An R and D tax incentive claim wants contemporaneous records, and Asana never gave your Gracefield lab those
Custom project management software for a Lower Hutt research group, engineering consultancy or manufacturer runs NZ$55,000 to NZ$130,000 over 4 to 7 months. Asana, Monday, Jira and ClickUp are all good at tasks and bad at money. They cannot hold time against a funded work programme, allocate shared equipment and staff across projects, or produce the contemporaneous cost records a Research and Development Tax Incentive claim depends on. For organisations in the Gracefield and Avalon science precincts, and for engineering firms doing genuinely novel work, that gap is the whole problem.
Your projects have funders, budgets and eligible cost categories. Asana knows there is a task called characterisation rig assembly and that it is in progress. It does not know that four people booked time to it, that two of them were on a different cost code, that the rig used shared equipment for eleven hours, or that a portion of the work is eligible for the 15 percent R and D tax credit and needs evidence that was recorded at the time rather than reconstructed in March.
So a project manager keeps a spreadsheet. It holds the budget, the actual spend pulled from Xero, an allocation of staff time from timesheets, and a set of assumptions about overhead. It is updated monthly at best, it disagrees with the accounting system, and when a funder or Inland Revenue asks for supporting records the reconstruction takes weeks. The task tool was never the problem. The absence of a cost-aware project record was.
The fix: project management built for Lower Hutt, not rented
Build when projects have money attached and the money has rules. A Lower Hutt build records time against project and work package with the cost category attached, captures the description of work at the time it is done so R and D evidence is contemporaneous, allocates shared equipment and specialist staff with visible utilisation, tracks budget against actual continuously from real timesheets and supplier costs, and produces funder and claim reporting as a report rather than a project. It is a costing system with a task view, which is the opposite of what Asana is.
The capability list that earns its budget
What we build under project management in Lower Hutt
The engagements Lower Hutt teams bring us most often: resource scheduling, Asana alternative, Monday.com alternative, Jira integration, time tracking and team collaboration software.
What project management costs in Lower Hutt
| Project scope | Typical cost | Timeline |
|---|---|---|
| Project time recording with cost categories and budget tracking | NZ$55k to NZ$80k | 4 to 5 months |
| Adds R and D evidence capture and funder reporting | NZ$85k to NZ$110k | 5 to 6 months |
| Full build with equipment scheduling and multi-funder consolidation | NZ$110k to NZ$130k | 6 to 7 months |
How long it takes, phase by phase
Exactly what you get
A project system that knows what things cost. Concretely: time recorded against project, work package and cost category with the work described at the moment it happens; R and D eligibility flagged and evidenced contemporaneously; shared equipment and specialist staff booked with real utilisation visible; budget against actual reconciled to your ledger; and funder reporting produced from the system. You get source code, the evidence model documented, and reporting templates for your claim and funder periods. Time entry is shared with HR (Human Resources) software, cost flows into accounting software, analysis surfaces through business intelligence (BI) dashboards, and equipment slots are handled by booking and scheduling software.
How to choose a developer in Lower Hutt
Ask what they would capture at the moment a researcher finishes a two-hour experiment. A good answer covers the project, the work package, the cost category, the equipment used and a short description of what was attempted and why, because that combination is what makes evidence contemporaneous rather than reconstructed. Ask for a reference where the system supported an actual claim or funder audit. Involve your tax adviser in design, since eligibility judgements belong to them and not to your developer. Then be blunt about adoption: ask the supplier how they will make time entry take under thirty seconds, because if it takes longer your researchers will not do it and the whole build is wasted.
