Uptown · Chicago — Custom Business Software
Your firm runs on spreadsheets, email chains, and one person who remembers how it all works.
It doesn't have to. I build the custom software that runs Chicago professional-services firms — in days, not months, for $1,000 to $10,000.
The proof · in production
A working tax practice runs on software I built.
Not a mockup. Not a pilot. It went live in February 2026, and their people have been working in it every day since.
What it replaced
Manual steps, spreadsheets, and a handful of tools that didn't talk to each other. The same client details typed in again every time the work moved somewhere new.
What it does
Client intake. Document management. The tax-prep work itself, start to finish. Reporting on top of all of it. One place, in the order the work actually happens.
Working in days. Whole platform in a month.
They had something working in days — the real thing, with their own data in it, not a demo. The full platform was done inside a month of focused work. That's the entire reason it cost what it cost: an agency bills that month at $25,000. I'd build it again for $10,000.
Your firm probably doesn't need a tax platform. But you have something that lives in spreadsheets and in one person's head. Same job.
What I get called about
Nobody calls a developer about software. They call about these.
None of these are technology problems. They're hours, clients, and money leaking out of a process that grew one workaround at a time. Here's what I build to stop each one.
You're drowning in manual data entry
The same client typed into three systems. Invoices rekeyed out of email. The Friday report rebuilt by hand, again. I build software that does the typing for you, on the computers you already have. You get the hours back, and the typos stop costing you.
Onboarding a client takes three days when it should take three minutes
Engagement letter, intake form, document requests, and the emails chasing the one missing signature. I build a single intake flow: the client fills it out once, the documents land where they belong, and the file opens itself. The three-day scramble is over, and nobody walks because the paperwork took a week.
You can't see your real numbers without merging four spreadsheets
Billables in one file, receivables in another, capacity in somebody's head. By the time you've merged them, the numbers are a week old. I build one screen that pulls from the systems you already use and keeps itself current. You look once and you know where the month actually stands.
You're paying for five tools that don't talk to each other
The same client's name keyed into billing, the document folder, the calendar, and whatever tracks the work. I connect what you already pay for so one update shows up everywhere, and I replace the ones you're paying for and barely using. Fewer subscriptions. One version of the truth.
Calls come in when nobody's there to answer them
Every call that rings out is a client calling somebody else. I build the system that picks up when you can't: it takes the caller's name, number, and what they need, answers the handful of logistics questions people always ask — hours, location, what to bring — and drops a finished, written request in your queue. It does not give advice and it does not pretend to be a person. The 4:40 call on Friday is still a client on Monday.
The last developer vanished and nobody can touch the system
The tool your office runs on, built by somebody who stopped answering. No documentation, no password, nobody left who understands it. I take those jobs. I get in, write down how it actually works, fix what's broken, and hand you the keys. You own the code, so it can't happen to you a second time.
Before you hand anyone your client data
I break into my own software before I give it to you.
Your client files are the firm. Returns, case files, everything people trusted you with. Most of the people quoting you on this work have never thought about that for one minute. It's the first thing I think about.
Your software gets hunted before it ships
I built a red team out of AI agents whose only job is breaking in, and I aimed it at my own platform first — every service I run. It found real ways in. I closed them. Everything I build for you goes through that same gauntlet before it's ever in your hands.
Locked down from the first line, not the last
Security isn't a step at the end that gets cut when the budget gets tight. It's how the thing gets built: who can see what, what gets logged, what happens when someone tries a door they shouldn't. Bolting it on afterward is how firms get hurt.
My access ends when the project does
You hold the accounts and the passwords. You can lock me out in about a minute, and I'll show you how on the day I hand it over. I'll sign your NDA — before the first call, if you'd rather sign before you tell me anything.
What it costs
Most projects run $1,000–$10,000. Small ones ship in days.
The whole list is right here. No "call for pricing." You get a fixed price in writing before I start. No hourly meter, no surprise invoice.
Fair question first: how is that weeks and not six months? Because I'm not building your firm a new industry from scratch. Intake, documents, reporting — I've built these parts before and I reuse my own work, and I use modern tooling that does the repetitive part of the writing for me. I read and test what goes out the door, and it holds up in production. A full platform is about a month of my focus — the tax platform above took that. What you're not paying for is four people re-inventing it on your invoice.
$100–$500
One page: who you are, what you do, how to reach you. You own it outright. No subscription to keep your own site online.
$500–$5,000
One process that eats hours, replaced. The intake that takes three days. The report you rebuild by hand every Friday. The four spreadsheets nobody but you knows how to merge.
$5,000–$10,000
The whole operation in one place: client intake, documents, the work itself, the reporting. Same shape as the tax platform on this page.
