04
Development
API & Systems Integration
Connect your CRM, ERP, accounting, store and payment systems so data moves on its own, mapped in writing, retried safely and monitored.
From$2,500
Software Development · Service 03
Workflow Automation & Business Systems
Automate the re-keying, chasing and copying that eats your team's week, with clear rules, a queue for the exceptions and a log of every step.
Starting from
$2,800
- Discipline
- Software Development
- Shortest timeline
- 2 to 5 weeks
- Clients
- Businesses, organizations & founders
- Delivery
- Remote, worldwide
What this service is
Copying, re-keying, chasing and checking: if the steps are the same every time, a person shouldn't be doing them by hand. Your team's attention belongs on the cases that need judgment.
Workflow automation hands the repetitive, rule-based parts of a process to software: moving data between systems, routing requests for approval, generating documents, sending reminders and running month-end routines. We start by timing the work as it happens today, so you know which steps are worth automating and how many hours each one costs.
Not every workflow needs custom code. If Zapier, Make or Power Automate can do the job cleanly at your volumes, we'll say so and set it up properly. We build custom automation when the rules get complicated, the data is sensitive, failures are expensive or per-task pricing starts to outgrow the value. Either way, anything the rules can't decide goes to a person, and every automated step is logged.
Problems we solve
The situations that bring people to us
Automation is worth a serious look if your team's week includes any of these.
The situation todayWhat changes
The same details are typed into two or three systems, and the copies drift apart
Data entered once, with every connected system updated automatically
Approvals stall in someone's inbox, and nobody can see who is holding them up
Routing rules that send each request to the right approver, with reminders and escalation
Quotes, contracts and letters are assembled by hand from old templates
Documents generated from your data and approved templates, consistent every time
Someone spends Monday morning chasing timesheets, invoices or missing paperwork
Scheduled reminders that do the chasing and escalate only when a deadline slips
A quick automation someone set up breaks quietly, and nobody notices for days
Monitored workflows that alert a named person as soon as a step fails
When an auditor asks who approved something, the answer is buried in email
A complete audit trail of every step, decision and change, easy to search and export
What you get
Deliverables
Not every engagement includes every item. Your proposal lists exactly what's in scope, and what isn't.
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01
Process audit and time study
Each step of the current process mapped and timed with the people who do it, so effort goes where the hours really are.
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02
Rules catalog
Every trigger, condition, routing rule and exception written in plain language and signed off by the process owner before the build.
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03
Build-or-buy recommendation
A straight comparison of Zapier, Make, Power Automate and custom code for your workflows, covering cost at your volumes, limits and risks.
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04
Approval and routing engine
Requests routed by amount, department, region or any rule you define, with delegation, reminders and escalation built in.
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05
Document generation
Quotes, contracts, invoices and letters produced as PDF or Word files from approved templates, filed automatically and sent for e-signature where needed.
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06
Exception queue
A shared work list where anything the rules can't decide waits for a person, with the context needed to resolve it and a record of the outcome.
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07
Scheduled jobs and notifications
Nightly syncs, month-end routines and reminders by email, Slack or Microsoft Teams, each one monitored and alerting on failure.
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08
Audit trail and savings report
A permanent log of every automated action and decision, plus a before-and-after report on hours saved, measured against the original time study.
Visual model
How an automated workflow runs
How the pieces typically fit together on this kind of engagement.
Form submittedWeb or internal form
Record changedCRM, ERP or finance
ScheduleDaily or month-end
Email receivedAttachments read
Rules engineValidate, route, approve and generate
Automated pathRoutine cases handled end to end
Exception queueUnusual cases sent to the right person
Your systemsUpdated automatically
NotificationsEmail, Slack or Teams
Audit trailEvery step and decision
Common use cases
Where this work usually applies
Practical patterns rather than industry labels. The shape of the problem matters more than the sector.
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Use case 01
Invoice and purchase approvals
Supplier invoices captured from email, matched to purchase orders, routed by amount and cost center, and posted to Xero or QuickBooks once approved.
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Use case 02
Employee onboarding and offboarding
One HR record triggers accounts, equipment requests, contracts for signature and training, and access is removed on the last day.
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Use case 03
Order-to-invoice handoff
Won deals in your CRM become orders, fulfillment tasks and invoices, without anyone retyping a line item.
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Use case 04
Contracts and client documents
Proposals, engagement letters and contracts built from deal data and approved clauses, sent for e-signature and filed in the right folder.
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Use case 05
Month-end and recurring reports
Figures pulled from several systems on a schedule, checked and assembled into the same report every month, ready before the team logs in.
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Use case 06
Reminders and renewals
Missing documents, overdue payments and expiring certificates chased on a schedule, with reminders stopping as soon as the item arrives.
Our approach
How we handle this kind of work
The parts of our method that matter most for workflow automation.
- 01
Measure the work before automating it
We time each step with the people who do it. If a task takes ten minutes a month, automating it probably isn't worth the cost, and we'll say so.
