Guides and worked examples.
What real products in each market ship, and where AI coding agents go wrong when they build them. Build guides, database designs and cost breakdowns.
- Retail inventory
Spare parts reorder points: min/max levels with Excel examples
Calculate spare parts reorder points and order quantities, then handle open POs, partial receipts, supplier delays and slow-moving spares in Excel.
- Retail inventory
Parts stocktake: a worked example, count sheet and checklist
Run a parts stocktake with a blind count sheet, a worked reconciliation example, and checks for movements, wrong bins, blank counts and adjustments.
- Retail inventory
Construction inventory management software: what it must do
How materials move between yard, vans and job sites, what a stock system must record for job costing, returns and waste, and where a spreadsheet stops.
- Retail inventory
Auto parts inventory management: what the system must do
Auto parts inventory management for shops, fleets and sellers: parts room inventory control, part numbers, supersessions, cores, bins and stocktakes.
- Membership
Membership dues: examples, reminders and free tracker
What membership dues mean, with worked pricing examples, renewal reminder templates and a free Excel tracker for membership periods and payments.
- Learning management
How to build an LMS: a step-by-step guide
How to build a learning management system: build order with a done-when check per step, data model, effort ranges, and when to hire, buy or use WordPress.
- Retail POS
How to build a POS system: a step-by-step guide
How to build or make a POS system: the build order with a done-when check per step, the data model, card payments, and what AI-built tills got wrong.
- Booking
How to build a booking system: a step-by-step guide
Embed a scheduler or build your own: the build order, the data model, and the hard parts: availability rules, time zones, double-booking and deposits.
- Learning management
Cloud-based LMS: platforms, pricing and how to choose
Seven cloud-based LMS platforms compared: prices from vendor pricing pages, what counts as a user, cost at 100 to 1,000 learners, and a trial checklist.
- School
School management system database design: tables and SQL
Student and school management system database design: every table, an ER diagram, example SQL queries and a runnable PostgreSQL file with sample data.
- Retail POS
POS database design: schema, SQL and ER diagram
Explore a POS database schema with free SQL, sample receipts and an ER diagram. Follow a cash sale, stock changes, a refund and the cash-drawer close.
- Fleet
Fleet management database design: schema, SQL and ER diagram
Design a fleet management database with a free PostgreSQL schema, sample vehicles and an ER diagram. Run the example and explore assignments and maintenance.
- Online store
Ecommerce database design: schema, SQL and ER diagram
Design an ecommerce website database with a free PostgreSQL schema, sample orders and an ER diagram. Follow checkout, payments, refunds and stock changes.
- Job board
Job board requirements: a sample PRD and acceptance checklist
Download an editable job board PRD covering candidate and employer roles, application privacy, listing states, paid-posting decisions and acceptance tests.
- Job board
How to build a job board with AI: from scope to a tested demo
Build a job board with an AI coding agent in a clear sequence: scope, permissions, listings, applications, payment decisions and deployment checks. Includes a free PRD.
- Field note
CLAUDE.md template for SaaS: scope, roles and acceptance tests
Download a free CLAUDE.md template for a SaaS project, with a worked job-board example. Define ownership, lifecycle rules and evidence before asking an agent to build.
- Online community
Online community software features: the counted list from 60 real products
What 60 online community products document, ranked by how often: the real version of each feature against the decorative one, a test for each, and why the features members depend on most are the ones the market describes least.
- Membership
Membership management software features: the counted list from 60 real products
What 60 paid-membership products document, ranked by how often: the real version of each feature against the decorative one, a test for each, and why the features that end a membership are the ones the market documents least.
- School
Free school management software: what the free options give you, and how to test one
The four kinds of free school management software, what each one really costs you, the modules free plans usually hold back, and six tests you can run in an afternoon before you put a single student record into it.
- Online community
Free online community platform: what the free plans give you, and how to test one
The four kinds of free online community platform, what each one really costs you, the decision to make before you choose, what free plans usually hold back, and six tests to run before you invite a single member.
