Services / 04 core, 03 adjacent
Pick the painful job.
We automate it.
Most small businesses come to us for workflow automation first — one repetitive job that's eating the team's week. We pilot the fix in 2 to 3 weeks, prove the saving, then you decide whether to scale.
How we engage
Three commitments, smallest first
You never sign for the next step before the current one has paid its way. The first step costs you nothing.
Free 30-min audit
We walk through where your team's time goes and rank the jobs worth automating. You leave with the ranked list either way.
Free / 30 min / online
Small pilot, quoted up front
One job, in production, typically in 2 to 3 weeks. Scope and price agreed in the audit call, then locked. We hand over runbooks, alerts, and a working automation.
Quoted in call / 2-3 weeks
Scale once it's paid
Only after pilot #1 has saved more than it cost do we look at the next job. Optional small monthly retainer covers monitoring.
Modular / month to month
Core services
Four jobs we do well, dozens of times each
Workflow automation
Connect your tools and let the routine work run itself: data moving between systems, reports, scheduling, approvals. The jobs nobody should be doing by hand.
Common jobs
- Invoices from email into Xero or QuickBooks, reconciled to POs
- New-client onboarding (NDA, contract, kickoff folders, Slack)
- Order updates from Shopify to ops and customer in one go
- Weekly sales and inventory reports stitched from three systems
Tools
Timeline / cost
2 to 3 weeks for a pilot automation
Pilot scope and price agreed in the free audit
AI agents & assistants
Custom assistants that answer questions, draft replies and handle requests, for your staff or your customers, in your business's own voice and rules.
Common jobs
- Internal support assistant grounded in your ops handbook
- First-line customer reply on WhatsApp or the website chat
- Sales follow-up drafter that pulls context from the CRM
- Policy and HR Q&A so staff stop pinging managers
Tools
Timeline / cost
3 to 4 weeks to a usable v1
Pilot scope and price agreed in the free audit (plus model usage)
Document & data processing
Pull the information out of invoices, emails and forms automatically. Classified, checked and filed, without the manual capture.
Common jobs
- Supplier invoices captured straight into accounting
- Bank statements and credit-card slips reconciled monthly
- Application forms (PDF or scan) parsed into your CRM
- Quotes and POs matched against contract terms
Tools
Timeline / cost
2 to 4 weeks depending on document variety
Pilot scope and price agreed in the free audit
AI strategy & advisory
Not sure where to start? We map where AI will save you real money, and tell you plainly where it won't. No hype, no science projects.
Common jobs
- 30-minute audit: where your team's time is actually going
- Ranked list of automation opportunities with cost and saving
- Honest no-go list: where AI won't pay off for you yet
- Tooling shortlist that fits your budget and team
Tools
Timeline / cost
Audit in one week, roadmap in two
Free 30-minute audit. Roadmap scope and price agreed after
When automation isn't the answer
The same team, for the things automation can't fix
AI automation is where most engagements start. When a project needs more, the same senior team handles it. No handoff to anyone else.
Custom software delivery
When an off-the-shelf tool won't cut it, the same senior team builds what you need. Web apps, integrations, internal tools.
Senior technical advisory
Fractional CTO-level input. Architecture calls, hiring, vendor selection, the decisions that are expensive to undo.
System integration
Get your existing tools talking to each other properly, with or without AI in the loop. Often the unglamorous half of automation.
Where we've seen this work
The shapes of business that get the biggest wins
Not exhaustive. If you don't see your shape here, that doesn't mean no, it means we should have a 30-minute call.
01
Professional services
Accountants, lawyers, agencies
Typical win
Auto-fill engagement letters, onboarding packs, monthly reporting
Services that fit
02
E-commerce operations
Owner-managed online stores
Typical win
Order-to-courier flow, customer triage, returns workflow
Services that fit
03
Owner-managed manufacturers
20 to 200 staff, mixed systems
Typical win
Supplier invoice capture, BOM updates, stock alerts
Services that fit
04
Property and lettings
Sectional title, lettings agencies
Typical win
Tenant queries on WhatsApp, lease admin, levy reminders
Services that fit
The honest part
What we won't sell you
We'd rather lose the work than take on something we can't deliver well. Here's where we send people elsewhere.
- 01
Year-long digital transformation programmes.
We work in 2 to 4 week pilots. If it needs a steering committee, we're not the right people.
- 02
Selling or reselling software licences.
We earn nothing from your Zapier or OpenAI bill. The advice stays honest.
- 03
Replacing a good bookkeeper, accountant, or attorney.
We automate the work around them, not the judgement they apply.
- 04
Anything we wouldn't run in our own business.
If we wouldn't trust it for our payroll or customer data, we won't ship it for yours.
FAQ / services edition
The questions we get on the second call
- Who owns the automation once it's built?
- You do. The accounts, the code, the data, the credentials. Everything lives in your tenant. If you stop working with us tomorrow, nothing breaks.
- What happens when something breaks?
- Every pilot ships with error alerts, a review queue for edge cases, and a 30-day fix window included. After that, a small monthly retainer covers monitoring and small changes if you want it.
- Can you work alongside our existing IT team or developer?
- Yes, often. We're senior enough to slot into an existing team without ego. We've handed projects off cleanly and we've taken over half-built ones.
- Will our business data leave South Africa?
- Only if a tool you're already using sends it there. We design every automation around your data staying private and named, and walk you through exactly where it goes before anything is built.
- Can you train our staff to maintain it?
- Yes. We hand over runbooks, recorded walkthroughs, and a session with the people who'll own it. Most of our automations are maintained by non-developers once they're live.
- Do you sign NDAs?
- Yes, before any specifics are discussed.
Trigger Consulting
Let's find your first automation
A 30-minute call. We'll talk through where your time goes and whether AI can help. If it can't, we'll tell you that too.