If you ever tried to make your own app on a PC in the '90s or early 2000s-or if you worked at a small store that had their own custom in-house programs-there's a good chance you used Microsoft Access. Your CRM, inventory manager, and even social network apps are all-on a basic level-a database with a pretty face.
That's the basic framework for most apps: a main interface that you interact with, and the hidden code where your app data is stored. Each one has an interface that makes it easy to add, view, and manage that data, but they're all built on a database that keeps things organized. Start listing the apps you currently use or need for your business-the tools that track your customers, inventory, and finances-and you'll quickly realize that most of them, at their core, are built to store data. Microsoft Access has long been the first choice for companies who want to build their own internal app We'd tried a number of different solutions and they were all clunky and not customizable."
"We have a largely transactional practice (meaning we do more contracts than litigation) and Clio and most legal productivity software is built for litigation. "Clio just wasn't customizable enough," said inVigor Law Group founding partner Kyle Hulten. Even the industry-leading time-tracking app for lawyers, Clio, didn't fit their needs. "We'd tried a number of different solutions and they were all clunky and not customizable," says inVigor Law Group founding partner Kyle Hulten. Have you ever needed a particular tool for your work, but even after trying dozens of apps couldn't find anything that fit your needs precisely? That was exactly the dilemma the inVigor Law Group had in finding a tool to track their work for billing and more.
"Although I have never written a line of code in my life I was able, with the video tutorials, to build a decent database and interfaces." - Matthew Whittall, Knack user If you're able to manage that, you'll get an app with just the features you need, and it won't even be that difficult to make it or break your budget. The only requirements are that your data can be entered with a form, stored in a database, and displayed in common rows, tables, or charts. But the thought of that-the billable hours or staff time-make you cringe.įortunately for you, there's another option you may not know about: building your own internal tool with a database builder.įrom tools like Microsoft Access to more modern apps like Zoho Creator, there are database builders that make it simple to build any type of app you need. So with custom needs piling up-and software options whittling down-you come to a conclusion: it's time to build your own web app. In your business, you have specific customer characteristics to track, unique inventory to categorize, or new types of contacts to file away. The only problem is, no app is a perfect match to the way you work. Whether you need to manage customer data, organize inventory information, or keep track of your business contacts, there's likely an app for that.