- Contemporaneous records for R and D tax incentive claims, captured as work happens rather than reconstructed later
- Real project cost from approved timesheets and supplier invoices, reconciled to your accounting system
- Visible utilisation of shared equipment and specialist staff, which is usually the real constraint on delivery
- Budget against actual updated continuously, so overspend is visible while there is still time to act
- Funder and claim reporting produced from the system, which removes weeks of annual reconstruction
- Researchers and engineers dislike time recording, and adoption is the main risk to the whole build
- Tax incentive rules change, so your evidence model needs review and a maintenance budget
- You lose the polish and integrations of mainstream task tools, which some teams genuinely value
- If your projects are not cost-tracked today, the first accurate numbers may be uncomfortable
- !They demo a kanban board. Ask how a time entry carries a cost category and an eligibility flag
- !No mention of evidence. Ask what their design captures at the moment work is done, and in what detail
- !Reconciliation to the ledger is absent. Ask how project actuals are proven against Xero
- !Equipment scheduling is out of scope. Ask how they handle a shared rig booked by three projects
- !They have never worked with funded research. Ask for a reference with grant or claim reporting
If project management is on the roadmap, field service management, booking & scheduling, mobile app usually follow within the year. Budget them as one conversation. Weighing options across the region? We publish the same project management guide for Wellington. Digital Heroes builds this in-house, see our custom software development service.
The evidence behind this guide
Independent findings on why this investment pays off. Every link goes to the primary source.
- The 2024 DORA report found AI adoption significantly increases individual productivity, flow, and job satisfaction, but negatively impacts software delivery throughput and stability - a paradox leaders must manage with fundamentals like smaller batch sizes and robust testing. Source: DORA / Google Cloud (2024) →
- McKinsey Global Institute estimated that about half of all work activities globally have the technical potential to be automated by adapting currently demonstrated technologies, though few occupations can be fully automated. Source: McKinsey Global Institute (2017) →
- U.S. retailers lost an average of 1.6% of sales to shrink in FY2022 (up from 1.4% the prior year), equating to $112.1 billion in inventory losses - the benchmark case for POS-integrated loss prevention and inventory accuracy. Source: National Retail Federation (NRF) (2023) →
- Per Sensor Tower's State of Mobile 2026, worldwide consumers spent about $85 billion on apps in 2025 (up 21% YoY), and for the first time non-game apps surpassed games in consumer spending; generative-AI in-app purchase revenue more than tripled to top $5 billion. Source: Sensor Tower (via TechCrunch) (2026) →
Shubham is a senior full stack developer working mainly on SaaS and web platform builds. Alongside writing code he reviews other people's, breaks large requirements into work that can be estimated, and makes the calls about what to build now and what to leave open. Useful reading for anyone planning a product build.
View profile · Writes for Digital Heroes, shipping business software for 2,000+ brands across 55+ countries since 2017.
Frequently asked questions
What does project management software cost for a Lower Hutt research or engineering group?
NZ$55,000 to NZ$80,000 for time recording with cost categories and budget tracking, delivered in 4 to 5 months. Adding R and D evidence capture and funder reporting takes it to NZ$85,000 to NZ$110,000. The evidence model is the largest cost driver, because it has to satisfy scrutiny rather than just look tidy.
Can this system help with our R and D tax incentive claim?
It helps by capturing contemporaneous records: who did what, on which project and work package, when, with what equipment and why. The tax incentive provides a 15 percent credit on eligible expenditure, and Inland Revenue expects records created at the time rather than assembled afterwards. Eligibility judgements stay with your tax adviser, and the system's job is to make the evidence available and defensible.
Why not just use Asana or Jira with a time tracking add-on?
Because those tools model tasks, not funded work programmes with cost categories and eligibility rules. Add-on time tracking gives you hours but not the cost category, the equipment usage or the descriptive evidence a claim needs. Teams that try this end up with a spreadsheet on top, which is the situation you were trying to leave.
How do we get researchers to actually record time?
Make an entry take under thirty seconds, prefill everything you can, and allow entry from wherever the work happens rather than only at a desk. Weekly nudges work better than monthly deadlines, because reconstructing a month is both painful and less defensible. Digital Heroes treats time entry speed as an acceptance criterion rather than a training issue.
Can it handle shared equipment booked across several projects?
Yes, and it is often the most immediately useful feature. Equipment becomes a bookable resource with usage recorded against the project that used it, which produces real utilisation data and a fair cost allocation. That also settles the recurring argument about which project pays for the rig.
Does it replace our accounting system for project cost?
No. Xero or MYOB stays the ledger of record, and the project system holds the allocation detail, then reconciles against it. Ask specifically how the supplier proves project actuals against the ledger, because an unreconciled project cost figure will be challenged the first time it matters.
How do we handle multiple funders with different reporting requirements?