- Membership
Free membership software: what the free options really cost, and how to test one before you take a payment
The four kinds of free membership software, what each one really costs you, the decision that splits the category, what free plans usually hold back (renewals, failed payments, refunds), and six tests to run before a single member pays.
- Fleet
Free fleet management software: what the free options give you, and how to test one
The four kinds of free fleet management software, what each one really costs you, the decision between a tracking-led and a maintenance-led system, what free plans usually hold back, and six tests to run before you trust one with your vehicles.
- Event ticketing
Free event ticketing software: 7 options and their real fees
Free event ticketing systems compared: Eventbrite, Humanitix, Ticket Tailor and Luma fees, three open-source options, and six tests to run before you sell.
- Online store
Free ecommerce platform: what the free options really cost, and how to test one before you sell
The four kinds of free ecommerce platform, what each one really costs you, the decision to make before you compare anything, what free plans usually hold back, and six tests to run before you take a real order.
- Construction
Free construction management software: what the free options give you, and how to test one
The four kinds of free construction management software, what each one really costs you, the two decisions to make before you compare anything, what free plans usually hold back, and six tests to run before a live project goes into one.
- Booking
Free appointment scheduling software: 6 free plans compared
Free appointment scheduling software compared: what Calendly, Setmore, Zoho Bookings, Cal.com, Square and Google give free, and six tests to run first.
- Accounting
Free accounting software: what the free options give you, and how to test one
The four kinds of free accounting software, what each one really costs you, the decision that splits the category before you compare anything, what free plans usually hold back, and six tests to run before you trust it with your books.
- Fleet
Features of a fleet management system: the counted list from 60 real products
Not a vendor feature grid: what 60 real fleet management products ship, ranked by how often, with the real version of each feature against the decorative one, a two-minute test for each, and the features marketing undercounts that hold the whole system together.
- Online store
Ecommerce website features: the counted list from 90 real store platforms
What 90 real store platforms support, ranked by how often, with the real version of each feature against the decorative one, a test for each, and why the first decision is what kind of store you are, not which features to tick.
- Construction
Construction management software features: the counted list from 60 real products
What 60 real construction management products ship, ranked by how often, with the real version of each feature against the decorative one, a test for each, and the features the market under-describes that decide whether a shared project stays commercially safe.
- Accounting
Accounting software features list: 9 core, 7 optional
The 9 core accounting software features found in 37 real products, with counts, 7 optional add-ons, a test for each and a requirements checklist.
- Helpdesk
Ticketing system in Excel: a help desk tracker to copy
Copy a help desk ticket tracker for Excel or Google Sheets: tickets, an activity log, routing rules and SLA targets. Plus the five places it breaks.
- Retail POS
We had three AI models build the same point-of-sale system. The sale was easy. The refund wasn't.
One twenty-capability POS planner, three frontier coding models, identical brief. All three could ring up a sale. What separated them was everything that happens after it: returns that undo what the sale did, approvals nobody can give themselves, and a production build that really builds.
- Online store
We had three AI models build the same online store. Taking the order was easy. Taking the money exactly once wasn't.
One fifteen-feature storefront planner, three frontier coding models, identical brief. All three took a real order end to end. What separated them was the money: charging once, never selling the last item twice, and never counting cash that hasn't arrived.
- School
School management Excel template: attendance and fees
Download a free school management Excel workbook with student records, attendance and a fee ledger. Includes sample data, balance formulas and setup instructions.
- Restaurant
Restaurant management in Excel: a food-cost and inventory template that works, where it breaks, and what comes next
A restaurant inventory and food cost spreadsheet built the right way (ingredients, recipes, sales and a movement log), the five places every one of them breaks, and an honest look at the three ways out.
- Retail POS
POS system in Excel: a sales and cash-drawer template that works, where it breaks, and what replaces it
A point of sale spreadsheet built the right way (products, sale lines, tenders and a cash-drawer close), the five places every one of them breaks, and an honest look at the three ways out.
