Building in public

What we're building, and why

An honest, dated log of what's actually shipped in Squared Away — and what's coming next. Checklists today; a workforce operations platform next; a business operating system over time.

The short version

A real product, built by one person figuring it out

Squared Away is a small, independent project — I'm building it myself, and this is the first software product I've ever shipped. I didn't fully know what building and running a real app would take when I started, and I'm still learning a lot of it as I go.

The long-term aim is clear: build the operating system for small businesses by combining workflows, attendance, scheduling, analytics, and AI into one operational platform — without skipping the hard parts of getting daily work done reliably.

What I can offer instead of a long track record is a paper trail: every dated entry below is real work that shipped into the live app, not a promise. If you're deciding whether to trust a small, new product, that's the evidence I'd point you to — what's actually been built, when, and what's next.

If you have questions, feedback, or something feels off, I'd genuinely rather hear about it directly — email me any time.

Shipped

What's actually live right now

Sep 13, 2026

Orbit on your dashboard

After login, Today Hub shows a full-width Orbit briefing above your checklists — Script Studio video, today’s counts, voice and waveform from the same engine as Orbit Live, and rooms that stay on the dashboard without reloading the page. Logged-in conversations can persist to the database. Production runs on Render; apex/www redirect loops with Cloudflare are fixed by default (origin host redirect is opt-in).

Sep 1, 2026

Orbit is a labeled public link

Nav, footer, in-app header, and the sitemap now point to Orbit Live with the word Orbit — not a hidden clue. Learn still only names catalog lessons. Rooms and voice are filled; this is v2, not a new version.

Sep 1, 2026

Orbit Learn: a real lesson, not a fake course

The Learn room on Orbit Live now leads with a featured lesson, today’s prompt, and progress for this visit only. If you teach her something, she holds it for the visit — she does not pretend it is a permanent memory. Orbit is a public experience layer, not an operations assistant.

Aug 30, 2026

Orbit Live Terminal

Orbit has a place you can enter: four doors (Watch, Listen, Play, Learn) at /orbit/live. Every door opens. She will say when she does not have something connected yet — including your timecards and payroll. Not a content app. Not finished on purpose.

Aug 25, 2026

Site hardening: security, analytics, mobile

Added a mobile navigation menu (the site didn't have one), tightened the Content Security Policy to close a script-injection gap, added real page analytics, and cleaned up a few SEO loose ends.

Aug 24, 2026

Landing page: real screenshots, honest claims

Replaced every product screenshot on this page with real captures of the actual app — the old ones were AI-generated mockups that didn't match what Squared Away actually looks like. Also corrected a claim about team assignment (it's per-checklist, not per-item) and renamed "Team Accountability" to "Team Management" to match what it really does.

Aug 24, 2026

Trial accounts now get full Pro access, as promised

The 14-day trial banner has always promised full access to Pro — but a gap in the entitlement logic meant trial accounts weren't actually unlocking team attendance management, reports, or payroll export. Fixed, and verified against a live trial account both ways: trial gets full access, paid Basic still doesn't.

Aug 23, 2026

End of Day Recap

Added a login-time recap for owners and managers: what's still incomplete today, with staff-reported checklist gaps kept explicitly separate from system-recorded attendance exceptions. Live on every plan, not Pro-gated.

Aug 9, 2026

Analytics Engine

Shipped the read side of the Analytics Engine: dedicated projection builders for attendance, labor, and checklist-completion metrics, plus a reporting API that reads from those projections without ever touching the live operational tables.

Aug 6, 2026

Workforce Ops & Appearance (v1.1.0)

Shipped the Attendance Engine foundation (immutable punches → rebuildable timecards), Phase 2 workforce operations — Today Hub with clock-in as the centerpiece, manager shift approvals, exceptions inbox, versioned policies — plus Account Settings and multi-color appearance themes with optional highlight accents. Foundation and Workforce Operations phases are complete; Analytics Engine is next.

Aug 2026

A real design system, front to back

Reworked typography, colors, and spacing across the entire app; added a font picker so you can pick the typeface that's easiest for you to read; made the dashboard stats and checklist builder fully interactive; improved keyboard navigation and screen-reader support throughout.

Jul 27, 2026

Billing made more reliable

Fixed edge cases in subscription status handling and added automatic recovery for a class of billing hiccups, so plan changes and renewals stay accurate.

Jul 18, 2026

Due Today & Overdue at a glance

The dashboard now surfaces what's due today and what's overdue, so you don't have to scan every checklist to know what needs attention.

Jul 16, 2026

Full checklist lifecycle

Edit, archive, restore, and duplicate any checklist. Fixed a scheduling bug so weekly and monthly checklists can run on any day you choose, not just Mondays or the 1st. Added assignment (give a checklist to one team member), and a history of every completed run with who did what.

Jul 16, 2026

Manager role

Added a Manager role between Owner and Staff — managers can run day-to-day checklist operations and invite staff without getting access to billing or account deletion.

Jul 16, 2026

Full app audit

Went through every link, button, and form in the app by hand and fixed everything that didn't work correctly — including a broken error page that's now a proper, styled 404.

What's next

Where this is headed

Now — operations platform

The operations platform track continues (End of Day recap is live; fuller analytics and multi-site are Phase 3). Orbit v2 is filled and now meets you on the dashboard after login — hero briefing, Live client on /app, Script Studio–fed Watch video, Postgres for logged-in say. v3 wiring (ops stacks inside the terminal) stays frozen until usage earns it.

Operations platform: analytics dashboard productization, locations, richer roles, activity timeline
Orbit: observe the dashboard embed; optional next slices — conversation history UI, Listen imports, not v3 ops wiring yet

Later — bigger stacks

Wiring Orbit into operations, or feeding the rooms from a Media Machine, is a later version — earned by use, not by pretending the buttons are capabilities.

Later: operations → signals → EOD → Today → Hub inside Orbit (v3 — frozen until usage)
Media Machine: Watch import path is live; Listen · Play · Learn file feeds and automation still later
Product AI (checklist generation, smart reminders) stays after workflows and analytics are solid

Have a question, or a feature you need?

Tell me directly.

I read and answer every message myself.

Email me