How long does it take to build a custom portal or dashboard?
This is always one of the first questions, and I get why. You've got a problem that needs solving, and waiting months feels frustrating. Let me give you realistic expectations about timelines and what actually happens during that time.
The Honest Timeline
Here's what's realistic for most businesses:
Simple Dashboard (4-6 weeks) If you need a dashboard showing data from your CRM and accounting software with some charts and basic filtering—that's the faster end. We can have something useful up and running in about a month.
Standard Customer Portal (8-10 weeks) When you need customers to log in, see their information, download documents, and maybe submit requests—that takes a couple months. There's the login system to build, the design to get right, the integration work, and testing with real users.
Complex Business Platform (12-16 weeks) If you're building something central to your operations with multiple user types, sophisticated workflows, lots of integrations, and features that need careful planning—that's a 3-4 month project.
Why It Takes That Long (And Why Rushing Is Expensive)
I could probably code your entire portal in two weeks if I locked myself in a room. But that's not how good software gets built. Here's what actually needs to happen:
Week 1-2: Understanding What You Really Need We spend real time talking about your business. Not just "what features do you want" but "how does your business actually work?" and "what problems are you really trying to solve?"
I ask a lot of questions. I might watch your team work. I want to understand not just what you think you need, but what will actually make your business better.
This conversation saves us from building the wrong thing, which is way more expensive than taking time to get it right.
Week 2-3: Designing Before Building I create mockups showing what it'll look like and how it'll work. Not pretty marketing materials—functional designs that show you exactly what you're getting.
You look at these and say "yes, that's perfect" or "actually, that's not quite right." Making changes on paper (well, on screen) is fast and cheap. Making changes after I've spent three weeks building the wrong thing is slow and expensive.
Middle Weeks: Building in Stages I don't disappear for two months and then show you something. Every week or two, I show you working features. They're not polished yet, but they work.
You see the login system. Then the dashboard with real data. Then the document section. Each time, you can say "yes, that's right" or "can we adjust this part?"
This back-and-forth means we catch misunderstandings early instead of at the end.
Final Weeks: Testing and Polish Before you start using it with real customers or real data, we test everything. What happens if someone enters the wrong information? What if your internet is slow? What if someone tries to hack it?
We find and fix problems before your customers find them. We make it smooth and professional. We train your team so they actually know how to use it.
What Actually Affects Your Timeline
How Quickly You Can Respond If I show you something and get feedback the next day, great—we keep moving. If it takes a week to schedule a meeting with stakeholders, that extends things. Most delays aren't on my end—they're waiting for decisions from busy business owners.
The fastest projects are when someone's designated to make decisions quickly and has authority to say yes.
How Clear Your Requirements Are "We need a customer portal" is vague. "Customers need to log in, see their order history, download invoices, and submit support tickets" is specific. The clearer you are about what you need, the faster we can build it.
If you're figuring out what you want as we go, that takes longer. Which is fine—sometimes you don't know until you see it. Just know that affects timeline.
How Many Systems We're Connecting Connecting to one system is straightforward. Connecting to five systems is five times the work, roughly. Each one needs authentication, testing, error handling, and dealing with their quirks.
How Complex Your Workflows Are Displaying information is fast. Building workflows where users take actions, things get approved, notifications go out, and processes trigger automatically—that takes more time to get right.
Can We Speed It Up?
Sometimes. Here's how:
Focus on Core Features What's the one thing that, if it worked, would solve 80% of your problem? Build that first. Launch it. Add nice-to-have features later.
Lots of businesses think they need 20 features. Usually, 5 features deliver most of the value. Building 5 features is way faster than building 20.
Parallelize Where Possible If you can get me answers quickly and make decisions fast, I can work more efficiently. The less time I spend waiting for information, the faster things move.
Accept "Good Enough for Now" Perfect is the enemy of done. Sometimes "good enough to launch" is the right answer, especially if you'll learn what actually matters by using it. We can always refine later.
What You're Actually Doing During This Time
Most business owners worry they'll need to drop everything for months. You won't.
Your Time Commitment
- Initial planning conversations: 2-3 hours spread across a week or two
- Weekly check-ins: 30-60 minutes to review progress and give feedback
- Final testing and training: 2-3 hours at the end
That's it. Maybe 10-15 hours total across the whole project. The rest is me working while you run your business.
What Those Check-Ins Look Like I show you what I've built that week. You tell me if it's right or needs adjustment. I ask questions if something's unclear. We make decisions together about any trade-offs that came up.
These meetings are focused. They're not all-day workshops. You won't need to clear your calendar.
What Happens at Launch
Launch isn't "flip a switch and hope for the best." Here's what actually happens:
Soft Launch Usually we start with a small group—maybe just internal team, or a few trusted customers. They use it for real while I'm standing by to fix anything that comes up. This catches issues before everyone's using it.
Training Your team needs to know how to use this. I provide training, documentation, and support during the first few weeks.
Transition Period You don't shut down your old process immediately. We run both for a bit to make sure everything's working. Once we're confident, we make the full switch.
Post-Launch Support I don't disappear after launch. The first few weeks after going live always reveal small things that need adjustment. That's normal and expected. I'm available to handle them quickly.
When Delays Happen
Sometimes projects take longer than planned. Let me be honest about when and why:
Scope Creep "Oh, can we also add this feature?" If you add features mid-project, timeline extends. This isn't bad—sometimes you discover something important that wasn't in the original plan. Just know that adding things extends timeline.
Decision Delays If I'm waiting two weeks for you to decide something or get approval from a partner, that's two weeks the project isn't moving forward.
Unforeseen Technical Issues Sometimes we discover your existing system has quirks that make integration harder than expected. Sometimes there's no good way to do something and we need to find a workaround. These delays are less common but they happen.
Real Business Needs Sometimes your business has an emergency and you need to focus on that instead of the portal project. That's life. The project pauses and picks up when you're ready.
Is Faster Always Better?
Honestly? No. Here's why:
I've seen projects rushed because "we need this by arbitrary deadline." They launch broken, users hate them, and we spend months fixing problems that could've been caught with two more weeks of planning.
I've also seen projects drag on for six months because nobody can make decisions. That's wasteful too.
The right timeline is: fast enough that you get value soon, slow enough that we do it properly. For most projects, that's 6-12 weeks.
Let's Talk About Your Timeline
Your specific timeline depends on what you're building, how complex it is, and how quickly you can provide feedback.
The best way to understand your realistic timeline is to have a conversation about what you need.
Schedule a consultation and we'll talk about your project. I'll be honest about how long it'll take and why. If you have a hard deadline, I'll tell you what's feasible to build by then and what should wait.
No pressure, no sales pitch—just honest conversation about realistic timelines for your specific needs.
