Hey Elvia,
Here's the plan we landed on over our three calls: one MC Dashboard for your team, built a piece at a time, starting with PO requests. Everything in here comes from your files and what you told me.
The main decision is pace. I'd recommend about four months at $3,200 a month, with a call every other week, and you can slow down or pause after any month. If it reads right, sign at the bottom and we'll get started.
-Dylan
Where Things Stand
Your systems work. They work because your people carry them, one small task at a time.
| System | How it works today |
|---|---|
| PO requests | Crews call or text the office for a number. Someone types it into a shared spreadsheet, and accounting matches invoices by hand. Rentals have no return date. |
| Trucks + tools | Sheets printed every first Friday. Drivers fill out clipboards, the office compiles it all by hand, and tools move between trucks with no trail. |
| Daily reports + JSA | Paper, signed on site, scanned into Dropbox. Someone checks Dropbox and chases whatever is missing. |
| Safety training | A spreadsheet tracks who holds which cert. Customers can ask to see everyone's at any time. |
"That worked when we had 10 employees. This is not working for being between 35 to 40." Elvia Chavez
Every new hire and resignation puts those systems at risk. The dashboard takes that busywork off your team's plate.
What I Found in Your Files
I went through your PO log (1,983 POs since January 2025) and the truck sheet you sent on September 29.
None of this is anyone's fault. It's what happens when a spreadsheet does a database's job.
What It Costs Today
- Time. 1 to 2 days of office time every week, on just two tasks.
- People. Nine months of training walked out with one coordinator. Every process that lives in someone's head leaves with them.
- Growth. Done by hand, more work means more office hours, and eventually another hire to train.
- Risk. One expired cert can get a crew pulled from a job, and a missed truck service turns into an expensive repair.
The Challenges
This is more than a form on a phone. Four things decide whether it works:
- One counter for every PO. The app and the office issue numbers from the same sequence, so a number can never be handed out twice.
- Names that match everywhere. You've seen what a one-letter typo does to your Paychex download. Every system here has to use exactly the same job and vendor names.
- Three kinds of PO, three different flows. Materials need a vendor and a job. Rentals need dates and a call-off. Truck repairs tie to a truck, not a job (about 7% of POs).
- Nearly two years of history to clean up. 325 vendor spellings and 430 job names have to be matched up before anything imports cleanly.
The MC Dashboard
One app for your team, built on one shared base: your people, jobs, vendors and trucks, set up once and used by every system.
Later, when you're ready: change orders, customer PO intake and real-time reports, a sales pipeline, and an AI helper to request POs by chat. None of these are scoped or priced in this proposal.
On Security
You've had fraud and ransomware hit MC before, so here's exactly how this is built:
- MC owns every account. Apple, Google, hosting and the data all sit in MC's name. You hold the keys.
- Only people you approve can sign in. Each person gets their own login, switched off the day they leave.
- No email, no bank. It never signs into or reads your email, and it doesn't connect to your bank. Any QuickBooks link uses Intuit's official connection, and you can switch it off.
- No passwords or personal info in AI tools. That's in our NDA. I build and test with made-up data until you're ready to go live.
- Your data, any time. Everything exports whenever you want it.
What $3,200 a Month Includes
- About 15 hours a week of build time, a bit more in month one while the base gets set up.
- A call every other week to show progress and set what's next, plus a short written summary at month end: what shipped, what's next and anything I need from you.
- Releases to your team. New pieces go out to the phone app and the office side, with store updates handled.
- Fixes and changes to anything already built, plus help adding or removing people.
- A one-page how-to for each new piece, so your team can pick it up without a training session.
Hours don't roll over, but they never sit idle. If I'm waiting on something from your side, I move ahead on the next piece.
Timeline
About four months, three to five depending on the pace you pick and any new ideas. The clock starts at our kickoff call, and the dates below assume we kick off in the next two weeks.
| Month | What gets built | What you'll see |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | The base + PO requests | The Apple and Google sign-up goes in first. A few of your people start testing PO. |
| 2 | Trucks + tools | Built over the holidays. Nothing rolls out from Thanksgiving to New Year. |
| 3 | Daily reports + JSA | PO goes to everyone in January. A few drivers test trucks, and one crew tests daily reports. |
| 4 | Safety training | Trucks and daily reports go to everyone, and safety training goes live. |
| 5 | If needed | New ideas, or a slower pace. Your call. |
Buying Time Back
You put it best on our last call:
"It's like buying some time back." Elvia Chavez
Starting from your own estimate: if the app takes even half of your 8 to 15 weekly hours off your team's plate,
Add two years of running costs and each hour back costs $18 to $40. If an office hour costs you more than that, the build pays for itself in its first two years of use, even at half the savings. That's before a cert that doesn't lapse, a repair caught early or a rental returned on time.
Investment
- A rate that follows the pace. $3,200 covers about 15 hours a week. After any month, we can move the hours and the rate up or down together. I'd recommend holding it here.
- Pause or stop after any month. Tell me before the next month starts and nothing more is invoiced. What's built stays in your accounts.
- 30-day warranty. If something I built breaks within 30 days of reaching your team, I fix it free, even if we've stopped.
Card is easiest and the button below handles it. If your accountant prefers an invoice, reply and I'll send one.
Costs and Considerations
- Running costs (hosting, plus the Apple and Google developer accounts, or similar tools): roughly $60 to $160 a month, paid directly to the providers on MC's card, not to me.
- Anything beyond the four systems, like change orders, gets planned into a future month or quoted on its own.
- Apple and Google review new store accounts and apps, which can take a few days to a few weeks. If they're slow, testers start on a browser version so PO isn't held up.
- If we link QuickBooks, Intuit reviews the connection before it can go live.
Assumptions
- Answers from your side usually come within two business days.
- I reply to your messages within one business day.
- MC decides which training and certifications each role needs. The dashboard tracks them; compliance calls stay with you.
- Scope is the four systems in this proposal.
Next Steps
If we kick off in the next two weeks, a few of your people can be testing PO before Thanksgiving.
Dylan Sewell - VibeHook - [email protected]