Bespoke workflow automation software for trades and service businesses.
Bespoke workflow automation software runs your approvals, handovers and checks on your own rules: who signs off what, who covers when they are away, and what happens next once they say yes. We build custom workflow software that takes requests out of inboxes, moves them to the right person, and keeps a record of every decision.
Fixed quote before we start. One-off build fee, then ongoing management from go-live.
Your rules, run the same way every time.
Workflow automation means writing down how a piece of work moves through your business, then letting software carry it: who receives a request, what they need to see, who approves it, and what happens after. Business process automation is the same idea at a larger scale, covering several workflows that hand over to each other.
In a trade or service business those rules are usually specific and rarely written down. A variation under a certain amount needs one signature, above it two. A refund needs the practice manager. A new contract needs an insurance check before the first visit. Bespoke workflow software captures those rules exactly, so they hold on a busy Friday as well as a quiet Tuesday.
Signs your workflows have outgrown inboxes and Zapier.
Zapier, Make, Power Automate and monday.com serve many businesses well. These are the signs yours needs workflow software shaped to how it actually decides things.
Approvals waiting in inboxes
Purchase orders, variations, refunds and time off sit in someone’s email until they get round to it, and the work behind them stops.
Rules nobody wrote down
Everyone knows a supervisor can sign off small orders and the director signs off large ones, until a new starter or a busy week proves they do not.
Stuck when someone is away
The person who approves is on holiday or on site with no signal, and there is no cover rule, so requests pile up until they return.
A Zapier chain held together with tape
Twenty zaps pass data between tools. One breaks quietly, nobody notices for a week, and the per-task bill climbs as the business grows.
No record of who agreed what
A customer disputes a variation or an auditor asks who approved a payment, and the answer is somewhere in a WhatsApp thread.
Handovers that drop things
Sales hands over to operations, operations to accounts, and each handover loses a detail that someone then chases by phone.
What goes into bespoke workflow automation software.
Most builds combine several of these parts. Discovery decides which workflows to automate first, and management lets you add more as the business grows.
Business process automation without the enterprise project.
Business process automation often means a long enterprise project or a robot clicking through old screens. A small business rarely needs either. It needs a handful of workflows that run reliably and a clear record of what happened.
Zapier and Make are excellent for straight-line links: a form arrives, a row appears, an email goes out. They struggle when a step depends on several conditions, when someone has to decide, when a request must wait for cover, or when you need to prove later who agreed. Those are the parts we build.
Often the best answer combines both. The bespoke core holds your rules, approvals and audit trail; simple zaps carry on doing simple jobs around it; and integrations between the systems you already use stop staff typing the same details twice.
One idea, four very different workflows.
These are illustrative examples, not client projects. They show how the same parts take a different shape in each kind of business.
A building contractor
Site managers raise variations on a phone with photos and a price. Small ones go to the contracts manager, larger ones to a director, and the customer approves online. Approved variations land on the job and the final invoice without retyping.
A facilities maintenance company
Engineers request parts or subcontractors from site. Requests under a set amount approve automatically against the client’s agreed budget, larger ones go to the account manager, and each approval raises the purchase order and updates the client’s job record.
A private clinic
A new patient’s intake forms, consent and insurer details move through checks in a set order before the first appointment. Refund requests route to the practice manager with the treatment history attached.
A marketing or design agency
Work moves through internal review and client approval in rounds, with the deadline and the approver for each round. Out-of-scope requests trigger a change request that the client signs before work starts.
Connected to the tools you already pay for.
Automation is only useful if it reaches the systems where work happens. We connect to them, and we never rebuild accounting or payroll. We check what each tool’s API exposes during discovery.
From the rule in your head to a workflow that runs itself.
A workflow build follows the same five stages as all our bespoke software: discovery, a written scope with a fixed quote, a build in stages, go-live, then ongoing management.
For automation, discovery writes the rules down before anyone builds anything. We take a few recent requests, follow each one from the person who raised it to the final action, and record every decision point, limit, exception and cover arrangement. You approve the written rules, and that document becomes the specification.
The first milestone is usually the workflow that holds up the most work, often purchase orders or variations. Others follow once the first is in daily use. If a shared spreadsheet sits at the heart of the process, bespoke database development can replace it as part of the same project.
A fixed quote, and your data stays yours.
Every bespoke workflow build has a one-off build fee, fixed in a written quote after discovery, plus monthly management from go-live covering hosting, monitoring, updates, fixes and small improvements. There is no per-task fee, so busy months cost the same as quiet ones. The full pricing model sits on our bespoke software page.
A licence to use it
Scalepoint keeps the code and you hold a licence to use it, with the option to buy the code out later.
The code becomes yours
Once you pay the build in full, you own the code.
Your data is always yours
Your requests, approvals and audit trail belong to your business under UK GDPR, and you can export them at any time.
Common questions about workflow automation
How much does bespoke workflow automation software cost?
It depends on scope, so we quote after discovery rather than publish a price. One approval flow with a form and a few rules costs less than several connected workflows with escalation, scheduled checks and integrations. Your written quote fixes the build fee before you commit and sets out the monthly management fee in the same document.
Why not use Zapier, Make or Power Automate?
For simple “when this happens, do that” links, use them: they are quick and cheap. A bespoke build makes sense when the rules have thresholds, roles and cover, when you need a proper audit trail, when chains break silently, or when per-task fees climb with volume. Many businesses keep both.
Does it work with Microsoft 365?
Yes. Staff can sign in with their existing Microsoft or Google accounts, notifications arrive by email or Teams, and files can stay in SharePoint or Google Drive.
What happens when our rules change?
You tell us and we change them. Small rule changes, such as a new approval limit or a new cover person, fall under the ongoing management that comes with every build. Larger changes, such as a whole new workflow, get their own quote first.
Who owns the software and the records?
Your records, including the audit trail, are always yours, and you can export them at any time. Code ownership is agreed per project in writing: by default Scalepoint keeps the code and you hold a licence with the option to buy it out, or the code becomes yours once you pay the build in full.
What happens after go-live?
Ongoing management starts from go-live with every build: hosting, monitoring, updates, fixes and small improvements. Monitoring matters for automation in particular, because a failed step should raise an alert, not wait for someone to notice.
Show us the request that always gets stuck.
Walk us through one approval from start to finish, and we will show you what it would look like running on your rules.
More on bespoke software.
Every kind of software we build, and how a project runs
Learn more →When the spreadsheet that runs the business needs replacing
Learn more →Let clients approve quotes and variations online
Learn more →From enquiry to quote to job, in one record
Learn more →Swaps and cover checked against your rules
Learn more →From accepted quote to signed-off job and invoice
Learn more →