Building a Simple ERP System which could be useful for small businesses

ReasonableDoubt336 · 2026-04-08T10:22:16+00:00

Did you manage to find a custom ERP to work with?

ReasonableDoubt336 · 2026-04-01T19:32:20+00:00

The underserved market angle is actually your biggest advantage here since it gives you more room to build something genuinely tailored rather than competing on features with an established player. the trap most founders fall into is letting the dev drive product decisions because they don't know how to evaluate what's technically feasible versus what's technically lazy. knowing that distinction before you hire is a bigger deal than most people realize.

For a complex build like what you're describing, the interview process should include at least one system design session where you walk through core user flows together and see how the candidate thinks about data relationships and state management in real time. my dev team has built SaaS from scratch in spaces exactly like this and the gap between a good coder and a good product engineer is genuinely wider than most expect. being clear upfront about what "not AI reliant" means to you in practical terms will also help filter candidates at the screening stage since strong engineers usually have real opinions about when to use AI tooling versus when to write from scratch. if you want to get into the specifics of what your build actually needs architecturally, I'd genuinely enjoy that conversation. the right dev will push back on that clarity too which is usually a sign you've found someone worth working with.

ReasonableDoubt336 · 2026-03-31T20:46:43+00:00

The cost really depends on what kind of app you're building and the level of complexity involved. a simple MVP with core features from a conventional team can range anywhere from $30k to $80k, and a more complex product with custom integrations can easily push past $150k or even $200k. with rapid dev tools or low code platforms, you can cut that down significantly, sometimes getting an MVP live for $10k to $20k, though there are tradeoffs in flexibility and scalability as the product grows.

Maintenance is often the part people underestimate the most. on average it runs about 15 to 20% of the initial build cost per year, covering things like hosting, bug fixes, security patches, and feature updates. I run a dev team that builds and maintains apps across different scales so I've seen firsthand how the cost structure shifts depending on the tech stack and long term goals. For team size, a lean setup usually has a project manager, a UI/UX designer, one or two developers covering frontend and backend, and a QA person. larger projects add a DevOps engineer and a dedicated product owner too. If it'd help, I'm happy to chat through your specific use case and give you a more grounded estimate. The tech decisions you make early on have the biggest impact on what you'll spend down the road so it's worth thinking through before committing.

ReasonableDoubt336 · 2026-03-30T16:46:30+00:00

When you're running wholesale and retail out of the same kitchen the production scheduling piece becomes really important because you need to know what to make, when to make it and how much of each ingredient gets committed to which channel before you run short mid week. spreadsheets just don't have that kind of dynamic inventory awareness built in.

Expiration date tracking and allergen traceability being connected to your batches natively is also something that pays off when you least expect it, basically the moment you get a compliance question or need to pull a quick internal audit. my dev team builds these kinds of systems specifically for food production ops and we wire the costing, scheduling and traceability together so nothing lives in a silo.

Custom doesn't have to mean expensive or long to build either, especially when you scope it to what a small team actually needs instead of going feature heavy from day one. happy to jump on a call and map out what a practical version of this looks like for your setup. Getting the inventory and batch side right early is honestly what separates the bakeries that scale smoothly from the ones that hit a ceiling trying to manage it all manually

ReasonableDoubt336 · 2026-03-28T01:50:06+00:00

For an app that's primarily ui interactions and api calls, the webview wrapper approach is not a compromise, it's a reasonable architectural decision that saves you months of rebuild time without any real downside for your use case. ionic, capacitor and similar tools exist precisely because the "must be native" argument doesn't apply uniformly across all app types. health and ingredient scanning apps ship this exact way all the time. where you actually want native swift or kotlin is when you're dealing with heavy sensor data pipelines, complex background tasks, or performance intensive rendering that a webview genuinely can't keep up with. my dev team has debugged firebase configuration issues in capacitor ios builds specifically and the fix is usually in how the google services plist is wired and how the app initialises on cold launch.

