Custom software · Etobicoke, Ontario
Forthway builds custom inventory tracking and staff scheduling for small businesses — the kind of system that used to start at fifty thousand dollars and six months of waiting.
The situation
Most small businesses end up with three or four tools that almost fit. A spreadsheet for stock. A group chat for shift swaps. A whiteboard in the back that is the only accurate record of anything. Every one of them works until the day it doesn't, and the gaps between them are where the money leaks out.
The alternative was always custom software, and custom software was always priced for companies with a hundred employees. That has changed. I build purpose-made systems for businesses running five to fifty people, and I deliver them in weeks.
What I build
Inventory
Live stock counts tied to what you actually sell or use. Reorder points that fire before you run out, not after. Waste and shrinkage tracked so you can see where it goes.
Scheduling
Build a week in one sitting. Staff see their shifts on their phone, request swaps without texting you at eleven at night, and availability is respected automatically.
The custom part
The reason to do this rather than buy a subscription. Your system handles the one weird thing your business does that no product on the market accounts for — because that thing is usually your advantage.
4
Systems live in production
3 wks
Typical time to first working version
100%
Code ownership transferred to you
Selected work
How it works
An hour or two on site. I want to see the actual whiteboard, the actual spreadsheet, the actual moment on a Tuesday when something goes wrong. This is where the real requirements come from.
You get a written scope and a single number before anything is built. No hourly billing, no scope creep invoices. If I got the estimate wrong, that's mine to absorb.
You get something real to use quickly, then we adjust it against how it actually performs in your shop. Software that was designed entirely in advance is software designed for a business that doesn't exist.
Code, database, accounts, documentation. If you ever want to bring someone else in, or take it in house, nothing is locked behind me. Ongoing support is available and optional.
Get in touch
Describe the thing that keeps going wrong and I'll tell you whether custom software is the right fix. Sometimes the answer is no, and I'll say so.