CrashShield: Watchdog and State Checkpointing for Accounting Apps
8/10
Demand Score
Crashes during close or payroll cause rework and missed deadlines; preventing data loss yields immediate productivity gains.
7/10
Blue Ocean
Competition Level
$199-999
Price/Month
Predicted customer spend
45 days
Time to MVP
Difficulty: Moderate
The Problem
A companion process for desktop accounting software that prevents work loss from freezes/crashes. It monitors the app via ETW and UI Automation, autosaves at safe checkpoints, sandboxes risky operatio
🔗 Validated by Real User Complaints
This problem has been verified through 3 real user complaints:
Competitor Landscape
- Sentry (desktop)
- New Relic
- AppDynamics
- Vendor-native autosave (basic)
Must-Have Features for MVP
Safe autosave checkpoints with schema-aware validation
Deadlock and freeze detection via ETW and heuristics
Transaction journaling for long-running operations
Auto-restart to last good state
Add-in isolation and crash scoring
Redacted diagnostic bundles for vendor tickets
Policy-driven save frequency and CPU/memory guardrails
Admin console with fleet health and MTBF trends
⚠️ Potential Challenges
- Ensuring autosave points are consistent with business rules
- Avoiding interference with vendor EULAs
- Handling third-party add-ins safely
- Windows/macOS permissions and notarization
Risk Level: Moderate
🎯 Keys to Success
- Demonstrable reduction in lost work incidents
- Seamless end-user experience (transparent saves/restores)
- Easy opt-in/opt-out per workflow
- Clear metrics: crashes avoided, time saved
Ready to Build This?
This moderate-difficulty project could be your next micro-SaaS success.