Using RadWorks

For businesses that have signed up. How to get in, how to ask for changes, what to expect from us, how your data is protected, and what RadWorks does not do. Plain English, about fifteen minutes.

On this page

Start here Signing in Your app and your portal Month one Asking for a change Following a request How long things take When a person checks first Connecting your other systems Bringing in files Your team Emails you will get How your data is protected What it can and cannot do Billing, cancelling, your data Getting help

Start here

The short version

Your app has its own web address. You sign in with your email. There is no password.
Month one, we build. You hear from us only if we need an answer. You get an email when the app is ready, not before.
After that, you ask for changes in your own words. As many as you like. One is built at a time, tested, and put live. You tell us whether it worked.
Some changes wait for a person at Rad to look first. That is on purpose, and it can add a day.
Your data is yours. You can download all of it whenever you want.
Anything wrong or unclear: email chris@radconsultants.com. A person reads it.

Go to your app's address (it is in the email that says your app is ready). Type your email and press Send sign-in link. A link arrives by email. Click it and you are in.

The link is for one sign-in and stops working after 60 minutes. Ask for a new one any time.
You stay signed in for 30 days on that device.
Only people on your account, and Rad staff who support it, can sign in to your app. If anyone else types their email, the page still says a link is on its way, but nothing is sent. That way a stranger cannot find out who uses your app.
Removing someone works fast. When we take a person off your account, they lose access within about five minutes, even if they are signed in at the time.

No email arriving? Check your spam folder, then check you typed the address we have on your account. Still nothing? Email us and we will look.

Your app and your portal

You have two places to go. Your app is where the work happens. Your RadWorks portal is where you follow your requests in detail. The same email signs you in to both.

Your app

At its own address, for example yourcompany.radconsultants.com. For your day-to-day work and for asking for a change. Four screens on the left, plus whatever your plan built.

Home is where you land. About once a week it shows one idea for improving your app. Yes, build this files it as a request in your name. No thanks tells us not to suggest it again.

Requests is where you ask for anything and see where each request stands.

Your app says what the app does today, what it is connected to, and what is being built. It is rewritten every time something ships.

Settings is where you connect your other systems and bring in files from them.

Your RadWorks portal

At radworkssoftware.com/app. The full record of every request, your account, and a few things the app cannot do yet.

Requests shows every request with its whole conversation. File a request does the same job as the form in your app. What shipped lists every change that went live, month by month, with its test result. Account admins also find Download all your data there.

Today, these only work in the portal: attaching a file to a request, pressing It works or Still not right on a delivered change, changing how urgent a request is (before it ships), and editing a request you filed (while it is still New). Every request in your app has a link that opens it in the portal.

Month one

Your blueprint, the plan you read before you paid, is split into milestones. They are built one after another, usually one every day or two. You do not need to do anything.

If we need an answer only you have, you get an email called "A question before we build". Reply to it. That milestone waits for your answer.
Your app stays closed while it is being built. You see it when it does the whole job the plan promised, not half of it.
Before you get it, Chris at Rad opens the finished app and looks at it himself. Every milestone has to be delivered and every test has to pass first.
The month-one milestones then appear in your request list as finished work, each described the way your blueprint described it.
Then you get two emails. One says your app is ready and what it does. The other is your sign-in link.

Asking for a change

Open Requests in your app. Write what you want in your own words, the way you would say it to a colleague. The form asks what kind of request it is, which part of the app it is about, how much it is holding you up, a one-line summary, and the details.

Kind	Use it when
Something is broken	It does not do what it clearly should.
It works, but it should work differently	It does what it was built to do, and that is wrong for how you actually work.
Something new	A screen, a report or a feature that does not exist yet.
Just a question	You want to know something. We answer it in writing. Nothing gets built.

How urgent	Means
Stopping work now	Someone cannot do their job until this is fixed.
Slowing us down	There is a workaround, and it costs time.
Worth doing sometime	It would be better. Nothing is stuck.

What makes a good request

One line saying what you want, then the details: who runs into the problem, what they do today, and what should happen instead. A link to a short screen recording (Loom, Vimeo, YouTube or Screencast) is very welcome. We download it and read what is said and shown in it.

The "Before this goes live" check

For anything except a question, the form asks what the change touches:

people outside your company, such as your customers or the public
money, such as payments, invoices, payroll or prices
something a law or regulator covers, such as health, financial or employee records

Tick what applies, or tick None of these. Then confirm that your business decides when the change is ready to use. A change you tick gets an extra look from Chris before it goes live. That look checks that the build works. It is not legal or compliance advice. Our Terms (section 9) say the same thing in full.

