Pricing

Priced in advance, before either party commits.

No hourly billing and no change orders. The scope is agreed, the price is quoted, and that is the figure.

These are introductory rates for our first five clients, in exchange for a written case study and one introduction. They are roughly half what this work will cost once those five are delivered.

Start

One-week assessment

Build

$6k · $12k · $25k+

After

From $120/mo

Ownership

Source code, always

Step one

The assessment — one week, credited in full.

Every engagement begins here. It establishes whether a build is warranted.

Start here

$750

One week · paid in full up front

Credited in full against a build commenced within 60 days.

Book an assessment

What you get, whether or not you hire us

A written map of how work actually moves — every hand-off, every field typed twice
A working prototype of the part that hurts most, with your data in it
A fixed-price quote for the build, with the scope written down
An honest answer on whether to build at all, and what to buy instead if not
All of it is yours. No claim on it, no strings.

For comparison, freelance discovery engagements begin near $8,000 and agency sprints run $15,000–30,000.

Step two

The build — three fixed packages.

Fixed packages rather than a range. The assessment determines which applies.

Groundwork One

$6,000

Four weeks

One workflow, one system — the spreadsheet, replaced
Typical: intake → job → invoice for a trades business
Data migrated from your existing sheets
Accounts, permissions and activity logging
One month of Care included

Start with an assessment

Most common

Groundwork Core

$12,000

Eight weeks

Multi-workflow operations system
Plus a client- or customer-facing surface
Typical: intake, projects, approvals, portal, invoicing
Training session and written handover
Two months of Care included

Start with an assessment

Groundwork Platform

from $25k

Twelve to sixteen weeks

Multi-site, multi-role, with integrations
Migration off an existing system
Typical: operations across four locations with settlement
Phased delivery against four milestones
Three months of Care included

Start with an assessment

Source code is delivered at handover. There are no seat licences and nothing to renew.

Step three

After delivery.

Two distinct services, priced separately. Care maintains the system; Ongoing extends it.

Care

$120/mo

Pairs with Groundwork One

Hosting, backups, monitoring, uptime
Bug fixes
2 hours of small changes a month
Response within 2 business days

Care+

$250/mo

Pairs with Groundwork Core

Everything in Care
5 hours of small changes a month
Response within 1 business day
Quarterly review of what to build next

Care Platform

$450/mo

Pairs with Platform

Everything in Care+
10 hours of small changes a month
Same-day response
Multi-site monitoring

Care is priced against what it costs to keep a system running and make small changes, not as a proportion of the build. Cancellable monthly, with the code retained.

Above the care plans

Groundwork Ongoing

$1,200 / month

One active request at a time in two-week cycles, including Care Platform. Pausable monthly.

Suited to an organisation that completes a build and has further work in view.

Pause anytimeNo lock-in

Separate offer

The Rescue

For when you already built something — and now you're stuck with it.

$2,500Two weeks

Organisations that built a working tool with an AI application builder and can no longer maintain it — the author has left, it fails intermittently, or its figures cannot be verified.

The decision to build has been made. What remains is completing it.

Audit what it actually does

What the logic does today, and where that differs from what is assumed.

Fix what's wrong

Correctness first, with a written record of every defect found, including those not addressed and why.

Put it somewhere it will hold

Hosting, backups and monitoring, so the system no longer depends on one machine and one person's recollection.

Extend it — or tell you to rebuild

In some cases the existing foundation will not support extension. The code is retained either way.

Ask about a Rescue

Terms

Payment terms.

Stage	Terms
Assessment	100% in advance, credited against a build commenced within 60 days.
One / Core	40% to start, 30% at the working-software milestone, 30% on handover.
Platform	30 / 25 / 25 / 20 across four milestones.
The Rescue	100% up front. Two weeks, fixed.
Care	Monthly, or twelve months prepaid for 10% off.
Ongoing	Monthly in advance. Pause or cancel any month.

Discounting

We do not discount.

Annual prepayment on Care reduces the fee by 10%. It is the only discount offered.

Where the figure does not work we adjust scope rather than price. A discount establishes that the price was never firm.

A referral fee of $1,000 applies to any introduction that proceeds to a signed build, clients included.

Before you spend anything

If an off-the-shelf product solves the problem, we will say so.

This occurs more often than expected. The full account of who should not engage us is published.

What to buy instead → Book an assessment