The owner's week went like this: someone counts bottles by hand before the shift, someone types it into a spreadsheet, someone guesses what to order based on a hunch, and nobody really knows what's low until it's out.
Three problems, one quiet product. And because we started from the need instead of a generic "inventory app," we built the smallest thing that kills all three.
What the app does
It's not a rewrite of Excel. It's one screen: your list of stock, tap to mark something low or out, and a weekly view that tells the owner exactly what to order and rough quantities based on how fast things actually go.
The phone is the whole interface. No login maze, no dashboard full of charts nobody reads. Staff tap, the owner orders. That's the entire product, and that's the point.
What we left out on purpose
The temptation is to add everything: unit costs, profit margins, supplier comparison, a second dashboard. We cut all of it. Not because it isn't nice in theory, but because every feature you add is a place the app can confuse the person who just wants to count bottles.
An app that half your staff avoid is worse than no app at all.
How the session went
One coffee. The owner knew exactly what annoyed them, so we went straight from "it should do the count differently" to a working thing on a phone. I showed the shortcuts, the free stack, the hosting that costs nothing, and they watched the whole thing being built, not in mystery but in front of them.
The bar has used it every shift since. And next month, if the owner wants a feature added, they'll know exactly what to ask for, and roughly how it's done.