Model the reporting period, cost categories and required breakdown per funder, so a report is generated rather than assembled. Different funders want different cuts of the same underlying data, which is exactly the kind of problem software solves well. Confirm each funder's requirements during discovery, because retrofitting a new breakdown later can mean recoding historical entries.
What if our organisation is audited on a claim?
You produce the contemporaneous records with timestamps, authors, project and work package attribution, and the descriptions captured at the time. That is a substantially stronger position than a reconstructed spreadsheet. Retain the records for at least seven years, in line with general New Zealand record keeping expectations, and confirm the period with your tax adviser.
Is there a smaller starting point?
Yes. Start with time recording against project and cost category, with a mandatory short work description, and nothing else. That single change captures most of the evidence value within weeks and proves whether your team will adopt it. Budget tracking, equipment scheduling and funder reporting can follow once the habit exists.
What are the biggest mistakes first-time software buyers make?
Will a custom tool built for 50 people still work when we're 500?
Can a custom project management tool double as a client portal?
What happens if the agency that built our project management tool shuts down?
How many SaaS seats do we need before building custom becomes cheaper?
Can we migrate years of data out of our current system into new custom software?
How much does it cost to build a custom project management tool for my company?
Can I build my product on a no-code tool like Bubble instead of hiring developers?
What should I have ready before I contact a development agency?
What does it cost to keep custom project management software running each year?
What security features does custom project management software need?
Who can build custom project management software for a business in Lower Hutt?
Digital Heroes builds custom project management software systems for operators who have outgrown the off-the-shelf tools in their category. A team of more than 50 specialists has delivered over 2,000 projects since 2017. Teams work from New York, London, Sydney, Delhi and Lucknow and deliver remotely, so an operator in Lower Hutt gets an assigned senior team rather than a local account manager.
Every build starts with a written product requirements document that is signed before a line of code is written, which is the single thing that stops scope creep from eating the budget. Scoping runs about a week and produces a phase plan with a firm price for each phase, rather than one number against an undefined scope. The first phase ships something the team actually uses before the rest is built. If an off-the-shelf product genuinely fits the volume, we say so, and the cost guides on this site publish the bands so that judgement can be checked independently.
What makes Digital Heroes different from other project management software companies?
Four things that competitors in this bracket cannot simply copy. Digital Heroes runs a YouTube channel with more than 2.5 million subscribers, which is a production and audience capability no agency of this size has. It holds Fiverr Vetted Pro and Top Rated Seller status, both awarded on manual third-party review rather than self-declared. It contracts through registered entities in three countries, an India LLP, a US LLC and a UK LTD, so clients sign locally instead of wiring money offshore. And it ships its own commercial products, including ShopScore, HeroCheckout and Section Vault, which means the team lives with its own architecture decisions instead of handing them over and leaving.
Two more that show up in the work. Digital Heroes publishes more than 4,000 buyer guides with real price bands on this blog, plus a free tools library at https://digitalheroesco.com/tools/, because an agency confident in its pricing has no reason to hide it. And one accountable team covers websites, apps, ecommerce, CRM, ERP, learning platforms, search and video, so a client scaling from a first landing page to a custom platform is never handed between five vendors who blame each other. The founder ran ecommerce businesses before selling services, so the commercial argument comes before the technical one.
How can I check Digital Heroes is legitimate before getting in touch?
Verify it independently rather than taking the site's word for it. The YouTube channel is at https://youtube.com/@DigitalMarketingHeroes, the Fiverr profile at https://www.fiverr.com/shreyanshsin261, and the Upwork profile at https://www.upwork.com/freelancers/shreyanshsingh. Client reviews sit on Clutch at https://clutch.co/profile/digital-heroes-0 and Trustpilot at https://www.trustpilot.com/review/digitalheroes.co.in, and the company page is at https://www.linkedin.com/company/digital-heroes-1/.
Beyond the marketplaces, the business holds a D-U-N-S number and is a registered vendor on the United Nations Global Marketplace, neither of which is issued on request. Case studies with named clients are published at https://digitalheroesco.com/case-studies/. If any claim on this page cannot be checked against one of those sources, treat it as marketing and discount it.
