TL;DR: Putting the big job scheduling app on hold. Focusing on invoice/receipt scanning with smart AI learning instead. Avoiding burnout by building smaller, focused tools first.
What changed?
I've been working on a comprehensive job scheduling and invoicing app for trades businesses. It's a massive project — scheduling, dispatch, invoicing, payments, inventory, mobile offline sync, the works. And honestly? It was starting to burn me out.
I realized I was trying to boil the ocean. Instead of shipping something useful, I was endlessly tweaking features that nobody's even tested yet. Not sustainable, not smart.
The new direction
I'm shifting focus to something more focused: invoice and receipt scanning with intelligent document processing. Here's why this makes sense:
- Smaller scope: I can ship something useful in weeks, not months
- Real problem: Everyone drowns in receipts and invoices, regardless of industry
- AI leverage: This is where AI actually shines — extracting data from messy documents
- Learning opportunity: Building aggregated learning systems that get smarter over time
- Foundation for later: When I revisit the big app, I'll have battle-tested document processing built in
What about the job scheduling app?
It's on hold, not dead. I still believe in it. But I need to prove I can ship smaller tools first, learn what actually works, and avoid burning out before anything launches.
This way, when I do come back to it, I'll have:
- Experience shipping and supporting a real product
- Better understanding of what users actually need (vs. what I think they need)
- Proven document processing that can plug right in
- More energy and better focus from not being overwhelmed
What's next?
I'm heads-down building the document scanning tool. Key features:
- Mobile capture (iOS/Android)
- AI-powered OCR and data extraction
- Aggregated learning that adapts to your specific documents
- Smart organization and search
- Export to accounting tools (QuickBooks, Xero, etc.)
If you're interested in early testing or just want to follow along, join the newsletter. I'll be sharing progress, learnings, and probably some failures along the way.
— Frozen River Software