The short version: a straightforward single automation runs $4,000 to $8,000 + GST. A bigger build, a custom CRM or a job-tracking system with several integrations, runs $10,000 to $22,000 + GST. Neither number means much until you know what the manual work is costing you now, so the maths below starts there and then puts the build price against it.
Start with what you're already paying
You're paying for this stuff whether you've added it up or not. Two costs, both real:
- The subscriptions. A job management tool, plus the second app you bought to cover its gap, plus the add-ons. Per user, every month, going up most years.
- The hours. The admin the off-the-shelf tools don't quite remove. Across the trade businesses I've sat with, that runs 10 to 15 hours a week. Put your own hourly rate on it, or what you'd pay someone else to do it. That's the bigger number, and it never lands on an invoice.
Add those together over a year. That total is the thing a build is competing against, not zero.
What a custom build costs
Two bands cover nearly everything I quote for a trade business:
- $4,000 to $8,000 + GST. One process, one or two systems. Quotes flowing into your job tool, invoices landing in Xero without anyone retyping them, a job sheet that fills itself out from the schedule.
- $10,000 to $22,000 + GST. A custom CRM, a job-tracking system, anything with several integrations and more than one team using it daily.
Those are bands, not quotes. Where a job lands inside one comes down to how many systems it has to touch, how much of the process is already written down, and how much of the data needs migrating. Half an hour on a call gets you to a range. A Workflow Review gets you to a number with the hours costed against each option.
The shape matters as much as the figure. A build is a bigger cost upfront than a subscription. In return you stop paying per user forever, you stop paying for three tools that each do part of the job, and you get an exact fit instead of a 70% one you work around. For a lot of trade businesses the build pays for itself against the subscriptions and the recovered hours somewhere in year two or three. After that, it's yours and the meter stops.
What the few-hundred-dollar apps leave out
You'll see custom apps advertised for a few hundred dollars, delivered in 48 hours. Be careful with those. Fast and cheap usually means templated, with no real connection into your accounting and no one to ring when it stops working mid-job.
A throwaway app that doesn't talk to your Xero, your job tool, or your bank is another thing to keep updated by hand, and it can cost more in lost time than it ever saved. "Built properly" means it connects to the tools you already run and gets handed over so you own it, rather than rented from someone who might disappear.
When the maths works, and when it doesn't
It works when the off-the-shelf tools keep almost-fitting, the subscription stack is creeping up, and the manual hours are real and repeating. It doesn't work when a product fits 90% of how you run, when your processes are still changing month to month, or when no one in the business will own the thing once it's built. In those cases keep your subscription and put the money elsewhere, and I'll say so on the call. There's a narrower version of this worth naming: even a good job management tool often can't tell you whether last month's jobs made money, which is a cheaper fix than a full custom build and is covered in doing GST and job costing without the spreadsheet.
I did this for my own business. I built an overnight pipeline that finds and scores Canterbury leads while I sleep, so the maths above comes from a build I paid for and run.
If you want to run that maths on your own numbers before talking to anyone, the ROI calculator takes the hours a week, what the hour costs you and a build price, and gives you the payback in months. It also lists the three assumptions people get wrong, because the answer is only as good as the hours you put in.
Get the actual number for your business
I'm Christchurch-based. Book a free 30-minute call, we'll put real numbers on what your current setup costs, and I'll say whether a build beats them. If it doesn't, you've lost half an hour and you know where you stand. If it does, the paid step after the call is a Workflow Review rather than a quote off the back of one conversation, and what that gets you is worth reading before you book one.
Questions I get asked about the price
How much does custom automation cost for a small trade business in NZ?
Two bands cover most of it. A straightforward single automation, one process across one or two systems, runs $4,000 to $8,000 + GST. A bigger build such as a custom CRM or a job-tracking system with several integrations runs $10,000 to $22,000 + GST. Where a job sits inside a band depends on how many systems it touches and how much of your process is already written down, and the way to judge either number is against what the manual work and the subscription stack cost you now.
Is custom software cheaper than paying for job management subscriptions?
Not upfront. A build costs more on day one, $4,000 to $8,000 + GST for a single automation and $10,000 to $22,000 + GST for something bigger. The case for it is over time: no per-user fee climbing every year, and an exact fit instead of paying for three tools that each do part of the job. For many businesses it pays back against the subscriptions in year two or three.
Why are some custom apps advertised for a few hundred dollars?
Very cheap, very fast custom apps are usually templated, with no real integration into your accounting and no one to call when they break. A throwaway app that does not connect to the tools you run often costs more in lost time than it saves. Built properly means it integrates and gets handed over so you own it.