GHL automation in PHP and JS.
Built to survive handover.
Most GHL custom code ships fast, breaks quietly, and falls apart the moment the original freelancer is gone. This build is the opposite: a tight PHP webhook layer plus the JS front-ends your flows actually need, every endpoint idempotent and retried, every failure surfaced in a daily exception report, every workflow documented well enough that the next engineer (or you) can extend it without reverse engineering anything.
Three patterns we've all watched fail.
Custom GHL automation is easy to start and hard to keep alive. The three patterns below show up in almost every "the last freelancer disappeared" call I take.
Webhook receivers without retry
The receiver ships, GHL fires the webhook, the receiver 500s once on a cold start, and that lead never enters the system. Silent. Nobody knows until a customer asks where their booking went.
Glue code with no spec
"Just connect this form to that workflow" turns into a stack of PHP scripts no one wrote down. Six months later, every change is an archaeology project and small tweaks become full rebuilds.
Handover that nobody can extend
The build works on day one and is a black box by day thirty. No README, no test, no Loom, no commit history, no way for the next engineer to make a small change safely.
Spec, then code, then handover that holds.
Day one is a short discovery call to nail the actual automation (the brief is intentionally light, so the call is where we agree on the real scope). Day two ships a written one-page spec listing every workflow, every webhook, every endpoint, and every UI surface, signed off before code starts. The build itself is PHP for the webhook receivers and API integrations (small, single-purpose, idempotent), JS for any front-end glue or in-portal widget, and GHL native config wherever the platform already does it well (no custom code for things GHL ships out of the box). Every receiver has retry plus dedupe baked in. Every workflow has a smoke test that runs on deploy. Every failure routes into a daily exception report. Handover is a Loom library plus a written README in the repo so the next engineer can extend without ever reverse engineering. Shipped in checkpoints, working code each week, not one big drop at the end.
What you get. Phase by phase.
Each phase ships a working artifact you sign off on before the next begins. No mystery hours, no scope creep.
- 30 to 60 minute discovery call to map the actual automation needed
- One-page written spec: every workflow, webhook, endpoint, UI surface listed
- Stack decision per piece: GHL native, Make/Zapier, or custom PHP/JS, with reasoning attached
- Spec signed off before any code ships, so we both know what done looks like
- Whatever part of the automation GHL handles natively, built inside GHL not duplicated in code
- Pipelines, custom fields, workflows, forms, triggers configured cleanly
- Email and SMS templates, scheduled sequences, conditional branching wired correctly
- Full snapshot exportable for backup or future cloning
- Small, single-purpose PHP receivers for inbound webhooks and outbound API calls
- Idempotency keys plus dedupe so retried webhooks never double-fire
- Retry with exponential backoff on transient failures, exception logging on permanent ones
- Versioned code in a Git repo with commit history, not pasted into a server panel
- Lightweight HTML5 plus JS surfaces for any in-portal widget or external form your flow needs
- Designed to read and write through GHL's API so the CRM stays the single source of truth
- Mobile-first and branded to your stack with no extra frameworks unless one is actually required
- Hosted on a stable static origin (Cloudflare Pages, your server, or wherever you prefer)
- End-to-end smoke tests covering the happy path plus the two or three failure modes that matter
- Daily exception report (email or Slack) so silent failures stop being invisible
- README in the repo plus a Loom library walking every component end to end
- 30 minute live handover call so you (or your next engineer) can extend without reverse engineering
Three weeks. Working at every checkpoint.
Each week ships something live. Click any week to see what lands.
Deliverables this week
- Discovery call and written one-page spec, signed off
- GHL pipelines, custom fields, workflows, forms, and templates configured
- Conditional branching and scheduled sequences wired and tested live
- Snapshot exported for backup and future cloning
Deliverables this week
- PHP webhook receivers live with idempotency keys plus retry plus exception logging
- Outbound API integrations (whatever the spec calls for) wired and tested
- HTML5/JS front-end surfaces live where the flow needs one
- Git repo committed with versioned history, not pasted into a server panel
Deliverables this week
- End-to-end smoke tests covering happy path plus two or three failure modes
- Daily exception report routed to email or Slack so silent failures stop happening
- README in the repo plus a Loom library walking every component end to end
- 30 minute live handover call covering daily use plus how to extend safely
What this week is for
- Any scope discovered during the build that the spec didn't catch
- Performance tuning if a webhook or front-end needs sharpening
- Bonus polish on the docs or Loom library if the QA week ran short
- Or skipped entirely if the build is clean by end of Week 3, you keep the time
Let's nail the spec on a call.
A 30 minute discovery call where I share my screen, walk through how I'd structure the PHP webhook layer plus the GHL native build, and we lock the one-page spec together. Happy to walk through commercials on the call.