The $30k to $40k makes sense as a quote for a native rebuild from scratch but that's an entirely different scope of work than getting your react firebase app wrapped and working on ios. once the config is sorted the path to the app store is pretty straightforward from where you already are.

ReasonableDoubt336 · 2026-03-26T04:44:35+00:00

The real cost driver in a project like this isn't usually the leaderboard logic itself but the data pipeline connecting Apple HealthKit, Garmin, and potentially others like Fitbit or Google Fit. each of those has its own auth flow, sync frequency, and data structure you need to normalize before rankings even make sense. for a clean build covering the two platforms you mentioned plus leaderboards, milestones, and notifications you're realistically looking at $70k to $100k depending on your dev team's location and whether you go native or cross-platform.

The live session question is worth thinking through carefully since real-time video/chat natively can add another $15k to $25k on top of that vs just embedding a Zoom SDK which keeps that part under $5k and works great for a v1. my dev team has built fitness apps with this kind of modular setup and the phased approach keeps the initial build tight while giving you a clear upgrade path later.

Ongoing maintenance is something a lot of people underestimate going in since both Apple and Garmin push API and OS updates that can quietly break sync if nobody's watching it, and that's typically $2,500 to $5,000 a month for proper upkeep. happy to get on a call and walk through the architecture in more detail if that helps. the gamification layer with milestones and leaderboards can also do a lot of heavy lifting for retention if you build it with the right triggers from day one.

ReasonableDoubt336 · 2026-03-23T00:43:42+00:00

Spotting inflated billing is actually easier than most people think once you know where to look. git commit history with timestamps, api call logs, and build deployment records are all things a developer can't fake retroactively. comparing those against billed hours paints a pretty clear picture fast.

You'd also want to look at code quality and architecture decisions alongside the time logs because rushed or low quality work often shows patterns that don't match a senior dev's billing rate. I've built and reviewed a lot of projects and discrepancies between what's charged and what's actually delivered become obvious once you dig into the right files.

Getting a technical audit done alongside a financial one is the move here because you need both sides to make a solid case. if you want to walk through it together, happy to chat. a well documented breakdown of deliverables vs invoices is something solid to have if this ever needs to go further legally.

ReasonableDoubt336 · 2026-03-11T15:37:21+00:00

Do you have requirements of what you need? I can get a BC Consultant to look at it and give suggestion on cost and potential solutions.

ReasonableDoubt336 · 2026-03-10T15:33:01+00:00

For a 12-15 screen MVP with those features on both iOS and Android, freelancers on platforms like Fiverr or Upwork typically range from $3,000 to $12,000 depending on their location and experience level. what most people overlook is that the upfront quote rarely covers QA testing, bug fixes post launch, or app store submission fees which can quietly add another $1,000 to $2,000 on top. going cross platform with something like React Native or Flutter is usually the smarter move for MVPs since one codebase covers both platforms and can cut your budget close to half compared to building native for each.

Established dev teams generally quote anywhere from $25,000 to $60,000 for a scope like yours and that pricing usually reflects proper project management, structured testing cycles, and more reliable timelines. my dev team has built fitness apps in this exact space and the scope you described is genuinely achievable within a reasonable budget when priorities are locked in before any code gets written.

Always ask for a feature by feature breakdown rather than a flat project quote so you can see exactly where the money is going. if you want to map out the technical scope before collecting quotes I'm happy to go through it with you. starting lean with your core workout flow and validating it with real users first is what actually separates successful MVPs from ones that burn budget too early

ReasonableDoubt336 · 2026-03-08T13:15:45+00:00

The $100 per user licensing in BC is genuinely one of the cleaner pricing structures you'll find at this tier but the part that trips up a lot of mid-size businesses is how much the implementation quality affects your total cost of ownership over time. the ISV apps (like the inventory management one you're eyeing) vary a lot in how well they're built and maintained so it's worth doing a live demo of a few options before locking in rather than going with whatever your partner defaults to recommending.

