with my coefficients and discountsA calculation rule specific to your trade.
Hold an order until the manager approves itAn approval workflow, with its condition.
Produce an audit report from the data enteredChecks and calculations that must be reproducible.
or
Sort a needClick a need: it moves to the column that answers it.
What we build
Five kinds of business software we are asked for most.
Each one replaces a rule that lives today in a workbook, an email or one person’s memory.
Pricing
The pricing and quoting software
Your price grids, coefficients, discounts and minimum margins applied to every quote. A salesperson can no longer sell below the threshold without a manager’s approval, and the quote goes out without re-entry.
Replaces: the pricing workbook
Quote Q-2026-118 · rules
Prices from the 2026 gridApplied
Volume discount from 6 units−5%
Sales discount requested12%
Margin after discounts26% · threshold 28%
Below the threshold, the manager approvesRequest
Audit and control
The audit or control tool
Checkpoints, financial or regulatory calculations and a report produced from the data entered. The result is reproducible: two people auditing the same file get the same figure.
Example: Odiwise, real estate financial audit
Audit · file 2026-07
Rental yieldCompliant
Debt ratioTo review
Financing planCompliant
Tax structureCompliant
PDFAudit reportSame file, same figure
Planning
The production or field-service planner
Assign a task based on skills, availability and the constraints of your business, then follow it in the field from a phone. The plan recalculates when a constraint changes.
Replaces: the whiteboard and phone calls
Schedule · week 42Recalculated
MonTueWedThuFriLLéaMMarcSSami
Marc is off on Thursday: his two jobs move to Sami
Approval
The approval workflow
A request follows the right path based on its amount, type or client, and each step records who approved what, and when. No more purchase order lost in an inbox.
Replaces: email back-and-forth
Purchase order PO-0412Pending
EntryManagerDirectorOrder
Amount€4,800 excl. VAT
Approved by the managerMon 9:12 am
Above €3,000, the director approvesRule
Documents
Business document generation
Deeds, reports, certificates or technical sheets generated from the data, in your trade’s format. On Quorum, legal software built by OTTOPILOTE, drafting a deed drops from hours to minutes.
We write down what the software must decide with the people who decide it today. Nothing gets coded on an assumption.
A capped quote, a kept deadline.
The price is set before we start. If we run late, we absorb the extra days.
The code is assigned to you in writing.
Source code, access and documentation handed over at delivery, once the project is paid. No dependency on us or on a vendor.
Off-the-shelf when it is enough.
If off-the-shelf software covers your need, we tell you in the first conversation, and only build what is missing.
AI where it actually helps.
Document extraction, deed or report generation: integrated when they replace a repetitive task.
A human reply within 24 hours.
A brief, an honest read, a quote. No slide deck.
Business software · Financial audit of real estate projects
Odiwise, financial auditing out of the spreadsheets.
The problem
At the start: heavy financial analyses, scattered across spreadsheets, slow to produce and easy to break as soon as a figure changes.
What we built
Real software: structured data entry, automated audit calculations, clear deliverables, in place of fragile Excel sheets.
The result
Development is not finished, but the client already uses it: part of the analyses that took her hours is now generated reliably and reproducibly, with the data in one place. She has even pre-sold the software to a first buyer.
Already used by the clientPre-sold to a first buyer
Frequently asked questions
What we get asked before signing.
Another question? Write to us: a human reply within one business day.
What is custom business software?
Software designed to apply the rules of one specific trade: calculations, checks, approval workflows, document generation. It differs from off-the-shelf software, built for the rules every company shares, and from an Excel workbook, where the rule depends on formulas and on the person who maintains them.
Business software or web application: what is the difference?
A web application organises and shares information: client portal, dashboard, back office. Business software applies know-how: it calculates, checks and routes approvals according to your rules. It often takes the form of a web application, but what matters is that the rule is right every time. One project often mixes both.
Custom business software, ERP or off-the-shelf product?
An ERP or off-the-shelf product is enough when your rules are those of your whole industry. Custom software makes sense when your way of pricing, checking or approving is your value and the product forces you to work around it. In between, we often keep the product and build the missing module, connected to it.
How much does custom business software cost?
Count €5,000 to €15,000 for a simple internal tool, €15,000 to €50,000 for SMB business software and €50,000 and up for an ERP or complex platform. Maintenance comes next: 30 days of fixes included, then an optional monthly upkeep plan, quoted. These ranges are detailed in our guide to custom software development; the quote is free and capped.
How long does it take to build business software?
A custom management tool ships in six to eight weeks. Larger business software is split into batches: the core rules in production first, at that pace, then the next batches based on real usage. Integrations and data migration are what move the timeline most.
Who owns the software’s code?
Under French law, rights to software created by a contractor do not pass to the client automatically: the assignment must be written into the contract (article L131-2 of the French Intellectual Property Code; article L113-9 only covers employees). At OTTOPILOTE it is, and the source code is handed over on delivery, once the project is paid.
Can we keep our ERP or accounting software?
Yes, and it is often the best choice. The business software connects to your existing tools through their APIs: it reads the data it needs and sends back what it produces, without double entry. You keep the standard product for day-to-day administration and custom software for what sets you apart.
How do you migrate our Excel files?
We choose which history to migrate, clean the data, then run your past files through the software to compare its results with the spreadsheet’s. Gaps often reveal an implicit rule, which we write down before going live. Our guide on migrating from Excel to business software details the seven steps.
Is custom business software only for large companies?
No. Small projects are actually the ones that succeed best: about 90% of them succeed, against under 10% of large ones, according to the Standish Group (CHAOS Report 2020). An SMB starts with the batch that costs it the most time, and grows the software from there.
Going further
Prepare your software, before the first line of code.
Three guides: calculate what the software will pay back, migrate your Excel files without losing anything, and check that it applies your rules before going live.
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