- Membership
Membership Excel template: members and renewal tracker
Download a free membership Excel template with member records, renewal history and payment attempts. Track upcoming renewals without overwriting previous periods.
- Restaurant
We had four AI models build the same restaurant system. The screens matched. The workflows didn't.
One sixteen-feature restaurant planner, four frontier coding models, identical brief. Three of the four looked finished on day one. We drove all sixteen workflows end to end (selling a dish, splitting a table, refunding a bill, clocking in) and the scores spread from 96 to 58.
- Fleet
Fleet management in Excel: vehicle, driver and fuel sheets
Copy five sheets: vehicles with assigned drivers, a fuel log, maintenance, service history and inspections. Plus where a fleet spreadsheet breaks.
- Event ticketing
Event ticketing in Excel: a ticket sales and check-in sheet
Copy a ticket sales spreadsheet: events with capacity, ticket types, orders and one row per ticket for door check-in. Plus where it breaks on the night.
- Construction
Construction management in Excel: a project and job-cost tracker that works, where it breaks, and what replaces it
A construction project spreadsheet built the right way (jobs, cost codes, commitments, change orders and a daily log), the five places every one of them breaks, and an honest look at the three ways out.
- Fleet
How to build a fleet management system: the practitioner's guide (2026)
A build-order guide to a fleet management system where readiness gates assignment, every workbench owns real fields, and the numbers on the dashboard agree with the records behind them, grounded in a 60-product count and four AI builds of the same brief, two of which you can log into.
- Accounting
The 19 questions an accounting planner asks before a line of code is written
What happens when you point a coding agent at a PlanSmith planner: the seven decision blocks, the questions verbatim, the one question that stops an agent building invoicing nobody asked for, and the gates it refuses to pass without proof.
- Booking
Salon and spa booking system: the gap-filling problem nobody prices
A salon's booking system is a revenue tool first and a calendar second, and the capability that matters most appears in only 13 of 92 live booking systems. What personal services need beyond the floor, why processing time breaks generic schedulers, and what to specify if you build.
- Booking
Patient appointment scheduling software: what a clinic needs that a booking link doesn't do
A booking link and a clinical scheduler look identical and are not. The counted core from 92 live booking systems, the six things clinical scheduling adds, why double-booking is a correctness problem rather than a UX one, and what to specify if you build.
- Ecommerce inventory
Multi-channel inventory management: one stock pool, four places selling it
Selling the same stock on Amazon, Shopify, eBay and in a shop means four systems each believing they own it. Why sync lag causes overselling, the buffer strategy that hides the problem, how FBA breaks the single-pool model, and what to insist on.
- Online store
Choosing an ecommerce platform: six different businesses, six different answers
"Online store" is not one product. Six store shapes with really different requirements, the counted core from 90 sources, the three questions that decide a platform choice, and an honest account of the three shapes where building is the better answer.
- Ecommerce inventory
Ecommerce order management system: what an OMS does that your store and your warehouse don't
Three systems all claim to own the order and none of them does. What an order management system is, why available-to-sell is a computed number rather than a count, the state machine that stops duplicate fulfilment, and when you need one.
- Online store
B2B ecommerce platform: the seven things a consumer store cannot do
B2B ecommerce is not a consumer store with a login on it. Customer-specific pricing, quotes, purchase orders, approval chains and account-scoped catalogues are structural differences, not add-ons. Here is what each one requires and why the workarounds fail.
- School
Web-based student information system: hosting, access, and who can see a child's record
Almost every school system is web-based now, so the word has stopped being a distinction. The three hosting shapes and what each means for your IT lead, the access model that matters, what breaks specifically in browser-delivered school software, and what building one really involves.
- Learning management
Training tracking in Excel: a template that works, where it breaks, and what replaces it
A training tracking spreadsheet built the right way (people, requirements and a completion log), the five failures that end every one of them, and an honest look at the three ways out when the matrix stops being trustworthy.
