The part nobody sees and everybody depends on: where the client record lives, how a commission moves through the house, and what happens to everything that was agreed in a message and never written down.
This is built around how the team already works rather than around how software usually works. A system that asks a workshop to change its language gets abandoned; the ones that survive are the ones that recognise it.
How it runs
- 01
Watching
Sitting with the people doing the work and recording what they actually do — including the parts they have stopped noticing, which is usually where the problem is.
From you — Access to the team, and permission for them to be honest about the workarounds.
- 02
Mapping the record
Deciding what a client is, what a commission is, and what has to be remembered about each. Agreed on paper before anything is built.
From you — Someone empowered to make these decisions and not revisit them monthly.
- 03
First working version
A real, usable version for one person or one part of the house — narrow enough to be finished quickly, real enough to be judged.
From you — One person willing to be first, and to complain loudly.
- 04
Parallel run
The new system runs alongside the old method for a period. Nothing is switched off while it is still being trusted.
From you — Patience for the duplication. It is temporary and it is the reason nothing gets lost.
- 05
Cutover
Existing records are brought across and checked, and the old method is retired deliberately rather than by neglect.
From you — A copy of the real data, however messy it is.
- 06
Ongoing
Changes as the house changes. Internal systems are never finished, and pretending otherwise is how they rot.
From you — Whatever the work turns out to need.
Where it stops
- —Not an accounting system and not an ERP. Where a proper one already exists, this connects to it rather than competing with it.
- —Not a sales CRM. The unit is the relationship, not the deal — no pipelines, no probability, no lead scoring.
- —The workshop's own words are not renamed to match the software. If a stage is called something particular in your house, it stays called that.
- —No cutover without a parallel period, however much faster that would be. Migrations that skip it are how houses lose fifteen years of client history.
A client and commission system for a bespoke atelier — one record from first fitting to final delivery.