Administration
Every service in this group, what each one fixes, and the order to do them in.
You need this if
What is in this group
01
The admin that runs itself.
Custom workflows and automations, taking repetitive admin off your team one build at a time. I find where the hours go, then remove them.
First moveThe audit first: where the team's hours actually go, measured rather than guessed.
Business operations retainer, in full02
Where the hours actually go, measured over two weeks.
A written audit of the work your team repeats. I measure where the hours go over two weeks rather than asking people to guess, then rank the ten highest-value automations by hours saved, with what each would cost to build. You get the document whether or not I build anything from it.
First moveA short session with you on how the business runs and what worries you about it.
Workflow audit, in full03
Quotes that follow themselves up. Invoices that chase themselves.
A build that takes the quote from your first reply to the job in the calendar and the invoice paid, without anyone retyping it. Quotes go out from a template with your prices, follow up on a schedule until they are answered, and become an invoice in Xero the day the job is done.
First moveI map how a quote happens now, from the first message to the money landing.
Quote and invoice automation, in full04
Every enquiry answered in minutes, from every channel.
A build that catches every enquiry, whether it comes through the website form, the phone, email, Facebook or a text, answers it inside minutes, sends it to the right person, and logs it. Missed calls get a text back before the caller has finished ringing your competitor.
First moveI list every channel an enquiry can arrive through, including the ones nobody watches.
Enquiry handling, in full05
Bookings that land in the calendar and remind themselves.
A build that puts bookings straight into your calendar, confirms them by text and email, reminds the customer the day before, and gives them a link to move the time instead of ringing you. No-shows get followed up without anyone remembering to.
First moveI map how a booking happens now: who takes it, what they ask, where it gets written.
Scheduling and reminders, in full06
The forms and the month-end write themselves.
A build that produces your job sheets, compliance forms and month-end reports from the data your business already captures. The report that used to take a morning is finished and in the inbox on the first of the month, before anyone sits down to it.
First moveI collect every form and report you produce, and mark where each field actually comes from.
Paperwork and month-end reporting, in full07
Trained on your documents. It names its source, and says so when it has none.
An assistant trained on your own price lists, product sheets, policies and past jobs. Staff ask it the questions they currently ask the busiest person in the building, and customers get answers drafted from the same source. Every answer names the document it came from, and when there is no document it says so.
First moveI gather your documents: prices, product sheets, policies, terms, common email replies.
AI office assistant, in full08
Receipts filed from a photo. The bank feed matched before you look at it.
A build that matches the bank feed against your invoices and bills, captures supplier bills as they arrive by email, and files receipts from a photo taken at the counter. What is left for a person is a review, not a data-entry session.
First moveI look at a month of your actual bank feed, bills and receipts to see where the time goes.
Xero and reconciliation automation, in fullHow they fit together
Nothing here has to be bought at once. This is the sequence I would build it in, and it is the sequence your free plan puts it in.
An hour of admin removed is removed every week after. Three or four builds in, the retainer is paying for itself in recovered time.
Every automation decision made without measurement is a guess, and the guesses are usually wrong. The job that feels worst is rarely the job that costs most.
Most lost jobs are not lost to a competitor. They are lost to a quote nobody chased. The follow-up is the cheapest revenue in the business and the first thing to hand to a system.
The business that replies first usually gets the job. Most enquiries are lost in the gap between the message arriving and somebody being free to read it.
Booking by phone tag costs two people a string of calls and messages for one appointment, and the appointment still gets forgotten. A no-show costs a whole slot, and neither problem needs a person once the system is built.
Nobody is paid to retype information the business already holds. Paperwork is the clearest example of work that should stop needing a person.
In most small businesses one person is the manual. Everything runs through them, they cannot take a fortnight off, and the day they leave the knowledge goes too.
Bookkeeping hours are mostly matching and typing. Both are work a system does better, and the bookkeeper you keep is then spending their time on the judgement calls.
What people get wrong
They sayA retainer is just paying for someone to be available.
Every month ends with something built and running, documented, in your accounts. If a month produced nothing, you would be right to stop paying, and I would agree with you.
Business operations retainerThey sayWe already know what to automate.
Most businesses know the tasks they dislike. Frequency is what decides value, and frequency is the part memory gets wrong. Two weeks of measurement usually reorders the list.
Workflow auditThey sayCustomers hate automated follow-ups.
They hate silence. A short, plain follow-up from your name, sent on a sensible schedule, reads as organised. It stops the moment they reply.
Quote and invoice automationThey sayAn automatic reply feels impersonal.
A holding message that names what they asked for and says exactly when you will call reads as organised. Silence for a day reads as uninterested.
Enquiry handlingStraight answers
With the audit: where the team's hours actually go. Then the queue is worked highest value first, one build at a time, so every month ends with something real running.
More on Business operations retainerNo. The document is the deliverable, and it is written so you could hand it to another developer or work through it yourself.
More on Workflow auditYes. Accepted quotes become Xero invoices, and paid invoices stop the reminders. MYOB is possible and scoped on the call.
More on Quote and invoice automationIt does not take the call. It texts back within a minute of a missed call, with a link to book or a short question, so the caller has a way forward instead of a dead line.
More on Enquiry handlingThe one you already use. Google Calendar and Outlook are the common ones, and the job lands there with the address and the notes attached.
More on Scheduling and remindersYes. I copy your form, field for field, including the layout and the wording your customers and your regulator expect to see.
More on Paperwork and month-end reportingEvery answer names the document and the section it came from, so you can check it in seconds. Questions the documents do not cover get told to you as unanswered rather than guessed at.
More on AI office assistantYes, Xero is the one I build against most. MYOB is possible and scoped on the call.
More on Xero and reconciliation automationThe next move
The free plan asks a few questions about the business, then comes back with the services that fit, the order to build them in, and the figure for each one. Nothing is charged and nothing is booked at the end of it.