- School
Student information system: what an SIS is, what it isn't, and what it has to include
The counted feature list from 46 real school systems, the SIS-versus-LMS distinction that causes most of the wasted money in this market, the guardian data model that quietly breaks migrations, and how to scope one that finishes.
- Restaurant
Restaurant management system: what it includes, and why it isn't one product
The counted feature list from 29 restaurant POS products, the eight venue shapes that need different software, the three design decisions that quietly decide whether it works in service, and how to scope a build that finishes.
- Retail POS
POS system for small business: what matters, counted across 60 real products
Small-business POS is sold on hardware and monthly price, and neither decides whether it works for you. The counted feature list from 60 real POS products, the two controls a small shop needs most and gets marketed least, and the money-path tests to run before you commit.
- Accounting
Nonprofit accounting software: fund accounting is the whole difference
Nonprofit accounting is not ordinary bookkeeping with donations added. Money arrives with conditions attached, and the balance that matters is per fund rather than per account. What that requires, why the class-and-tag workaround fails an audit, and the four honest routes.
- Helpdesk
Using Jira as a ticketing system: what works, what breaks, and when to stop
You already have an engineering issue tracker, so do you need a separate support desk? The five structural differences between tracking work and handling requests, the seat problem nobody costs, and an honest line for when staying put is right.
- Helpdesk
IT ticketing system: what it has to do, counted across 18 real help desks
What a ticketing system is for, the counted feature list from 18 real help desk products, the tell that separates a serious desk from a cheap script, and the three failures that kill self-hosted and self-built desks: email intake, portal spam, and exports you cannot leave with.
- Retail inventory
Inventory database design: schema, SQL template, ER diagram
Inventory management database design: every table, a step-by-step method, example queries, an ER diagram and a free SQL inventory database template.
- Learning management
Features of a learning management system: the counted list from 38 real platforms
This is not a vendor feature grid. It is a tally of what 38 real LMS platforms ship, ranked by frequency, with the difference between the real version of each feature and the decorative one, and a test you can run in any demo.
- Retail inventory
Custom inventory management software: what you're paying for, and when it's the wrong answer
What a development quote for a custom inventory system is really priced on, the operational shapes that really justify one, the questions that separate a good agency from an expensive one, and what changed when coding agents collapsed the typing cost but not the knowing cost.
- Accounting
Construction accounting software: why generic books fail a builder, and what to do about it
Generic accounting answers how the business is doing. Construction needs to know how job 214 is doing, and that is a different question. The six requirements no general ledger ships by default, why the workarounds fail, and the four honest routes including building your own.
- Restaurant
Cloud-based restaurant POS: what 'cloud' buys you, and what happens when the Wi-Fi drops
Three different architectures all call themselves cloud-based, and they behave completely differently when the connection fails mid-service. What each means, the offline test to run before you sign, and what it takes to build one that degrades honestly.
- Retail POS
Cash register vs POS system: the honest line between them
A cash register counts your money; a POS knows what you sold. Which one you need comes down to a single question, plus the four triggers that move a shop over the line, what upgrading really costs beyond the price, and why the register-plus-spreadsheet middle fails.
- Ecommerce inventory
What is a warehouse management system, and do you need one, or something else?
WMS, inventory management and order management get sold interchangeably and solve different problems. What each one does, how to tell which you need, and the number that decides it.
- Retail POS
POS system cost: monthly fees, card rates and hardware
US POS prices checked October 2026: monthly software fees, in-person card rates and hardware for Square, Clover, Lightspeed, Shopify and Toast.
- Helpdesk
Open source ticketing system: 5 self-hosted options compared
osTicket, Zammad, FreeScout, GLPI and Request Tracker compared for IT helpdesk vs customer support, licence, stack, paid add-ons and self-hosting effort.
- Learning management
Best Self-Hosted LMS (2026): 8 Platforms Compared
Open-source self-hosted LMS software compared: Moodle, ILIAS, Open edX, Canvas, Chamilo, Sakai, Forma LMS and WordPress on SCORM, certificates and SSO.