- 02
Use the simplest tool that will hold up
If Zapier, Make or Power Automate handles the job within its limits, that's what we'll recommend. Custom code is for the workflows those tools can't run safely or affordably.
- 03
Design for the exceptions, not just the happy path
Missing fields, duplicates and unusual amounts all get a defined path. When the rules can't decide, a person does, with the context in front of them.
- 04
Run old and new side by side
Each automation runs in parallel with the manual process first, so you can compare results before anyone stops doing the work by hand.
- 05
Report the hours saved honestly
After go-live we time the same steps again and report the difference, including anything that improved less than expected.
Project stages
From first conversation to delivery
Each stage has a defined output and a review point, so you always know where the work stands.
How our process works-
01
Audit
Process walkthroughs, a time study of each manual step and a ranked list of what's worth automating first.
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02
Rules
Triggers, routing, exceptions and notifications written up and signed off, with a build-or-buy recommendation and a fixed quote.
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03
Automate
Workflows built and tested against real past cases, including the awkward ones that usually get handled from memory.
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04
Parallel run
The automation runs alongside the manual process, and the two sets of results are compared until they match.
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05
Cutover
Manual steps retired, the team trained on the exception queue, and monitoring and failure alerts switched on.
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06
Measure
A follow-up time study and savings report, then rule tuning based on what lands in the exception queue.
Capabilities
What we bring to this work
Only the capabilities that matter for this service, and nothing we wouldn't actually recommend.
Automation
- Approval and routing rules
- PDF and Word document generation
- E-signature workflows
- Email and attachment parsing
- Scheduled and event-driven jobs
- Exception queues and work lists
Tools
- Zapier, Make and n8n
- Microsoft Power Automate
- Custom workflow services
- Webhooks and API connections
- Email, Slack and Teams notifications
- Spreadsheet and file imports
Control
- Audit trails and run history
- Failure alerts and safe retries
- Role-based access to queues
- Version-controlled rules
- Time studies and savings reports
- Runbooks and team training
Delivery and engagement
Typical timelines
Timelines depend on the number of systems involved, the quality of their APIs, how many exceptions the rules must handle and how long the parallel run needs to be. Every proposal includes a dated schedule.
Single workflow with a few rules2 to 5 weeks
Multi-step process across several systems6 to 10 weeks
Department-wide automation program3 to 6 months, delivered one workflow at a time
Who it's for
Typical clients for this work
We work with companies, organizations and individuals. The requirement matters more than the size of the buyer.
Businesses
- Finance teams buried in invoice processing and month-end routines
- Operations teams copying orders between a CRM, a warehouse system and accounting
- Professional firms producing the same documents again and again
- Companies whose no-code automations have become fragile or expensive
Organizations
- Nonprofits processing applications, grants or memberships by hand
- Schools and training providers handling enrollments and certificates
- Regulated teams that need a clear record of every decision
Teams and individuals
- Operations leads who have become the human glue between systems
- Small teams where one person's vacation stops a process
Related services
Often commissioned alongside this
01
Development
Custom Software Development
Purpose-built applications that model your real operation (your data, your rules, your terminology), owned outright by you.
From$3,200
10
Consulting
Digital Transformation & Process Consulting
Find out where the working day really goes, remove the steps that don't need to exist, then choose changes and tools people will actually use.
From$2,400
Service FAQ
Questions about workflow automation
Why not just use Zapier, Make or Power Automate?
Often you should, and if so we'll set it up properly. Those tools are a good fit for straightforward workflows between popular apps at moderate volumes. Custom automation makes sense when the logic is complex, per-task pricing gets expensive at your volumes, data can't pass through a third-party platform, or a failure needs careful handling. Using both side by side is a perfectly sensible outcome.
How do you measure the time saved?
Before we build anything, we time each manual step with the people who do it and count how often it happens. After go-live, we measure the same steps again. The savings report shows the difference step by step, including any that didn't improve as much as expected.
What happens when the automation hits something it can't handle?
It stops and asks. Anything outside the rules, such as a missing field, an unusual amount or a supplier it doesn't recognize, goes to the exception queue with the details attached, and the right person is notified. Nothing is guessed, and nothing disappears silently.
What if our rules change later?
They will, and the system expects it. Thresholds, approvers and recipients live in settings your team can change without a developer. Changes to the logic itself go through version control and testing, so you can always see which rules applied on any given date.
What does the $2,800 starting price cover?
One well-defined workflow: a single trigger, a handful of rules, up to two connected systems with usable APIs, notifications and a simple exception queue. More systems, multi-level approvals, document generation and longer parallel runs add to the scope, and you'll see a fixed quote before you commit. If a no-code tool would serve you for less, we'll recommend that instead.
Starting from
$2,800
Final pricing depends on the number of workflows and systems, the complexity of the rules, document generation needs and the length of the parallel run. You'll receive a fixed quote against a written scope before any commitment.
Have a project in mind?
Tell us what you're trying to achieve. We'll come back with a clear view of the scope, the approach and the cost, and if we're not the right fit, we'll say so quickly.