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For a small or mid-sized business that wants to replace its Excel files or its management software. The Word file is ready to fill in and edit; the PDF shows the same document filled in from start to finish.
Faster: answer five questions and the document writes itself, under your name.
Complete it in 5 minutes with the generatorFree to use: adapt it to your project and send it to any provider.
A business software project brief in nine parts, ready to fill in, and the same document filled in for a cleaning company in Cesson-Sévigné, near Rennes, France. It is meant for small and mid-sized businesses that want to replace their Excel files, or their current management software, with custom software. The screens, the user roles, the data to import, the budget and the ownership of the code are already planned.
Template prepared by Léo Guillaume, independent developer near Rennes, France. These are the questions I ask before pricing business software.
Updated on
What the template contains
The Word file holds the nine parts with, under each heading, an instruction in grey to replace with your own text. The PDF is the same document filled in, to show the level of detail expected.
Word, editable in Word, LibreOffice, Google Docs or Pages
PDF, Propreté Bernard in Cesson-Sévigné, France (fictional company)
Project brief example
The management software of a cleaning company in Cesson-Sévigné, France, as the generator writes it from five answers.
Project brief · Business software
Contents
Propreté Bernard, in Cesson-Sévigné.
Cleaning company: offices, residential buildings and window cleaning.
Team: 11 to 50 people.
Creation of custom management software, to replace separate files and tools.
Project type: business software.
Users: the office and the field teams.
5 main screens, to be adjusted with the provider.
Data to import: the current Excel files, provided by Propreté Bernard.
Logo and colours: to be provided if they exist, for the screens and the documents it produces.
Reply expected by: to fill in
Screen map
This is the part that sets the price. Start from this plan, cross out what does not apply, and add a screen for each task the software must handle.
Behind every screen: one account per person, with rights based on their role
One screen per real task
Start from what your teams do every week: the schedule, the visit to a customer, the signature. One screen per task, in the words of your trade.
Roles: who sees what
The office manages customers and the schedule; a field team sees its jobs for the day. Write these roles into the brief: they set the access rights.
What to bring over from Excel
List the files to import (customers, sites, contracts) and their useful columns. A column that nobody fills in does not need to be imported.
How to fill it in
Replace each grey instruction with your own text, and delete what does not apply. Fill it in with the people who will use the software: they know the real tasks.
Five lines about you, what you use today (Excel files, software), three goals with their measure.
Keep the usual screens and add one screen per real task. Then sort each feature, essential from day one or nice to have later, and add the roles: who sees what, who changes what.
Which Excel files or which software, roughly how many rows, and who provides them.
A range and a launch date, then the same document to two or three providers.
What French law requires
Business software holds customer and employee data, and sometimes invoices. The template already covers account access and backups: add the rest to the “requirements” part, so that it is priced from the first quote.
Customers and employees
Names, addresses, phone numbers, employee schedules: these are personal data, and the GDPR sets obligations for the business that keeps them. The brief says which data the software records, and who can see it.
Source: Entreprendre.Service-Public.frEach data processing activity
Customer file, employee schedules: what the software does with this data goes into the business’s record of processing activities. The list of data written in the brief helps keep it up to date.
Source: CNILAccess and backups
Access by account, rights based on the role, a backup every day: the template already writes these points into the requirements. Keep them, so that every quote prices them.
Source: CNILSince 1 September 2026
Electronic invoicing has been in effect in France since 1 September 2026. If the software must issue invoices, say so in the project brief, so that every quote takes it into account.
Source: Entreprendre.Service-Public.frFrequently asked questions
Nine parts: the business, the project, the goals and the users, the screens, the features, the data to import, the technical and legal requirements, the budget with the timeline and maintenance, then what each quote must include. What helps a provider most: the list of screens, each person’s role and the files to import. The template follows that order.
Off-the-shelf software is enough when it fits the way you work: it is ready straight away and is usually paid by subscription. Custom software makes sense when none fits, and your teams end up redoing everything in Excel files. The project brief helps in both cases: send it to software publishers too, to compare. If off-the-shelf software is enough for you, I will tell you in our first conversation.
At Dibodev, €5,000 to €15,000 at a fixed price, set in the quote after a free first conversation. The price depends on the number of screens, users and connections to your other software. Maintenance is priced separately. The custom software price barometer compares the rates published by other French providers.
Yes, if they are still in use: customers, sites, contracts or rates are imported into the software, so that nobody starts from scratch. In the generator, importing the Excel files is ticked by default and marked essential. Say in the project brief which files to import and which to leave aside.
Your business, if the project brief and the quote say so. The template writes it twice: in the requirements, then in what each quote must confirm. At Dibodev, the source code and the data belong to you.
Yes, with no sign-up and no email. You can send it to any provider or software publisher, not just to me.
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Five questions, and the document writes itself under your name as you answer. Word or PDF, no email.
Showcase website, online store, business software or mobile app
Open the generatorSend it to me: I reply within 24 hours, with a price or with my questions. If off-the-shelf software meets your needs, I will tell you.