Five signs your business has outgrown off-the-shelf software.

Off-the-shelf software is the right answer until it isn't. The tricky part is noticing when you've crossed the line — because the workarounds arrive one at a time, and each one seems reasonable.

The five signs

Someone re-types the same data into two systems every day. There's a spreadsheet so load-bearing that only one person is allowed to edit it. Customers call to ask questions a portal could answer. You've changed how your business works to fit a tool, rather than the reverse. And your team ends every month with a ritual of manual reconciliation that everyone dreads.

Two or more of these, and custom software usually pays for itself faster than the next year of workarounds. One conversation is enough to find out.