Custom CRM development for trades and service businesses.
A custom CRM built around the way you win and deliver work. For tradies, clinics, cleaning companies, property services, consultancies and agencies across Australia: every enquiry in one place, a pipeline that uses your stages, and a clear line from the ad that found a client to the invoice they paid.
A fixed written quote before we start. Pay upfront or in stages. Ongoing management from go-live.
A CRM that follows your process, instead of the other way round.
Most CRMs were designed for a sales team selling software or subscriptions: a lead, a demo, a deal, a close. Trades and service businesses work differently. There is a site visit or a consult, a measured quote, a booking, the work itself, an invoice, and often a repeat visit or a referral after that.
A custom CRM records that whole journey in one place. It knows your services, your pricing rules, your team and the platforms your enquiries come from. It hands won work to the people who deliver it, and it shows you which marketing brings clients who pay.
A CRM is one of the tools we build under custom software development. Because we are a Melbourne studio that also runs Google Ads and SEO, we build it with the numbers in mind from day one.
Book a free strategy callSigns you have outgrown your current CRM
Usually an owner-run business with a few to twenty staff that started on HubSpot, Pipedrive, Zoho, the client list inside ServiceM8 or Tradify, or a spreadsheet, and grew past it.
The real pipeline lives in a spreadsheet
The CRM holds names and phone numbers, but where each job is actually up to sits in a sheet, a whiteboard or one person's head.
Leads arrive in five places
Website forms, Google Ads calls, hipages and ServiceSeeking notifications, Facebook messages and referrals all land somewhere different, and some never get a reply.
Every new starter costs another seat
Adding an estimator, a coordinator or a receptionist means another monthly licence, so people share logins or stay out of the system.
You cannot say which ads bring paid work
You know how many enquiries came in. You do not know which of them turned into accepted quotes and invoiced jobs, or what each one cost.
What a custom CRM does differently
Six things a CRM built for one business can do that a template has to approximate.
The parts of a custom CRM system
Most builds use some of these, shaped to your business. We scope only the parts you need, and add more later as the business changes.
Custom CRM or customising HubSpot or Salesforce?
Both are real options, and the right one depends on how far your process sits from the platform's standard pipeline. Here is when each fits.
Fits a standard sales process
HubSpot, Pipedrive, Zoho and Salesforce can be configured with custom fields, stages and automations. If your process is lead, meeting, proposal, won, and a handful of people use it, configuring one of them is a sensible path.
The trade-off is that the platform decides the shape of things: the record types, how quoting works, what reports are possible, and what each extra user or feature tier costs.
Fits how you actually work
A custom build starts from your process. It suits businesses whose stages include site visits, measurements, tenders or care plans, who price with their own rules, and who want sales joined to jobs, invoices and ad results in one system.
The whole team can use it without a per-seat bill, your records live in your own database, and when the business changes the CRM changes with it as part of ongoing management.
There is also a middle path. If your team is settled on HubSpot, Pipedrive or a job app such as ServiceM8, we can keep it and build the missing piece around it: a lead inbox that feeds it, a quoting engine that writes into it, or a dashboard that joins it to Xero and your ad accounts.
What a custom CRM looks like in different businesses
Illustrative examples to show how the same idea fits different work. They are not past client projects.
Connected to the tools you already use
A CRM is only as useful as what it is connected to. We connect to the systems that already do their job well, and never rebuild accounting or payroll.
Moving from spreadsheets or another CRM
Your history comes with you. Most CRMs and job apps export clients, contacts, deals and notes, and a spreadsheet can be mapped column by column. We work through the data with you before go-live: duplicates merged, old stages mapped to new ones, and anything that should not come across left behind.
- A trial import you can check against the old system
- Open quotes and live jobs carried across in the right stage
- Lead sources and forms switched on the day you go live
- A walkthrough for the team, so nobody keeps a side spreadsheet
If you are keeping a job app or accounting software, the switch only affects the CRM side. The rest of the business carries on as normal.
How a custom CRM project is priced and run
A CRM project runs the same way as every custom software build: discovery, a written scope with a fixed quote, building in stages you test on real enquiries, then go-live and ongoing management.
Every CRM is different, so there is no price list. You see both figures, in writing, for an agreed scope, before we start.
A one-off build fee
Fixed in your quote after discovery. Pay it upfront, or in stages tied to milestones.
Ongoing management
Every build comes with it: hosting, monitoring, updates, fixes and small improvements, billed monthly from the day your CRM goes live. New stages, fields and reports as the business grows are part of looking after it.
Who owns the CRM, and who owns the data
We agree code ownership per project, in writing, before the build starts. There are two options.
We keep the code, you hold a licence
Scalepoint owns the code and you get a licence to use the CRM in your business. You can buy the code out later if your plans change.
You own the code once it is paid for
Ownership of the code passes to you when the build fee is paid in full.
Your data is always yours, whichever option you choose. Your clients, enquiries, quotes and job history belong to your business, and you can export them at any time.
Other ways we can help
Common questions about custom CRMs
What is a custom CRM?+
A customer relationship management system built for one business. It records every enquiry, client, quote and job, and the stages, fields, automations and reports follow the way that business sells and delivers its work, rather than a template designed for everyone.
Should I build a custom CRM or customise HubSpot?+
Customising a platform works well when your sales process is close to its standard pipeline. A custom CRM suits you when your stages, pricing or handover to delivery are specific to how you work, when you need the CRM joined to quoting, jobs and invoicing, or when per-user pricing has started to shape who gets access. We can also build the missing piece alongside HubSpot or Pipedrive if you want to keep them.
How much does a custom CRM cost?+
It depends on what the CRM has to do, so there is no price list. After a discovery session you get a fixed build fee and the monthly management fee in writing, for an agreed scope, before any work starts.
Can you move our data out of our current CRM or spreadsheets?+
Yes. Most CRMs and job apps can export clients, contacts and history, and spreadsheets can be mapped column by column. We clean and import the data before go-live and check it with you before switching over.
Is a custom CRM only for trades?+
No. The same approach suits clinics, cleaning companies, property and strata services, consultancies, agencies, training and events businesses and hospitality groups. What matters is that your way of winning and delivering work does not fit a template.
Who owns the CRM and the data in it?+
Your data is always yours, and you can export it at any time. Code ownership is agreed in writing before the build: by default we keep the code and you hold a licence to use it, with the option to buy it out, or the code becomes yours once the build fee is paid in full.
Show us how you win and deliver work
Walk us through where enquiries come from and where they get stuck. We will show you what a CRM built around it would look like.