Questions we get asked before the audit.
The things a board or an owner actually wants to know before handing over a system that matters. If yours is not here, write to us and ask it.
Can you take over a system you did not build?
Yes. That is the work we are known for. We inherit systems built by vendors who are gone, unresponsive, or unwilling to help, and we start by reading what exists rather than replacing it. For one national members' organisation we rebuilt the platform without ever receiving the source code, reverse engineering behaviour where we had to. An inherited system is our normal starting condition, not an exception we tolerate.
Our system still works. Why do anything now?
Because the moment to act is while it still works. A system nobody can safely change is already failing, it is just failing slowly: security patches stop, the hosting bill drifts upward, and every request becomes a negotiation. The expensive version of this problem is the one discovered during renewal season, when there is no time to choose carefully. Latreia's audit is designed to be a small, early decision rather than a large, late one.
Why not just move to a packaged membership platform?
Sometimes you should, and we will say so. If your membership model is generic and lightly customised, packaged software will serve you better than anything bespoke. What packaged platforms handle badly is fifteen years of accumulated specifics: certifications, event history, club affiliations, and the rules that only your organisation has. Migrating those is a multi-year project with real data loss. That is a decision to make from an audit, not from a demo.
Would it be cheaper to hire a developer?
Rarely, and the cost is not the main problem. An organisation without a technical team cannot interview a developer credibly, cannot review the work, and cannot cover leave, illness, or resignation. If the hire succeeds, you end up with one person holding the entire system in their head. That is the exact position most of our clients were in when they called us. Latreia's plans start at $2,500 a month, with senior engineers and no single point of failure.
What if you disappear too?
The answer is structural, not a promise. Your code lives in your repositories, under your accounts. The infrastructure runs in your cloud subscription, in your name. Documentation is written as the work happens and is written for whoever comes after us, not for us. Any competent team could pick up where we left off. None has needed to, but the arrangement does not depend on that.
There is no documentation and nobody who built it is still here. Is that a problem?
It is the usual situation, and it is what the audit is for. We read the code, the infrastructure, and the bills, and we write down what is actually there: the structure, the risks, and how safely it can be changed. You do not need to know how your system was built, or whether what you want is possible. Arriving with nothing but the system itself is enough to start.
What does the audit give us?
A written finding that names the state of your system in plain language and makes one of three recommendations: stabilise what exists, extend it, or rebuild it. Each comes with a scope and a price. The finding is yours to keep, act on with us, or take elsewhere. It is deliberately written so that another firm could pick it up and it would still make sense.
Will you tell us to rebuild everything?
Only if the audit supports it. One engagement arrived framed as a full rewrite; the audit found the API and interface needed rebuilding and the mobile application only needed a refactor, which is a fraction of the cost. Recommending less work than we were asked for is a normal outcome, and it is the reason the audit is worth anything. A firm that always recommends a rebuild is not auditing.
Who owns the code and the infrastructure?
You do, throughout. We work in your repositories from the first day, so every commit is yours as it lands rather than at handover. The infrastructure sits in your cloud subscription under your billing. There is no stage of the engagement where the work is held somewhere you cannot reach it, and no handover event that has to go well for you to keep what you paid for.
What happens after the work is finished?
Most clients move onto a monthly plan: we host it, monitor it, patch it, and keep building, for one flat number. Plans start at $2,500 a month and retainer hours go to improvements rather than only to firefighting. It is an operating cost rather than a capital project, and the backlog keeps moving instead of stopping the day a project ends.
Still deciding
If your question is not here, it is a good first email.
Tell us what the system does, who depends on it, and what prompted you to look. We reply within two working days.
Book the audit