- Booking
Meeting room booking system: why it needs a fraction of a booking app
Room and desk booking looks like appointment scheduling and isn't. What you can drop, the four things that decide whether people use it, and why internal scheduling is one of the strongest build cases in business software.
- Retail inventory
Inventory management in Excel: a working template, where it breaks, and what comes next
A spreadsheet inventory system that works, the five failures that end every one of them, and an honest look at the three ways out: keep it, buy software, or build the real thing.
- Helpdesk
Free ticketing system: where the free tiers stop, and how to test one properly
Free IT ticketing systems are capped on agents, not tickets, and that is the cap that matters. What disappears at the free tier, a one-afternoon test protocol, and the point where free becomes expensive.
- Restaurant
Free restaurant POS software: what a kitchen needs that retail tills don't
A restaurant POS is not a shop till with a food menu. The capabilities that separate them, what free and cheap restaurant POS systems drop first, and how to test one across a real service.
- Retail POS
Free POS software: what you're paying, and where it stops
Most free point of sale software is a payment contract wearing a software costume. The four kinds of free POS, the capabilities the free tiers drop, and how to tell which one you're being offered.
- Learning management
Free learning management system: what the free tiers give you
Where free LMS plans stop, why the cap is almost always learners rather than courses, the five questions to ask before you migrate a course library, and the option most comparisons skip.
- Retail inventory
Free inventory management software: what 'free' costs, and how to choose
The four kinds of free inventory system, the caps you will hit first, the five questions to ask before you migrate, and the option most comparisons never mention.
- Online store
Best ecommerce platform for SEO: the criteria that decide it
SEO is not a feature you compare on a pricing page. The nine technical properties that determine whether a store can rank, how to test any platform against them in an hour, and the one that custom-built stores fail.
- Accounting
Accounting in Excel: how far a spreadsheet goes, and the wall it hits
A cash book that works, the single-entry ceiling that no formula gets you past, and what to do when you need a balance sheet, including the option that only recently became sensible.
- Retail inventory
What a retail inventory management system includes (feature checklist from 120 real sources)
The counted feature checklist for a retail inventory management system (item master, movement ledger, on-hand by location, stocktake, low-stock queue, POs and receiving), ranked by how often 120 real retail sources ship each one.
- Retail inventory
How to build a retail inventory management system: the practitioner's guide (2026)
A build-order guide to a retail inventory management system whose on-hand number is derived from an immutable movement ledger, with real stocktakes, a working low-stock→PO→receiving loop, honest exports, and the reasons AI-built inventory apps quietly break in production.
- Retail inventory
Build vs buy: retail inventory management in 2026
The honest decision framework: when Square/Lightspeed-class SaaS is the right call, when owning your stock system pays off, and what AI coding agents changed about the math (they collapsed the typing cost and left the knowing cost where it was).
- Online store
Why AI coding agents over-build your app, and how to stop it
Left to guess, coding agents bolt on features no real product ships, then ship a toy where it counts. The pattern, the two failure modes, and the fix: frequency data from real products.
- School
What a real school management system includes: the complete module checklist
A deep, opinionated spec of every module a school management system needs: the core that's non-negotiable, what each module must do (not just exist), the optional ERP layer to defer, and the cross-cutting things that decide whether a school keeps the software.
- School
How to build a school management system: the practitioner's guide (2026)
A deep, build-order guide to a school management system that survives a real school: the data model, the roles matrix, fees with installments, year-end promotion, migration, and the traps that turn AI-built systems into demos that die in production.
- School
What breaks when you build a school management system: the failures that show up every time
Every school runs on software everyone hates, so people build their own, and it falls apart in the same eight places. A deep look at the failures, why an AI agent walks into all of them, and what a system that survives a real school does instead.
- School
Build vs buy a school management system: an honest decision guide
When an off-the-shelf school SaaS is the right call, when it quietly fails you, the real economics of build vs buy, and the third option most people don't consider. From people who've been on every side of it.