What an internal tool costs: step 04 or step 05

en 2026-09-30 7 min read

An internal tool built as a login with a dashboard your team checks, or a simple admin for a limited set of records, is step 04: EUR 3.500-7.500 and 6-12 weeks. An admin your staff work in all day is step 05: from EUR 7.500, with a fixed quote once discovery has settled the scope.

The screens can look alike. What separates them is how much of your business runs through them, and that is worth working out before you ask for a quote.

What sits behind the number

The screens are the part you see. Behind them sit the data, the rules about who may see and change it, and the connections to software you already pay for. These are the things that move a quote within a step, or push it into the next one.

• Reading or writing. A dashboard that shows figures from your CRM or accounting software reads data. A tool where staff create orders, change statuses and approve requests writes it, and every write needs rules about what a valid entry is and what happens when two people change the same record.
• Who logs in. One team login with the same view for everyone is simpler than roles, where sales sees one thing, finance another and a manager signs off. Each role is a set of rules that has to be designed and tested.
• How many systems it talks to. Each connection to a CRM, stock, accounting or planning system is its own piece of work, with its own API, limits and ways of failing.
• Where the data lives today. If it already sits in a system with an API, the tool reads it from there. If it lives in shared spreadsheets, part of the job is turning those into a database with rules, and deciding what happens to the messy rows.
• How long people spend in it. A screen someone glances at in the morning can live with an extra click. A screen someone works in all day needs fast search, bulk actions and forms that work from the keyboard, because every slow step repeats all day.

Where step 04 ends and step 05 begins

If your project keeps landing in the right-hand column, plan for step 05.

One answer decides it on its own. If a team does its daily work inside the admin, it is step 05, because when the tool stops, the team stops. If customers log in, that alone is step 04, or the Dashboard or client login add-on at EUR 1.500-4.000 on a site you already have. What a client portal involves covers that route.

One example of each

A step 04 tool. Your sales team logs in and sees this month's deals from the CRM, the open quotes and a list of leads to call, and can mark a lead as contacted. It reads from one system and writes back one field. Nobody's working day depends on it.

A step 05 tool. Your planners take in jobs, assign them to staff and track each one through to invoicing, while a manager approves changes. Several roles, several systems, and nothing moves in the business without passing through it. Here the admin is not a view on your data. It is where the work happens.

Steps 01 to 03 on the ladder are websites: pages, a form or contact flow, and from step 02 a CMS. A login with live data behind it starts at step 04. The full ladder sets out every step side by side.

Process and timeline

1. Scoping or discovery. At step 04, scoping settles which screens, which data, which systems and who logs in. At step 05, discovery comes first, because the scope itself is the open question. What discovery decides explains what comes out of it.
2. A fixed quote against one step, in writing.
3. Design with real data. Screens are designed around the records your team actually handles, so gaps show up before anything is built.
4. Build and connect. The database, the logins and the API connections first, then the screens on top.
5. Test with the people who will use it. The colleague who does the job every day will spot what a manager's description left out.
6. Launch and handover. You own the code, the repository and the database. Hosting is agreed per project, and the studio can host it.

Step 04 runs 6 to 12 weeks. At step 05 the timeline comes out of discovery. The part that waits on you is access and answers: access to the systems the tool connects to, sample data, and time with the person who knows how the work really runs. How we approach this kind of build is described on design and engineering.

After launch

Care at EUR 100-300 a month covers updates, monitoring, backups and small fixes. A new report, a new role or a new connection is a new feature, and is quoted as one. Deciding early which features to leave out keeps the first quote smaller and the tool easier to learn.

When to spend less

• An existing product fits. If a subscription tool does the job with its own settings, pay for the subscription. A custom tool earns its price when the way you work does not fit the shape of those products.
• You only need to read numbers. The reports inside the software you already use, or a well-structured shared spreadsheet, may be enough until your questions outgrow them.
• One person uses it now and then. A tool that saves someone a little time occasionally will not earn back a step 04 budget.
• You want step 05 but cannot describe the first screen. Build the step 04 version first: the one screen your team needs before any other, then grow it once people have used it.

In the first three cases, do not buy a custom tool yet, from us or from anyone.

Common questions

Can a step 04 tool grow into step 05 later?

Yes. Starting with the smallest version that removes real friction is a sensible order, and it gives discovery something concrete to learn from. The move to step 05 is quoted as new work once discovery has set the scope, and the code you already own is part of what discovery looks at.

Who owns the tool and the data in it?

You own the code, the repository and the database. Hosting is agreed per project, and the studio can host it.

Is a customer dashboard the same as an internal one?

No, even when it shows similar data. It needs auth built for people outside your company. It is still step 04, or the Dashboard or client login add-on on a site you already have, unless it is itself a product with its own workflows and admin, which is step 05.

Can it connect to the software we already use?

If that software offers an API, the tool can read from it and, where the API allows, write back. Each connection is sized during scoping. A system with no API changes the plan, so name every system in your first message.

Send us the screens your team would use and the systems behind them, and we will tell you which step it is. Start the conversation here.