Workflow Review and automation
You don't need to know what technology you need.
You only need to know that something is clunky. That the same thing gets written down twice, that the schedule lives in one person's phone, or that everything stops when they are away.
We look at how your business actually works, find where the time is going, and show you practical ways to make it simpler. Then, if it is worth doing, we build the fix and connect the systems you already run. Sometimes the answer is software. Often it is not, and we will say so.
Self check
Does your business have a systems problem?
Tick the ones that sound like you. Nothing is sent anywhere.
Three or more? These stop being separate annoyances at about three and start being a pattern. That is roughly the point where a Workflow Review pays for itself.
0 / 7
What we find
Nine steps became five.
This is a service business taking a booking. Nobody designed it. It grew a step at a time, and every step was reasonable when it was added. Three people touch it, four places have to be checked, and nobody can answer has this customer paid without going through somebody's messages.
Before
9 steps- 01 Customer Messages the business on WhatsApp
- 02 Owner Replies with a price from memory No record of the quote
- 03 Owner Writes the job in a notebook Only one copy
- 04 Crew Asks the owner what is on today The owner is the schedule
- 05 Crew Does the job
- 06 Owner Types up an invoice that evening Second time entered
- 07 Customer Pays by cash, cheque or transfer
- 08 Owner Ticks it off in the notebook Matched by eye
- 09 Owner Chases the ones that were not ticked Only if remembered
3 people · 4 places to look
After
5 steps- 01 Customer Books and pays a deposit on the site
- 02 System Puts the job on the schedule
- 03 Crew Sees what is on today from a phone
- 04 System Invoices the balance when the job is marked done
- 05 Owner Sees who has paid on one screen
4
steps removed. Not automated. Gone, because the payment moved to the front.
nothing retyped · 1 screen
The value here was never the technology. It was noticing that the customer was being asked to pay at the end rather than the beginning, which made four of the other steps unnecessary. We work out the process first, then pick the technology.
Stage one, the look
Four stages, about a fortnight end to end.
Questionnaire
Ten questions, about fifteen minutes, sent before we meet. Rough answers are fine.
The session
Sixty to ninety minutes on site. We watch the work being done rather than rely on how it is described.
The report
About four pages, roughly a week later. Findings, quick wins, bigger opportunities, and what we would do first.
Follow-up call
We go through it with you. Nothing in the report commits you to anything.
We talk to the people who do the work
Not only management. The person who has built a workaround because the system does not do what they need is the person who knows where the time goes, and that workaround is usually the finding. Nothing comes back with anybody's name on it.
Stage two, the fix
You are already paying for most of the answer.
The accounting system knows what the job cost. The booking system knows when it happened. The bank knows it was paid. Three systems hold the whole story between them, and a person spends their week carrying information from one to the next.
So most of what we build is not new software. It is the join between the things you already run, and the manual step in the middle retired for good. A join needs a way in at both ends. Most modern software has one, some older software does not, and the honest answer about yours is part of what the report tells you.
- Accounting and invoicing
- Booking and scheduling
- Payments and reconciliation
- CRM and enquiries
- Email and SMS
- Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace
- Point of sale
- Forms and approvals
- Stock and job tracking
- Reporting and dashboards
- Spreadsheets nobody can replace yet
What it costs
Two stages. You can stop after the first.
The report is a real deliverable, not a sales call with a price on it. Plenty of them will say the fix is a setting in software you already pay for, and that is a finished piece of work. If you do go on, the Review fee comes off the build.
Stage one · Workflow Review
$750
Introductory rate for the first Reviews. It will be set from measured delivery time once we have run a few.
Included
- A short questionnaire before we meet, so the session starts with questions rather than a blank page
- A 60 to 90 minute session at your place of work
- Up to three workflows mapped step by step, as they run today
- Conversations with the people who do the work, not only management
- A written report, usually four pages, with quick wins and bigger opportunities separated
- One follow-up call to go through it
Not included
- Implementation. That is stage two, quoted separately once the report exists, and you are free to have somebody else do it
- An audit of your accounts, records or security posture
- Legal, tax, employment, regulatory or financial advice
- A recommendation to buy software when something you already own will do
Stage two · Joined Up
From $4,500
plus $149/month
The band comes from the scope, and the scope comes from the Review. Nothing is quoted before we have seen the workflow.
Included
- A written scope first, naming every system, every direction data moves, and what happens when one end is down
- The connections themselves, built and tested against your real data rather than a sample
- The manual step retired properly, not left running alongside in case
- One dashboard or scheduled report, where the Review found a question people keep being asked
- Training for the staff whose job changes, and a one-page written procedure they keep
- Two weeks of watching after go-live, because this is the kind of work that fails quietly
Not included
- Software licences. If a join needs a paid tier of something you already run, that is yours and we tell you the figure before we start
- New applications. If nothing you own can hold the data, this is the wrong offer and we will say so rather than sell it
- Migrating years of history. We move what the workflow needs and quote the rest separately
- Connections to systems with no way in. Some vendors do not offer one, and no amount of money changes that
One join
$4,500 to $7,000
Two systems that should already be talking, one direction, and the duplicate entry between them retired. The people whose job changes are trained on the new step.
Joined up
$7,000 to $14,000
Several systems, both directions, the reminders and chasing that come with them, and one dashboard that answers the question staff keep being asked.
Past that
From $18,000
New roles, new workflow states and screens that exist in nothing you already own. That is a Custom App, it starts with paid discovery, and we will tell you when you have crossed the line.
Why there is a monthly
An integration is the only thing we build that can break without anybody touching it. The other end changes a field, expires a token or retires a version, and a connection that ran for a year stops overnight, usually without telling anyone. The monthly is the watching that notices, and the fixing when it happens.
Bigger or smaller
One workflow rather than three costs less at stage one. A review across several departments, with interviews through a whole team, costs more and is quoted on scope. Tell us the size of the business and we will say which fits.
Most businesses do not need more software.
They need the software they already have to work together. A good part of what we find is a feature the business is already paying for and has never switched on, and we would rather tell you that than sell you something.
If it turns out nothing needs building, the report will say so, and stage two never happens.