Notes,
essays & postmortems.
Things we've learned shipping software for eight years. Sometimes a craft argument; sometimes a 4,000-word write-up of the time we got something embarrassingly wrong. Always written by the people who did the work.
Announcing IssuesID: AI-Powered Construction Defect Management
We built IssuesID, a multi-tenant, offline-first platform for construction defect, snag and quality management. Here is what it does and why we built it.
Fixed Price or Time and Materials? How Software Projects Get Quoted
What fixed price and time and materials quotes really mean, where the risk sits in each, why fixed prices carry contingency, and how to tell which model suits your project.
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Do You Need an App, or Just a Better Mobile Website?
Plenty of businesses that ask us for an app need a faster, better mobile website instead. Here is what apps genuinely do better, what a good mobile site already covers, and how to tell which one you need.
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Moving Off Wix or Squarespace Without Losing Your Rankings
How to tell whether you have really outgrown your site builder, what you can and can't take with you, and how to move without your search traffic falling off a cliff.
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AI can draft your compliance paperwork. Someone still checks it
A new benchmark ran AI agents through 50 real end-to-end tax assignments. The best model finished fewer than 11% to professional standard, and the misses looked completely plausible.
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Click and Collect and Local Delivery for Australian Online Stores
Pickup and local delivery can make a store with physical locations hard to beat online. Here is what has to be right underneath them: stock per location, pickup windows, postcode zones, cut-offs and the busy-day failures.
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Xero Integrations: Connecting Your Website and Store to Your Accounts
If someone in your business is retyping online orders, bookings or invoices into Xero, there is a better way. What to sync, when an off-the-shelf connector is enough, when it isn't, and what to ask your bookkeeper first.
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Your website's PHP needs patching today, not next month
A critical flaw in PHP itself puts almost any WordPress, WooCommerce, Magento, Drupal or Laravel site at risk until the server is patched. Here is what to ask your host today.
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Getting Listings from Your Real Estate CRM onto Your Website
How listing feeds from your real estate CRM actually reach your website, why embedded plugins cost you search traffic, what a good listing page needs, and where syncs usually break.
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Who Owns Your Website? Domains, Hosting, Code and Logins to Check Now
Your domain, hosting, code and analytics may be registered to someone who no longer works for you. A plain checklist for confirming you own your website before you need to.
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The AI Chatbot on Your Website Is Probably Losing You Customers
Most website chatbots make up prices, hide the phone number and trap people in loops. Here is how to audit yours in ten minutes, what a good one looks like, and when to switch it off.
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Data Breaches Are Now an SMB Problem: Privacy Act Reforms and Your Web Forms
Big breaches make the news, but the Privacy Act reforms reach the contact form on a ten-page site. Here is where customer data actually leaks from a small business website, and an afternoon of fixes.
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Should You Vibe-Code Your Own MVP? An Honest Answer
We get the rescue calls, and we still think founders should often build the first version themselves. Here is when vibe-coding an MVP is the right move, when it stops being one, and what to do on day one.
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Booking and Payment Integrations for Trades: Getting Paid Before You Leave the Job
The gap between finishing a job and getting paid is where trade businesses bleed cash. A practical look at the booking, quoting and payment stack that closes it, and when a custom layer earns its keep.
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Google Zero-Click and AI Overviews: Why Your Traffic Fell and What Still Works
Organic traffic down but rankings look fine? AI Overviews and zero-click results are probably why. How to confirm it in Search Console, what to stop funding, and what still brings enquiries.
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Replacing the Spreadsheet: When a Small Business Needs Custom Software
Most small businesses run on a spreadsheet that has quietly become a system. Here are the signs it has outgrown itself, what to try first, and what a sensible first version of custom software looks like.
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Your Developer Ghosted You. Here Is How to Recover the Project
The freelancer stopped replying, the agency folded, or the offshore team went quiet. A practical order of operations for securing what you own, finding out what exists, and getting the project moving again.
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OpenAI's legal product tells you what not to build
OpenAI has shipped a profession-specific product for law firms, not just a model. If you were about to commission a custom AI tool for document review or intake, the maths just changed.
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Mobile App Cost in Australia in 2026: Native, Cross-Platform or PWA
What a mobile app really costs to build and run in Australia in 2026, across native, cross-platform and PWA routes, and how to tell which one your business actually needs.
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How to Brief a Developer: The One-Page Document That Saves Weeks
A vague brief gets you a vague quote, or a padded one. Here is the one-page document we wish every business owner sent us, section by section, and what each part changes about the price.
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We Fix Vibe-Coded Software: What It Usually Takes
AI app builders make it easy to get a working demo. Getting it to survive real customers is another job. Here is what we find when we open one up, and what fixing it usually involves.
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Where Should Your Data Live? AU Hosting and Data Residency in 2026
Where your website and customer data physically live affects latency, compliance and trust. A practical guide to Australian hosting and data residency in 2026.
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Microcopy That Converts: Writing UI Text That Guides Users
The smallest words on your site do the heaviest lifting. How to write buttons, errors, empty states and other microcopy that guides users and lifts conversion.
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Subscription eCommerce: Building Recurring Revenue Into Your Store
Subscriptions turn one-off buyers into recurring revenue. The models, tooling and retention tactics that make subscription eCommerce work.
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What a Website Discovery Phase Should Actually Deliver
Discovery is the phase most clients want to skip and most regret skipping. Here is what a proper website discovery phase produces and why it saves money.
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