A pair of budding Garin College entrepreneurs have not missed the bus when it comes to new money-making ideas.

Students Callum McMenamin and Jack Greenhill, both 15, have completed a new iPhone app for the Nelson City Council's NBus service, allowing users to check the time of the next bus, plan their route and more. Under their company name Cynergetic, the two have already produced several apps of their own design.

Jack's word-processing app, Documentation, made him $5000, with the app's popularity taking it to sixth place in App Store charts in Spain, Portugal and Taiwan.

Now they have finished their first app contract, a bus timetable app for the Nelson City Council's NBus service.

The app displays bus arrival times, route maps and a bus fare calculator.

An NBus user himself, Callum approached the Nelson City Council with an idea for a timetable app and a business plan for its production.

"I did a project proposal. I absolutely didn't know what to do," he said.

Working with the council's web content developer Dan Richardson, the pair worked out the design of the app, its features and its layout.

They sent over a mock-up, received a confirmation it was what the council wanted, and then coded the finished product in about 60 hours.

Jack said the project had been great, and he was keen to take on more work.

"People often underestimate our abilities because of our age. We can do anything, really. It's just people don't think we can."

NCC communications adviser Ali Hamblin said the council had already been looking at contracting a developer to create an app when it was approached by Callum with a good deal.

The council paid the pair $1000 for production of the app, after receiving other quotes seven times that price.

"We were keen to support them [and] from our point of view it was really good value for money."

The council expects to release the app in about four weeks, with details available on the NBus website.

- © Fairfax NZ News