Why we built buezli.app and became our own first customer

We did not build buezli.app from a market study. We needed it ourselves.

Codegestalt is a small service business. We work on client projects, track time, prepare estimates and send invoices. For years, Harvest handled part of that workflow. It worked—until our quoted annual cost was due to rise within three days from roughly 200 to roughly 2,000. For our specific account, that was about a tenfold increase.

This is not a general Harvest price comparison or a claim about what another customer pays. It is the renewal situation presented to us. It forced a simple question: which functions do we actually use, and how much complexity are we willing to carry for them?

We did not need a smaller ERP

Our list was surprisingly short:

• organize clients and contacts;
• understand projects, tasks and team assignments;
• enter durations without running timers;
• separate billable from internal time;
• handle estimates and recurring work;
• create clean invoices with Swiss QR payment parts;
• deliver PDFs and secure client links;
• follow payments and outstanding amounts.

We did not need a platform capable of modelling every imaginable organization. We needed a good tool for small businesses where client work and administration often land on the same desk.

Tenant zero without a private shortcut

Codegestalt is the first real workspace in buezli.app—our “tenant zero.” That does not mean we have an internal mode. We use the same screens, rules and workflows as every other business.

If an invoicing step is awkward, we experience it. If a weekly overview cannot answer a question, we notice during our own project work. If a PDF looks wrong, it would go to our customer. This proximity is not a substitute for feedback from other companies, but it prevents the product from working only in a slide deck.

The product had to carry our work first

Before the public launch, we had already sent more than ten real customer invoices with buezli.app. Today we manage our projects in it and record our time in the same workspace.

That use sharpened the scope. An invoice draft must remain correctable. Project effort and invoice quantity must be allowed to differ. Non-billable work must not disappear. A Swiss QR-bill has to be technically sound while remaining part of a readable document. Historical data has to keep its context.

The most important product decision was therefore not a new feature. It was the decision to keep removing anything that did not improve our everyday path from work performed to invoice paid.

Who buezli.app is for

buezli.app is for sole proprietorships, freelancers, agencies, consultancies and small service teams. It is not limited to companies in Switzerland, but it has Swiss roots and provides QR-bill and VAT features where they are needed.

We do not think “small” means simplistic or unprofessional. Small businesses need reliable invoices, traceable time data and serious privacy. They just do not necessarily need the organization chart and feature catalogue of a large ERP.

What lean means to us

Lean does not mean unfinished. It means:

• one coherent core instead of many half-used modules;
• clear language instead of configuration jargon;
• understandable pricing instead of surprise jumps;
• the same product paths for us and our customers;
• expansion when a real workflow calls for it, not before.

After a 30-day trial without a card, buezli.app therefore costs CHF 99 per active user per year. The price is public, the standard term is annual and the product is deliberately sized for small teams.

What comes next

Our own business remains the first stress test, but it cannot be the only measure. Other companies have different billing practices, languages and habits. We want to understand those differences without rebuilding the tool shed we deliberately avoided.

The guiding question remains the one prompted by that renewal: does this feature help a small business spend less time on administration and more time doing good work?

If the answer is not clearly yes, we would rather wait.