Aptelus

Project software for teams under 100 people · In early development

Run complex projects without running spreadsheets.

Milestones, requirements, flow-downs, and specs tracked with the work, so you don't miss anything.

Aptelus brings the proposal, plan, schedule, budget, documents, and status of every project into one place. Your team spends its time on the quality of the work, not on keeping trackers up to date.

Get early access Book a 30-minute conversation

Prefer email? Write to [email protected]

Product preview

See Aptelus at work

Example project · illustrative data
Aptelus project dashboard showing cost and schedule performance gauges, earned work, cost at completion, projected margin, and work packages
Project dashboard

Budget, schedule, and progress for one project at a glance, with what needs attention next.

The problem

Complex work, held together by spreadsheets.

Technical projects involve many people, steps, resources, and customers at once. Teams across testing, manufacturing, repair, and consulting describe the same three problems.

01

The work outgrows the tools

Multi-step jobs across labs, shops, people, and customers end up tracked in spreadsheets, email threads, and whiteboards.

02

Time goes to tracking, not to the work

Engineers and managers rebuild status reports and reconcile trackers instead of doing the work they're best at.

03

Problems surface too late

A slipping schedule, a budget running over, a handoff that stalled. By the time someone notices, the good options are gone.

Three pillars

Budget. Schedule. Quality. Held together.

Every project rests on the same three things. The three facets of the Aptelus mark stand for them, and the product keeps all three in view at once.

Budget

The proposal becomes the budget, broken down the way you priced the work. Budget vs. actuals and earned value update as the work moves.

Schedule

Plan tasks, people, and work centers against the same structure, and see a slip while there's still time to recover.

Quality

The bar the work has to clear. Documents and records live with the project, and the time saved on tracking goes back into doing the work well.

How it works

One place for the whole project, from proposal to close.

  1. 1 · Proposal

    Start from the proposal

    Scope, budget, and plan, broken down by task, subtask, and work center the way you priced the work.

  2. 2 · Plan

    Plan people and resources

    Schedule tasks, people, and work centers against that same structure.

  3. 3 · Execute

    Work in one place

    Progress, hours, and documents are recorded where the work happens, not in a side spreadsheet.

  4. 4 · Stay ahead

    See issues early

    Status, schedule, budget vs. actuals, and earned value update as work moves, so problems show while there's time to act.

  5. 5 · Close

    Close with the full picture

    Report and invoice from the complete project record, not from rebuilt spreadsheets.

  6. 6 · Learn

    Carry the lessons forward

    Every closed project becomes a record of what worked and what didn't, ready for the next proposal.

Managers get one dashboard that rolls up every active project. Your team signs in with its existing Microsoft 365 accounts.

After the project closes

Every closed project makes the next one better.

Most teams close a job and move on, and the same problems show up on the next one. Aptelus keeps the full history, so you can see why a project went the way it did and make sure it doesn't happen again.

Know your prior performance

See how each closed project did against its budget, schedule, and requirements. If it ran over, see where and why: which tasks, which work centers, which changes.

An AI assistant that knows your projects

In development

Ask questions and run deep research across your own project history. Spot the patterns behind past overruns and catch them in the next proposal, before the work starts.

Made to fit

One size doesn't fit all. So we're starting with you.

Most project software is built to be one size fits all. Teams end up bending the way they work to suit the tool, and filling the gaps with spreadsheets and workarounds.

Enterprise systems promise a fit, at a price: a large license, then a second bill for consultants to customize it, and months before anyone uses it.

Aptelus is being built the other way around: set up for your industry out of the box, for teams of up to 100 people, without an implementation project.

Who it's for

Teams whose work is too complex for a task list.

Small and mid-size technical teams, not enterprise IT departments.

Testing laboratories

Test programs with specimens, equipment, technicians, and reports all moving at once.

Job shops and contract manufacturing

Jobs that pass through quoting, programming, machining, inspection, and shipping.

Aviation repair stations

Work packages that change with every inspection finding and parts delay.

Environmental and geotechnical consultants

Projects that run from field sampling to lab results to the regulatory report.

Contract R&D and engineering

Programs with milestones, deliverables, and budgets to answer for.

CROs and preclinical labs

Studies with protocols, samples, timelines, and change orders to keep straight.

Equipment repair services

Repairs where diagnosis, parts, customer approval, and turnaround all depend on each other.

Your kind of work?

If your projects have more moving parts than a spreadsheet can hold, we'd like to hear from you.

Real people with real problems need real solutions.

Help shape it

We're talking with teams before we open early access.

A conversation, not a demo or a sales pitch. We want to understand how your jobs really run before we finish building.

  1. 30 minutes

    One video call

    Scheduled at a time that suits you, over Microsoft Teams.

  2. No prep

    Walk us through a recent job

    From the first request to the invoice, in general terms. Nothing proprietary, no customer names, nothing export-controlled.

  3. In return

    A summary of what we learn

    Anonymized findings across all interviews, so you can see how other teams handle the same problems.

  4. Pick a time

    Prefer email? Write to [email protected]

FAQ

Common questions

How is this different from a project management tool?

General project tools track tasks. Aptelus is built around the whole job: the proposal, the plan, the people and equipment, the budget, and the record, in one place.

Is Aptelus for large companies?

It's built for teams of up to 100 people: labs, shops, repair stations, and consultancies that need real project control without an enterprise rollout.

Will we have to pay for customization?

The goal is that you won't. Aptelus is being built to come set up for your industry out of the box, so it fits on day one instead of after a consulting project.

Does it replace our LIMS, ERP, or accounting system?

No. Aptelus is meant to work alongside the systems you already use and bring the project picture together in one place.

When can we try it?

Early access opens after the current round of interviews. Sign up below and we'll send one email when it does.

What happens to what we share?

Interview notes are kept confidential and used only for this research. Findings are reported in aggregate; we never share names, companies, or anything that identifies you. Your email is used only to contact you about Aptelus, and you can ask us to delete it at any time.

Early access

Get notified when Aptelus is ready to try.

A short form: your work email, your role, and whether you'd be open to an interview. One email when early access opens. Nothing else.

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Contact

Contact the team

Questions about Aptelus, or know a team we should talk to? Reach us directly.

Email the team