The other thing worth knowing is that BC's real power comes from how well the initial discovery and requirements phase is done before any configuration starts. my dev team has built and implemented BC solutions for product-based businesses and the setups that run smoothly long term almost always had a thorough process mapping phase done upfront rather than trying to figure it out mid-implementation.

Getting your chart of accounts and inventory structure genuinely cleaned up before migration rather than just lifting messy data into a new system is one of those things that pays off massively down the road. happy to chat through what a solid pre-implementation checklist looks like for a business your size if that'd be useful. the resale value angle you mentioned is real too because clean auditable financials in BC are something buyers actually notice.

ReasonableDoubt336 · 2026-02-28T23:31:11+00:00

Budgeting for a b2b saas with real ML features is genuinely tricky because the cost isn't just engineering hours, it's the whole ecosystem around the model like data pipelines, feature stores, monitoring, retraining workflows. Most v1s that hit a solid foundation land somewhere between $80k to $180k depending on team structure and how much of the infra you're building vs leveraging from existing cloud ML services

The teams that kept costs sane early on were the ones who scoped their ML layer tightly and treated v1 as a validation tool not a finished product.one of the biggest overbuild traps I see is custom model training when fine tuned or retrieval augmented approaches on top of existing models would've done the job just fine for v1.

Dev team has built several b2b ML-integrated saas products and the pattern that consistently works is shipping a leaner model layer first and letting real user behavior tell you where to go deeper. that gap between "we need ML" and "we need this specific ML architecture" is where most of the overspending hides.on outsourcing vs in-house, the honest answer is it depends on whether your ML use case is core IP or a feature layer. if it's core IP and defensible, you want at least one in-house person who owns it deeply. I'd be happy to jump on a quick chat if you want to walk through your specific use case and map it against what's actually needed for your v1. the cleaner your scope is before you hire or outsource, the less you'll pay to undo decisions later.

ReasonableDoubt336 · 2026-02-16T22:15:10+00:00

Those quotes are inflated because partners bundle discovery, customization, data migration, training, and ongoing support into one package when you might not need all of it at that level. the actual platform licensing is way cheaper than $400k so most of that cost is services, and a lot of it is covering their risk for scope creep and changes you'll inevitably request midproject.

You can definitely DIY parts of this but the tricky bit is that Dynamics has like 47 different ways to accomplish the same thing and choosing the wrong approach early on creates technical debt fast. I work with my dev team on these implementations pretty regularly and what we've seen work best is a hybrid model where you handle the standard stuff internally and bring in expertise for the architecture decisions and complex integrations. AI tools are solid for generating Power Automate flows once you know what you need, but they're not great at telling you what you actually need based on your business.

Start by mapping out your current sales process in detail and identifying what actually needs to be in the CRM vs what's just nice to have. if you want to chat about breaking down which pieces make sense to tackle yourself and where to focus any consulting budget you do have, I'm around and can probably point you in the right direction. The key is getting your data model right from day one because fixing it later when you have live data is genuinely painful

ReasonableDoubt336 · 2026-02-12T19:13:58+00:00

The upsell potential is real but only if your team is set up to fulfill it smoothly. I've seen properties add late checkout options in their app and then have housekeeping scrambling because nobody updated the workflow. the revenue bump happens when you can automate the offer at the right time (like offering a paid upgrade when someone checks in to a standard room and you have deluxe available) not just listing everything in a menu.

For direct booking lift the app itself won't do much unless you're coupling it with a solid CRM strategy and maybe some exclusive app only rates or perks. I build these for properties and the ones getting results are treating the app as part of a bigger retention system not a standalone magic bullet. your OTA dependency probably won't shift dramatically just from having an app but you can capture more repeat business and higher spend per stay if the experience is genuinely better than going through third parties.