For scale: there are 753 web-development firms listed in Chicago. 89% of them won't start a project under $5,000. 47% won't start one under $25,000. I'm one person, not an agency: no sales team, no account managers, no overhead priced into your quote. That's the whole difference in the number. Text me what's slowing your firm down and I'll tell you which line you're on.
How it works
Three steps. No discovery phase, no jargon.
You tell me what's broken.
Twenty minutes on the phone, free. Where the hours go. What gets retyped. Which client slipped through the cracks last month. No prep, no deck.
You get a fixed price. In writing.
Most projects land between $1,000 and $10,000. No hourly meter, no change orders. If it isn't worth building, I'll say so — and you're out twenty minutes.
I build it. You own it.
Days, not months. When it's done, all of it is yours — the software, the accounts, the passwords. Thirty days of support after that.
Who you're calling
D. Michael Piscitelli
Engineer · Uptown, Chicago
One person. Not a firm, not a front for one. Ten years designing and automating phone and fiber networks — two of them leading the team — taught me what a broken process costs and how to kill it. I studied aerospace engineering at Syracuse before that. A practice held together by twelve spreadsheets and one person's memory is not going to scare me.
I work out of Uptown. If you'd rather do this across a table than over the phone, that's a train ride, not a flight.
- You get me, the whole way through. No account manager, no junior you've never met, no ticket queue. The person you text is the person building the thing.
- My work stays in production. The tax platform on this page isn't a demo. A tax practice has run its client intake, its documents, and its tax-prep work on it every working day since February 2026.
- You own it — and you can change it. The software, the accounts, the passwords, all handed over at the end. Where it fits, I'll build in a helper you can talk to in plain English, so a small change doesn't mean waiting on me.
- I attack my own work before you get it. I built a red team out of AI agents and pointed it at my own platform first. Before anything ships to you, it goes through the same test — and what it finds, I fix.
- I don't vanish. Thirty days of support with every project, and the number on this page rings my actual phone. Not a queue. Not a form.
Straight answers
Questions worth asking before you hire anyone
What does it cost?
Most projects run $1,000 to $10,000. A small tool can be a few hundred. A full platform tops out around $10,000. For comparison: of the Chicago agencies listed publicly, almost nine in ten won't start a project under $5,000, and nearly half won't start under $25,000. You get a fixed price in writing before I begin. No hourly meter, no surprise invoices. If your problem isn't worth paying to fix, I'll tell you that for free.
How fast can you build it?
Days, not months. A small tool ships in days; a full platform is about a month of my focus — the tax platform on this page took that. It's possible because I'm not building your firm a new industry from scratch: intake, documents, and reporting are parts I've built before and reuse, and I use modern tooling that does the repetitive part of the writing for me — then I read and test what goes out the door. You'll hear the real timeline from me up front, not in month three. It starts with a free 20-minute call: you tell me what's slowing your firm down, I tell you what it would take to fix.
Who owns the code when it's done?
You do. Outright. The code, the accounts, and the passwords get handed over, and they're yours. No license. No monthly fee to keep your own software running. Nothing you have to keep paying me for. If you want to hand it to another developer a year from now, you can. Nobody has to ask my permission.
What if you get hit by a bus?
Fair question. You're hiring one person and you should ask it. The answer is that you already hold everything: the code, the accounts, the passwords. Nothing about your business runs through a door only I have the key to. Another developer can pick it up and keep going. You're buying software, not a dependency on me.
Do you stick around after launch?
Yes, and not on a retainer you're forced into. Your software keeps working whether or not you keep paying me, because you own it. When something breaks or you want it to do something new, text me and I'll quote it. The tax platform on this page has been in daily use since February 2026. What I build is meant to keep running.
Are you actually in Chicago?
Yes. I work out of Uptown, and Chicago firms are who I build for. (312) 757-7407 rings my phone, not a call center or an answering service. If you'd rather talk across a table than over text, I'll come to your office.
Will you see our client files?
Where the work requires it, yes — you can't fix an intake process without seeing what moves through it. So: I'll sign your NDA, and I'll sign it before the first call if you want it signed before you tell me anything. I work on the least amount of live client data the job allows, and I use scrubbed or sample records wherever a real file isn't necessary. The software itself gets attacked before you ever run it: I built a red team out of AI agents that hunts for a way in, and I fix what it finds first. When the project ends, my access ends — you hold the accounts and the passwords, and you can lock me out in about a minute. If your firm has rules about where data is allowed to live, tell me on the first call and I'll build inside them.
Get started
Tell me what's slowing your firm down.
I'll tell you what it'd cost to fix. Usually under $10,000. The first 20 minutes are free, and you leave with a number whether you hire me or not.
Texting is the easiest way in. I read every message myself — the number goes to my phone, not an answering service.