Never put a password or a key in a request. The form blocks the common ways one gets pasted in, but it cannot catch everything. Keys for your other systems go in Settings, where they are stored safely.

Following a request

Every request shows a status. This is what each one means. The last two show in your portal. In your app, they show as New and Done.

Status	What is happening
New	Filed. Rad has not looked at it yet.
Client to reply	We asked you a question. It waits for your answer and moves as soon as you reply.
Planned	Agreed and in the queue. Not started yet.
In progress	Being built now.
Client to confirm	It is live. Check it, then tell us whether it works.
Done	Finished. If you still see the old behaviour, reload the page.
Not planned	Not going ahead. The reason is written on the request.
Back with Rad	It came back to us after it went live, because you said it is still not right or added a comment.
Answered	Your question has a written answer.

Telling us whether it worked

When a change goes live you get an email called "Live now". Try it. Then open the request in your portal and press It works, or Still not right and say what is wrong. "Still not right" puts it straight back in the queue. You do not have to explain it again from the start.

Only the person who filed a request can confirm or close it.
If you do not answer, we ask "Did it work?" after 3 days and again after 7. After 10 days we close it.
A finished request is not lost. Add a comment to a delivered or Done request and it opens again.

How long things take

One change is built at a time. You can see the queue. If the order is wrong for you, say so and it changes.
Small changes can be live within hours. Most take a day or two. A change that waits for a person (next section) can take longer.
Every change is tested before and after it goes live. The tests use your app the way a person would. If they fail after a change goes live, the change is taken back out automatically, usually within a few minutes.
There is no limit on how many requests you file.

When a person checks first

Most changes are built and tested by our build system and go live once the tests pass. The build system holds some for Chris to look at first. It decides this from the parts of the app a change edits:

sign-in, and who can see what
anything that messages your customers
money: billing, invoices, payments
deleting data
how your data is stored
the tests themselves, so a change can never mark its own homework

Large changes wait too, and so does anything you ticked in the "Before this goes live" check. If a plan involves prices, billing or legal terms, the build system does not build it at all. It stops and Chris decides first.

Connecting your other systems

Your app works beside the software you already run. It does not replace it. Each of your other systems connects in one of three ways, and your blueprint already said which one applies to each.

Direct connection, with a key

The system gives you a key to let other software in

Open Settings and paste the key. It is tested against that system before it is saved. It is stored encrypted, and no screen shows it again. Your app then reads from and writes to that system directly. If you change the key on the other system's side, the connection stops until you paste the new one here.

Files from that system

The system has no key, or keeps it for paying partners only

Its regular exports come into your app instead. This is common for small-business software and it works well. See Bringing in files.

Not connected

Some systems cannot be reached at all

When that is the case, your blueprint said so before you paid.

A system that is not listed in Settings? Use Connect something else. Name the system and say what the connection should do. That becomes a request, and we tell you on it if we need anything from you.

Bringing in files

For a system with no key, your app can take in that system's exports.

By hand: in Settings, under "Bring in a file from another system", name the file (for example "Daily jobs export"), choose it, and press Bring it in.
On their own: during month one we can set exports to arrive by themselves, by email or into a shared folder, on the schedule your system already sends them. Ask for it as a request if it is not in your plan.
File types: Excel (.xlsx), CSV, and tab-separated or plain text files. Up to 20MB and 200,000 rows.
Rows that cannot go in come back to you as a file you can fix and send again.
The exact same file sent twice under the same name is only taken in once.

A file is stored as soon as it comes in. It shows up on your screens once a feature uses it. If you start sending a new kind of file, file a request saying what the app should do with it.

Your team

To add or remove a teammate, email us or file a request with their name and email. There is no screen to do it yourself yet.
There is no charge per person. The price is per app.
Everyone who can sign in sees the same app, including Settings. If some people should see less, ask for that as a change.
The person who subscribed is always an account admin. Admins can download all of your data from the portal.

Emails you will get

Email	When
Your build has started	Right after you subscribe.
A question before we build	Month one, only if we need an answer from you. Reply to it.
(Your app) is ready	When month one is finished. Your sign-in link comes in a second email.
Live now	When a request goes live, to the person who filed it.
A question on your request	When we need your answer before we can carry on.
Did it work? / Still checking / Closed	3, 7 and 10 days after a change you have not confirmed. These arrive in the early evening, Eastern time.
One idea for your app	After your app launches, about once a week, as long as you have answered the last one.
What went live in (month)	The morning of the 1st, to the account owner, when something shipped last month.
Your sign-in link	Whenever you ask for one.

