Free Software Checklist | Merrill Digital Systems

01CHECK WHAT APPLIES

Two minutes. Ten questions.

These are the ten things I hear most often on discovery calls, in the order they usually show up. Be honest with the middle ones — those are the ones people talk themselves out of.

SIGN 01Reports need cleaning up before anyone trusts themIf someone reconciles, corrects or reformats the data before a report can be used, the system is making work rather than saving it. The bigger the team, the more that costs.
SIGN 02Job status lives in more than one placeThe spreadsheet says one thing, the group text says another, the board says a third. Your team hunts for the truth instead of just knowing it.
SIGN 03It only works because one person understands the setupIf that person being out sick would stall the workflow, that isn't a tool — it's a key-person risk wearing a tool's clothes.
SIGN 04You've built manual side-processes for the exceptionsTemporary fixes become permanent. Every workaround is a weekly time tax and a place for errors to get in unnoticed.
SIGN 05You pay for features you never open and lack ones you needGeneric platforms are built for the average business. If yours isn't average, you fund what doesn't apply while working around what does.
SIGN 06The same data gets typed in more than onceA job created in the field app, re-entered into accounting, re-entered again on the customer record. Every re-entry costs minutes and invites a mistake.
SIGN 07Your software can't represent how you actually priceMulti-phase quotes, hybrid pricing, service plus install plus maintenance. If the tool makes you fake it, customers notice and quotes go out slower.
SIGN 08Adding people makes things harder, not easierIf onboarding means training someone on a patchwork of tools and undocumented workarounds, the software is capping how fast you can grow.
SIGN 09You can't see how the business is doing without a projectIf job margin, crew utilization or revenue by service line takes two hours to assemble, you're deciding on stale numbers or on instinct.
SIGN 10You've said “the software should do this” in the last 90 daysEvery time you say it, you accept a gap between how the business should run and how it does. Those gaps compound quietly, until they stop being quiet.

02WHAT THE SCORE MEANS

Three bands, and one of them says do nothing.

0 – 2

You're in good shape

Your tools are holding up. Nothing here needs money thrown at it. Keep an eye on the gaps — they tend to compound as headcount grows — and come back to this page in a year.

3 – 5

Friction worth naming

You're spending more management time compensating for software gaps than you'd like. It still works, so there's no emergency. This is the point to look at options calmly rather than in a crisis.

6 – 10

It's costing you now

At this score the software isn't inconvenient, it's a constraint — errors, lost hours, and a ceiling on growth. Worth a thirty-minute conversation, even if the outcome is a different off-the-shelf tool.

03STRAIGHT ANSWERS

After the score.

Not on its own. A high score means something is wrong; it doesn't say what to buy. Plenty of six-out-of-ten operations are fixed by switching to a better-fitting off-the-shelf tool, or by changing a process rather than a product. Custom earns its cost when the tool structurally can't model how you work — not simply when the current one annoys you.

No. Nothing is gated, nothing is stored, and checking a box doesn't send me anything. The whole thing runs in your browser. Read your score and close the tab if that's all you came for.

Nothing. Don't spend money. Two signs is normal friction in a business that's working, and replacing software that's mostly fine is one of the more expensive mistakes an owner can make. Bookmark this and re-run it after your next growth spurt.

Operations software starts at $25,000, with most V1 builds landing between $25,000 and $65,000 and shipping in 6–12 weeks. Websites are $3,000–$9,000. The full ranges are published on the pricing page, and the number for your project gets fixed in writing before any code is written.

GET IN TOUCH

Know the score. Now know the options.

Tell me which signs you checked and I'll tell you what's actually causing them — and whether the fix is a build, a different tool, or a change you can make on Monday for free.

PHONE: (385) 421-0455
RESPONSE TIME: Within 24 hours
BASED: West Jordan, UT · Remote

OR SKIP THE WRITING

Grab a time directly. Thirty minutes, no pitch deck — you describe the mess, I tell you whether it’s worth building.

BOOK A 30-MINUTE CALL →

10 signs you've outgrown your software.

Two minutes. Ten questions.

Three bands, and one of them says do nothing.

You're in good shape

Friction worth naming

It's costing you now

After the score.

Know the score. Now know the options.

Skip the call. I'll reach back within 24 hours.

10 signs you've outgrown your software.

Two minutes. Ten questions.

Three bands, and one of them says do nothing.

You're in good shape

Friction worth naming

It's costing you now

After the score.

Does a high score mean I should build custom software?

Do I have to give you my email to see the score?

I scored two. What now?

What would fixing it cost?

Know the score. Now know the options.

Skip the call. I'll reach back within 24 hours.