A bespoke business system puts your customers, diary, stock and staff in one database, so one booking updates all three at once. We built one that holds over 150,000 client records for nine NHS services. Yours can start smaller and grow.
With spreadsheets, one booking means three edits, often by three people. In a business system it is one action. Watch Thursday at 10:00: the diary, the customer record and the stock change together, in a single database transaction.
| Mon 12 | Tue 13 | Wed 14 | Thu 15 | Fri 16 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 09:30 | A. Khan | Free | P. Shah | J. Reid | Free |
| 09:45 | Free | M. Ali | Free | Break | T. Cole |
| 10:00 | R. Diaz | Free | S. Ellis | L. Hart | Free |
| 10:15 | Free | K. Owen | Free | Free | N. Price |
| 10:30 | L. Ward | Free | Break | Free | A. Khan |
Breaks and bank holidays left out
History
Every system is built around how your business works. These are the parts we build most often. Most clients start with two or three and add the rest in later stages.
One record per customer, with their history, notes, files and consents in one place. New entries are checked for duplicates before they are saved.
Staff diaries, rooms and equipment, with slots that respect breaks, closures and bank holidays. Reminders go out by SMS and email, and customers can book online if you want them to.
Stock levels for each location, orders with an approval step, batches and use-by dates, and a warning when something needs reordering.
Who works where and when, and what each person may see and change. Staff sign in with the Microsoft or Google account they already use.
Work arrives as a task with an owner and a due date. Anything that needs a manager’s sign-off waits for the right person, and nothing is lost in an inbox.
Every change is recorded with who, what and when, and cannot be edited afterwards. Lists and reports export to Excel, CSV and PDF, or into a template you are sent.
Everything sits in one proven, open-source database that is not tied to any vendor. It is backed up, and it is yours to take with you.
Hosted in the UK, encrypted in transit and at rest, and tested against a recognised checklist before it goes live. We help you write the data protection impact assessment.
The platform we built for NHS Stop Smoking Services is a business system like the one on this page: records, bookings, stock and reporting, in one database. We still look after it, and it has been independently penetration tested.
Hundreds of appointments a day are booked across clinics and venues, around breaks, closures and holidays. Walk-in sessions and group sessions sit in the same diary, reminders go out by text, and anyone who misses an appointment is followed up.
Why it matters to you. If you sell time, empty slots and no-shows are lost money. The diary should do the arithmetic, and tell you how full it was.
New referrals are checked against existing records, so the same person is not entered twice. When two records do turn out to be one person, staff merge them safely, all at once or not at all, and the merge stays on the record.
Why it matters to you. Duplicate customers are where spreadsheets go wrong: two histories, two invoices, nobody sure which is right. Stop them at the door and fix the old ones safely.
Medical products are ordered, approved and sent out from the same system that holds the client record. Every movement is kept, batches and expiry dates are tracked, and regular stock checks explain any difference.
Why it matters to you. If you hold stock, you need to know where every unit went, not just how many are left. Then the count can always be explained, and a recall is a search.
Statutory and funder reporting is built straight from the records, and managers see live dashboards. One definition sits behind every figure, so the dashboard and the report always agree.
Why it matters to you. Whoever you report to, whether a regulator, a funder or your board, the figures should come from live records, the same way every time, in the format they ask for.
Most of the risk in a new system is in the move, not the build. So we plan the move first, and your old spreadsheets stay where they are until the new system has proved itself.
We list every spreadsheet, form and shared inbox the work lives in today, and match each column to a field in the new system. You approve the map.
We find the duplicates, the blanks and the dates written five different ways, and fix them with you, using the same matching rules the system will use.
Records come in by a repeatable script, not by hand, so we can run it again on fresh data as often as we need to.
For an agreed period your team works in the new system while the old spreadsheets stay open for checking.
A last import on a quiet day, then the spreadsheets are archived. Your staff have had training and a short guide.
Often paired with reporting from the records it holds, a portal for customers to book and pay into it, integrations with your accounts, email and calendars and our security pack.
Something else? hello@echticstudios.com
Often you should, and we will say so. Bespoke makes sense when your process is what sets you apart, when you are paying for several tools that do not talk to each other, or when a package forces your team into workarounds.
Yes. We map, clean and import it by script, then run the old and new side by side before you switch over. Nothing is retyped by hand.
In a UK data centre, encrypted in transit and at rest, with daily backups. We work as your data processor under UK GDPR and help you complete a data protection impact assessment.
Usually two to three months for the first stage, delivered in stages so your team uses the first part sooner. Your quote sets out each stage and its timeline.
After a free consultation we send a fixed quote, split into stages. Each stage has its own fixed price, and you can stop after any stage.
You do. The code is yours once paid for, and the data sits in a database you can take with you.
A free consultation, then a fixed quote in stages. We plan the move off spreadsheets before we build anything.