Custom software and automation that fits the way you work.

Who it is for

Small businesses with a job that eats hours every week. So far that has meant an electrical contractor buried in quotes, invoices and job paperwork, whose app grew into our own product, SmokoBooks.

The kinds of things we can build

Most custom software for a small business is not complicated. It is the one missing piece that connects what you already use, or replaces a manual job with a button. These are the kinds of jobs we take on; the next section lists what we have already built.

• Quoting and estimating tools that produce a tidy quote from a few inputs
• Online ordering and booking systems connected to your calendar or stock
• Admin panels and dashboards that show the numbers you actually check
• Automation that moves information between your website, email, invoicing and spreadsheets
• Customer portals where clients can log in, see their jobs and pay

Automation we have already built

Every example below is something we have built and handed over. None of it needed anyone to learn a new system; each one removed a step people used to do by hand.

• In SmokoBooks, accepting a quote creates the job, saving an invoice updates that job's number, date and amount, and saving a receipt records the payment
• When someone buys SmokoBooks, the payment confirms, the licence key is issued and the key and download link are emailed, with no one at a keyboard
• Website enquiry forms, including the one on this site, arrive in the owner's inbox as a tidy email with the reply address already set to the customer
• SmokoBooks writes a dated backup every day it is used, so nobody has to remember to
• Klaviyo welcome series that send a sequence of emails to each new subscriber on a schedule

How a project starts

We begin with a conversation about the job you are trying to make easier, not a technical brief. From that we write a short plan in plain English: what the tool will do, what it will cost, and what we need from you. Nothing is built until you have agreed to that plan.

During the build you get a private preview link, so you can try each part as it takes shape and correct us early, while changes are cheap.

Connecting to what you already use

Custom does not mean starting from zero. A custom tool usually talks to the software you already pay for: your accounting package, your email platform, your point of sale, your calendar. We build the piece in the middle so you stop copying things by hand.

Your code, handed over

Everything we write is delivered in your name, with instructions, and can be maintained by any competent developer. There is no proprietary platform you are locked into and no licence fee for the code itself.

We build our own software too

SmokoBooks is our own product: a Windows app for quotes, invoices, job documents and bookkeeping, made for Australian trade businesses and designed, coded, sold and supported by AENETWORKS. It runs on the tradie's own computer, explains itself in plain English, and every document comes out with their name and logo already on it. Building and supporting our own product means we live with the decisions we make, and those are the same habits we bring to software we build for a client.

Common questions

I am not technical. Can I still brief a software project?

That is the normal case. Describe the job in your own words, show us the spreadsheet or the form you use today, and we will translate it into a plan you can read and approve.

Do I need to buy any particular platform?

No. We choose the simplest tools that fit the job, and where possible we build on services with free or low-cost tiers. Any subscriptions are set up in your name so you can see exactly what you pay for.

What if my needs change after it is built?

Software should grow with the business. We can add features later as one-off jobs or as part of ongoing support, and because the code is yours, you are never stuck with us.