What I do

A systems check

A look at the whole thing as it works now, before anything changes.

I’ll sit with you (and whoever else does the work), look at the tools you use and the real data in them, and follow a few everyday pieces of information (an enquiry, a job, an invoice) from where they start to where they end up. That’s usually where you find the things that get retyped, lost or stuck, and the gaps nothing is covering.

Afterwards you get a short write-up: a picture of how it all fits together today, what I’d change first, and roughly what each change would cost. It’s yours to keep, whether you ask me to do any of it or not.

Getting the data right

This is where most of my experience is. None of it works if the data underneath is a mess, and I’ve done hundreds of data migrations over the years, so when you’re moving to something new, or just need to trust your records again, I can sort it: finding the duplicates, the half-finished records and the fields everyone uses for something slightly different, deciding together what’s worth keeping, then moving it across and checking it properly against the old system before anyone switches over.

The data comes from all sorts of places. Old spreadsheets, Access databases, a system you’re leaving after years, and quite often a spreadsheet amnesty, where everyone hands in the spreadsheets they’ve been quietly keeping for things and we bring them together into one place.

Sometimes that’s the whole job, and that’s fine. You’ve picked the new system, and you just want someone to get everything across in one piece.

Designing the system

This is the bit I enjoy most. Most small organisations have collected their tools one at a time, each for a good reason, and nobody has ever stepped back and looked at how they all work together. So I do that, by following the information through all of them. Who needs what, where each bit of information should live, what happens when an enquiry comes in, a job gets done or an invoice goes out, and where people are filling the gaps by hand.

Then we work out what it should look like: what to keep, what to change, and what’s missing. You get it on one page, as a picture rather than a report, so it’s easy to talk through with your team and easy to come back to.

Building what’s missing

Then I build it. Where the tools you already pay for can do the job, I connect them and set them up properly, so things only get typed in once. Where nothing off the shelf fits, I design and build what’s missing. It could be:

• A simple tool to replace the spreadsheet everything quietly depends on.
• Screens that fit how your team actually works, sitting on top of the systems you already have.
• A portal or form for your customers, so they can see or send things without an email chain.
• Some automation that takes a weekly job off someone’s hands, or a bit of AI that’s actually useful.
• A website that says who you are, plainly.

I do the design and the build myself, so what you see in the drawings is what you get. We agree what it does and what it costs before I start, and you get it handed over with notes on how it works, so you’re never stuck depending on me.

The software I make for myself goes out under a different name, myriad of one.

How things get joined up

There’s nearly always more than one way to join things up, and the right one is usually the smallest that does the job properly. These are the steps I go through, roughly in order of size. Most jobs only need the first two or three.

1. use what you’ve got

   A lot of the tools you already pay for can talk to each other, and it’s just never been switched on or set up properly. Sometimes that’s an afternoon’s work.

2. connect them

   Where they don’t talk directly, a connecting tool (Zapier, Make or Microsoft’s Power Automate) can pass things across, so a new enquiry turns up in your customer list or a finished job becomes a draft invoice. It costs a few pounds a month, and nobody has to retype anything.

3. a bit of code

   Some jobs are too fiddly for the connecting tools, like matching up records or tidying the data on its way through. Then I write a small piece of code that sits between the two systems and does it properly.

4. something new

   When the systems underneath are fine but awkward to use, I build the screens, forms or portal that sit on top of them, so your team or your customers get something that fits how they work and the data still ends up in the right place.

5. replace it

   Sometimes a tool really has had its day, or it’s a spreadsheet doing a database’s job. Then we choose a replacement (or I build one), and I move the data across and check it.

I’ll always tell you which step I think you need, and why.

The tools I join up

These are the kinds of tools small organisations tend to run on. Some of them I’ve worked with for years, and where I haven’t used yours before I’ll tell you, and do my homework before I give you a price. If it isn’t on the list, ask. Most things can be joined up somehow, and if yours can’t, I’ll say so.

money

Xero, QuickBooks, FreeAgent, Sage, and taking payments with Stripe, GoCardless or SumUp

bookings

Calendly, Acuity, SimplyBook.me, and Outlook or Google calendars

customers

HubSpot, Pipedrive, Mailchimp, and the contact form on your website

email and files

Microsoft 365 (Outlook, Excel, SharePoint, Forms) and Google Workspace (Gmail, Drive, Sheets, Forms)

lists and records

Excel, Google Sheets, Airtable, Notion, and older Access databases

websites and shops

WordPress, Squarespace, Wix and Shopify

joining up

Zapier, Make and Power Automate, and the systems’ own connections (APIs) where those can’t cope

dashboards

Looker Studio or Power BI, or a simple page of its own

new things

when I build something new, it’s usually a small web app with its own database underneath

I’m not a partner or reseller for any of these, so I’ve no reason to steer you towards one over another.

Seeing how you’re doing

Once the information is in good shape and moving properly, it can start telling you things. I can set up a simple view of the handful of numbers that matter to you (enquiries, jobs, money in and money out, whatever it is), updated from the systems you already use, so you can see how you’re doing without a day of digging through spreadsheets.

And because the data underneath has been sorted, they’re numbers you can actually believe. It’s the same reason AI starts being useful: it’s only ever as good as the information you give it.

What it costs

We agree the cost before anything starts. Everything is a fixed price for a clearly defined piece of work, so you know where you stand and there are no open-ended bills. If you’d like me to keep an eye on things afterwards, that’s a small monthly fee.

The first conversation is free.