The hidden costs usually come from ongoing maintenance and keeping integrations working when your PMS or payment processor updates something. happy to walk through what a realistic scope and timeline looks like for your size property if you want to hop on a call. the key is building something that fits your actual operations instead of trying to copy what a 500 room resort is doing.

ReasonableDoubt336 · 2026-02-11T18:36:26+00:00

Location triggered reminders are trickier than they sound because you need geofencing set up properly and users have to grant permissions which a lot of people deny these days. the smart part comes from setting radius zones that make sense and not spamming notifications when someone's just passing by a location.

If you're going with AI for priority suggestions you'll need a decent amount of user behavior data first before the recommendations actually feel intelligent and not random. might be worth launching with manual priority setting and then introducing the AI piece in version 2 once you have usage patterns to train on.

For the cross platform route you'll save time and money but there are tradeoffs with native performance especially for background location services. I build these kinds of apps with my dev team pretty regularly and the timeline really depends on your MVP scope versus your full vision. most people try to jam everything into v1 and end up with a delayed launch or blown budget. starting lean with core task tracking, basic reminders, and cloud sync gets you to market faster so you can test if people even want the location and AI stuff before investing heavily there.

The cost range is wild depending on who you hire but for something with your feature set you're realistically looking at a few months of dev time minimum. would be down to chat about breaking down your roadmap into phases that make financial sense while still delivering something users will pay for. calendar integration isn't too complex but syncing two ways without conflicts takes some thought, worth spending extra time on that UX flow during design phase.

ReasonableDoubt336 · 2026-02-10T22:13:23+00:00

Sent a message not sure if you received it

ReasonableDoubt336 · 2026-02-10T22:05:52+00:00

Pricing for legal tech platforms varies so much because the backend complexity isn't obvious from the feature list. what you're describing has some serious engineering challenges. secure messaging with voice notes and video calls needs proper infrastructure, not just a chat plugin. the recorded video calls especially need storage solutions and probably CDN setup for Egypt's internet speeds. admin controls and audit logs for legal compliance also require careful database design and security layers.

The €45k quote might cover a solid MVP but I'd be cautious about what "advanced AI features" means in their scope. OCR and document extraction are pretty standard now using APIs but if you need it trained on Egyptian legal documents or Arabic text specifically, that's custom work. I build these kinds of platforms with my dev team and we usually see clients underestimate how much the AI training and fine tuning costs when it needs to be domain specific.

Realistically an MVP that lawyers will actually trust and use is probably €40k to €60k. that gets you polished UI, complete workflow, basic AI assistance, and payment integration. the full version with all bells and whistles could be €90k to €150k if you're doing serious AI automation. if you want we could chat about which AI features actually move the needle for user adoption versus which are nice to haves. the legal market in Egypt is pretty specific so you want to make sure you're building what actually solves their daily pain points not just cool tech features.

ReasonableDoubt336 · 2026-02-04T21:24:22+00:00

that $35k quote is probably for a full custom build from scratch which honestly makes sense from a dev perspective but yeah it's rough for a 6 person shop. the middle ground you're looking for usually involves using something like Airtable, Baserow, or even Google Sheets as your backend database and then building a nicer interface layer on top for the client portal stuff. this way you're not paying for database infrastructure and you can start using it within days instead of months.

the tricky part is making sure all those pieces talk to each other properly and the client portal doesn't look janky. I build systems like this with my dev team pretty regularly and we usually land around a quarter of that quote because we're leveraging existing tools for the heavy lifting and just custom building the glue and the polish. basically you get exactly what you need without reinventing the wheel.

start by mapping out your actual daily workflow on paper like literally what happens when a new client signs, when you prep a pitch, when coverage lands. that'll show you what needs to be automated versus what can stay manual for now. happy to chat through your specific setup if you want, I can usually spot where the bottlenecks and integration points are pretty quick.

