Illustrious

For the organisation, not just its website

Small business management that starts when the enquiry does

Small business management usually means five tools that do not talk to each other. This is one place: an enquiry arrives, becomes a customer, becomes work you booked in, becomes an invoice that got paid — and the person you did it for can see their part of it without making an account.

You do not need a website from us to use any of this. Most organisations arrive because their site brings enquiries they then lose track of, but the work happens after that — and it is the part nobody sells you. Invoicing and scheduling usually live in different products from the customer list, so the same person gets typed in three times and the answer to “what did we earn on that” is a spreadsheet somebody maintains by hand.

What it actually does

One thread, not five tabs

The enquiry, the customer it became, the work you booked and the invoice you sent are the same thread. Nothing is retyped, and nothing lives only in your head.

An enquiry becomes a customer in one step

Work booked against that customer

Invoices that know who they are for

Your customers never make an account

You send a link and they are in. They see their invoices and what is scheduled, and they can pay from there. No password for them to forget, and no support message when they do.

A sign-in link, not a credential

Invoices, payment and schedule in one place

Nothing for them to install

It uses your words

A contractor has Jobs. A music teacher has Lessons. A league has Matches. Rename what the platform calls things and both your dashboard and your customers' portal follow.

Rename services, jobs and products

The customer portal changes too

Set once, per organisation

Money you can check

What you earned, by service and by period — grouped by currency and never blended into one flattering total. Refunds are reported rather than quietly deducted.

Revenue by service and by period

Each currency counted on its own

Refunds shown, not netted off

The money is yours on the way in

Card payments settle into your organisation's own Stripe account. You are the merchant of record; we connect the account and never sit in the flow of funds.

Your own Stripe account

You are the merchant of record

We never hold your customers' money

Where communities come in

The parts above are the same parts a community needs: who belongs, what they are allowed to do, what is scheduled, and somewhere for it to be visible to the people it concerns. A league runs on the same spine as a contractor — different words, same shape. That is where this is going, and it is not built yet. We would rather say so here than let a roadmap read like a feature list. What exists today is everything above; the community layer is being built on top of it rather than beside it.

Questions people actually ask

Do I need a website from you to use this?

No. A site of ours feeds enquiries straight in, which is the tidiest route, but you can add customers and record work by hand and never publish a page with us.

What do my customers have to install or sign up for?

Nothing. They open a link you send them and they are in — no account, no password, no app. If they lose the link you send another.

Can it use my trade's words instead of yours?

Yes. Services, jobs, customers and products can each be renamed for your organisation, and the customer portal uses your names too — a portal headed “Jobs” for a piano student is us showing through, and that is a bug rather than a style.

Who holds the money when a customer pays?

You do. Payments settle into your organisation's own Stripe account and you are the merchant of record. We connect the account; the funds never pass through us.

Is the community side available yet?

No. It is being built, and we will say when it is ready rather than before. Everything else on this page works today.

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