Custom software · Tauranga & NZ-wide
We build small custom apps, business tools and automation for New Zealand businesses. If a job is repetitive, there is usually a better way to do it.
Free first chat about the problem. No specification or technical words needed.
The weekly report, today 3 hours, every Friday
Copied across by hand, checked twice, emailed late.
The weekly report, after Done before you arrive
Nobody re-types anything.
Sound familiar?
These are the sorts of sentences that start a good conversation. You don’t need to work out what technology fixes it — that part is our job.
Any of those? Tell us about it.
What we build
You don’t need a big platform or a transformation programme. Most of the time you need one useful thing that does exactly what your business does.
Focused applications for your staff or your customers. Normally mobile-friendly web apps, so they work on a phone, tablet or laptop without separate app store builds.
If a person repeats the same steps every week, a computer can usually do the boring part. We automate the process and leave the decisions with your team.
For the jobs where off-the-shelf software nearly fits but not quite. We build the small tool that matches how your business actually works.
Example problems
Common situations in small businesses, and the kind of solution that usually suits. Your version will be slightly different — that is normal.
01 — Reporting
“Every Friday someone spends three hours combining four spreadsheets.”
The numbers are always in the same places and the steps are always the same, but the job still eats an afternoon.
02 — Spreadsheets
“It started simple. Now it has thousands of rows and nobody dares touch the formulas.”
Two people cannot use it at once, there is no history of changes, and one wrong paste can break a real business process.
03 — Double handling
“Staff enter it in one system, then type the same thing into another.”
It is slow, it is dull, and the two systems drift apart every time somebody is interrupted.
04 — Documents
“Supplier documents arrive as PDFs and someone copies the details out by hand.”
Invoices, dockets, test results, timesheets. The information you need is in there, just not in a form your systems can use.
05 — New ideas
“We have an idea that would make life much easier, but we don’t know where to start.”
A simple tool for your staff or your customers. Not a start-up, not a platform — just a useful app that does one job well.
06 — Chasing
“We spend half our week chasing documents, sign-offs and expiry dates.”
Certificates expire, forms come back half finished, and somebody has to remember all of it.
These are examples of common problems, not descriptions of particular customers.
How it works
Three steps, plain English, no long discovery programme before anything useful happens.
Tell us what is annoying, repetitive or taking too long. A screen share, a photo of the paper form, or a copy of the spreadsheet is plenty. No technical specification required.
We look at the process and propose a practical solution, with a scope and a price before any building starts. If it is not worth automating, we will say so.
We start small, test it with the people who actually do the job, and adjust it where it needs adjusting. You see progress as we go, not at the end.
The important bit
Plenty of software companies are not interested in small jobs. We are. A tool that saves one person a day a month is a good project, and it is often the fastest way to find out whether a bigger idea is worth doing.
Tell us what’s wasting your time. You don’t need to ask for an app with a database — “every Friday I spend three hours on this” is a perfect start.
Indicative pricing
Every job is different, so these are starting points rather than packages. You get a fixed scope and a price before the work begins.
A single repetitive job or a small utility, scoped tightly and delivered quickly.
Internal tools, dashboards, spreadsheet replacements and small apps built around an existing process.
Several connected systems, trickier integrations or ideas that need a bit of thinking through first.
Show us what is wasting your time and we will tell you whether we think it is worth automating — including when the answer is no. No charge and no obligation.
Prices are indicative only and shown in New Zealand dollars, excluding GST. Final pricing depends on what the job involves and is agreed in writing before work starts.
About LessRework
LessRework is a small software business in Tauranga. There is no sales team and no account manager: you deal directly with the person who designs and builds your solution.
Most of our work comes from processes that grew by accident — a spreadsheet that got out of hand, a report nobody has time for, two systems that never quite talked to each other. The fix is usually smaller than people expect.
“Software doesn’t need to be enormous to be useful.”
Questions
Yes. Small, clearly defined jobs are some of the most useful work we do. If a process takes an hour a week, that is about 50 hours a year — usually worth a look.
No. Describe the process the way you would to a new staff member: what you do, how often, and what makes it painful. Choosing the technology is our job, not yours.
Yes. We are in Tauranga in the Bay of Plenty and work with businesses anywhere in New Zealand. Most work happens online with calls and screen sharing, which keeps costs down.
We will tell you. Some processes are too rare, or change too often, to be worth automating. Sometimes a small change to how you work costs nothing and solves it.
You do — the application and your data. We also tell you up front about any third-party services it relies on, so there are no surprises later.
Usually yes. We normally build mobile-friendly web applications that run in a browser and can be added to a phone home screen. That suits staff in the field without the cost of separate app store builds.
We agree that before we start. Small jobs are often handed over and done. For tools your business relies on, we can stay available for changes and support — priced separately, and only if you want it.
Tell us the annoying bit
No specification needed. Describe the process in plain English: what you do, how often you do it, and what makes it frustrating. We will tell you whether software can help.