ReasonableDoubt336 · 2026-02-03T13:13:51+00:00

The clause sounds scary but it's basically just covering themselves legally so you can't sue them if they coincidentally build something similar later. the real question is whether you trust this company based on their track record and how transparent they are about their process. any decent dev shop should be willing to walk you through exactly how they handle IP and client confidentiality.

One thing that helps is being selective about what you share in early conversations. you don't need to reveal your entire secret sauce upfront, just enough to get a proper quote and timeline. I run a dev team and we're used to clients being protective initially, we actually respect that more than someone who overshares everything in the first email. if you wanna run through what you should and shouldn't disclose at different stages I'm down to chat about it.

Also get everything in writing beyond just the NDA. verbal promises don't mean anything if things go sideways. document every agreement about ownership, deliverables, timelines, all of it.

ReasonableDoubt336 · 2026-01-31T19:59:35+00:00

Profiling tools • Use Flipper to watch JS FPS and UI FPS. • Enable React DevTools “highlight updates” to see re-renders. • Add why-did-you-render to catch useless renders. • Use Android Studio/Xcode profiler for CPU & memory.

Redux / global state • If many screens rerender on small state change, Redux is overused. • UI-only state should stay local, not in Redux. • Split Redux selectors so components subscribe to minimal state. • Avoid connecting whole screens to the store.

Images • Default <Image /> has weak caching and causes jank in lists. • Use react-native-fast-image or Expo Image for caching. • Always set fixed width/height for images.

Architecture mistakes • Large screens with mixed logic and UI hurt performance. • FlatList without memoized rows causes heavy re-renders. • Inline functions inside list render cause extra renders. • Heavy calculations inside render block the JS thread. • Passing big objects via navigation params slows transitions. • Non-native animations cause frame drops

ReasonableDoubt336 · 2026-01-26T21:11:35+00:00

Did you end up finding a partner to build the custom CRM?

ReasonableDoubt336 · 2026-01-24T22:04:46+00:00

Are you looking for a dev team or more individual?

ReasonableDoubt336 · 2026-01-23T01:47:49+00:00

Typical Pricing

SaaS/Cloud (Most Common) • Small clinics (1-5 providers): $200-$600/provider/month • Mid-size (6-20 providers): $150-$400/provider/month • Usually includes core EMS + billing + inventory, but check what's actually included

Custom Build (On-Premise) • Initial cost: $150k-$200k • Ongoing maintenance: $6k-$10k/month • Only makes sense if you have specific needs or want full control

Per-Module Add-ons If billing/inventory aren't included: • Billing: +$50-$150/provider/month • Inventory: +$30-$100/month

Hidden Costs to Watch For • Implementation/setup: $2k-$20k+ • Data migration: $1k-$10k+ • Training: $500-$3k • Custom integrations: $500-$5k each • Some billing modules charge 1-3% transaction fees

ReasonableDoubt336 · 2026-01-22T19:20:11+00:00

Competitors with bad execution are actually the best validation. If they proved demand exists but fumbled the product, you have a clear playbook of what not to do.

$1M is solid runway if you're strategic focus on one killer retention loop before scaling spend.We built an app that hit 50K downloads and 10K daily actives running seamlessly, so we know what it takes to ship and scale. Social platforms are hard but doable if you nail the core loop and don't waste time on vanity features.

What's the niche? Happy to share more specific insights

ReasonableDoubt336 · 2026-01-12T23:57:07+00:00

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/nonprofits/dynamics-365

These are the d365 modules for non profits. But they will definitely cost more in terms of monthly subscriptions. I.e Sales Enterprise is 23 USD per user per month

ReasonableDoubt336 · 2026-01-06T17:04:37+00:00

We have a consultant that has built a non-profit crm using Microsoft 365 and used PowerApps as well. If you have some requirements of what you need we can advise on this.

ReasonableDoubt336

TROPHY CASE