Everything in an email is also on the request or screen it is about. The email just tells you to look.

How your data is protected

Kept apart from everyone else's

Your app's data sits in its own separate section of our database, with its own login. Your app also runs under its own account on our server, and can only save files into its own folder. One client's app cannot read another client's data.

Locked in transit and at the door

Every connection to your app is encrypted, and browsers are told never to use an unencrypted one. There are no passwords to steal: sign-in links are for one sign-in and expire in an hour. Keys for your other systems are stored encrypted and no screen shows them again.

Backed up every night

Your data is copied every night, encrypted before it leaves our server, and stored with a separate backup company that cannot read it. We keep 30 nightly copies and one copy a month for a year. We can also rewind your data to a moment within at least the last two weeks. A full restore is tested every month. Files you upload are backed up the same way.

Watched around the clock

An outside service checks that your app is answering every five minutes, and alerts us if it is not. If the app stops, it restarts on its own.

Who can see your data

People at Rad can, and so can our build system while it works on one of your requests. Both need it to build, test and fix your app. We do not sell your data and we do not use it to train AI models.

We use Anthropic's Claude to plan and build changes and to write the weekly idea. It reads your requests and comments, text from files you attach, and the words and still images from screen recordings you send. Your app itself does not send anything to an AI service while your team uses it. The full detail is in our Privacy Policy.

What it can and cannot do

RadWorks can

Build screens, forms, lists, boards, reports and calculations around how your business actually works.
Read from and write to your other systems when they give you a key.
Take in exports from systems that do not.
Keep changing every month, as often as you ask, in your own words.
Work in the browser on a laptop, a tablet or a phone.

What it does not do

Replace your core software. Accounting, payroll and scheduling stay where they are. That is by design.
Send emails or texts to your customers. Not today. If you ask for it, Chris reviews it before it goes live.
Send data back into your other systems as files. Not today. Systems connected with a key can be written to directly.
Connect to a system that only offers a "sign in with" approval screen and no key. Those use files instead.
Give different people different access, unless you ask for it as a change.
Let you add teammates yourself. Ask us for now.
Attach files from inside your app. Use the portal. Files can be up to 8MB each: images, PDFs and short videos. For anything bigger, paste a link to it.
Run as an app-store app or work offline. It is a website, and it needs an internet connection.
Guarantee it is never down. Your app runs on one server with no standby copy, and there is no uptime guarantee or public status page. If it stops answering, we are alerted within minutes and fix it.
Check that you meet a law or regulation. Our tests check that the software works as planned. Whether it meets the rules of your industry is your call.

Good to know about files

Only the first sheet of an Excel workbook is read. Old .xls files are not accepted: save them as .xlsx or CSV.
Only an exact repeat of a file is skipped. If you send yesterday's export again with one new row, every row comes in again. Send only the new rows, or ask us to handle repeats for that file.
Dates in an Excel file arrive as Excel's own date numbers. Mention dates in your request so the feature that uses the file reads them correctly.
If a file dropped into a shared folder has a problem, you will not see it on screen. Tell us if something you sent does not show up.

Billing, cancelling, your data

$1,500 a month, flat. Billed to your card by Stripe. No setup fee, no hourly bills, no change orders, no contract. A promo applied at checkout works as it said there.
Month-one guarantee. If month one doesn't save you more than it cost, tell us within 30 days after month one ends and we refund it. Month one is your first 30 days after your first charge. Once per business. The full wording is in our Terms, section 3.
To cancel, email chris@radconsultants.com. There is no cancel button. Charges stop, and so does building. Building also pauses if a payment is overdue.
After you cancel, your data is kept for 90 days in case you come back. Then it is deleted from our live systems, and backup copies age out after that as our Privacy Policy describes. If you want it deleted sooner, ask.

Taking your data with you

An account admin can press Download all your data on the What shipped page of the portal at any time, before or after cancelling. You get one file with every request and its conversation, every attachment, everything stored in your app, and the rows from every file you brought in. Left out on purpose: sign-in links, the keys for your other systems, and Rad's internal notes. You can download once every 10 minutes, or email us and we send it.

Getting help

Something is broken: file it as "Something is broken". If it stops work, choose "Stopping work now". We are told the moment it is filed.
A question: file "Just a question", or email us.
Someone has access who should not: email chris@radconsultants.com straight away.
Anything else: chris@radconsultants.com.