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AI automation agency: one process at a time

We automate one repetitive office task (reading orders that arrive by email, preparing a quote, sorting the shared inbox), typically in 2 to 4 weeks. By default, someone on your team signs off before anything goes into the ERP or out to a customer.

Updated

From

£3,400 ex VAT

Timeline
2 to 4 weeks
Pricing
Fixed price per stage
Describe your projectEstimate my project
A sample screen, for illustration. The companies and data are made up.
E-mailsPDFsAutomationERP / CRME-mailsPDFsAutomationERP / CRM

You need this if

  • The sales office re-keys orders into the ERP every day from emails and PDFs.
  • Simple quotes wait for days because the sales team is out on the road.
  • One shared inbox takes orders, price requests, complaints and junk, and somebody sorts it by hand.
  • Data moves between the ERP, the CRM and a spreadsheet by copy and paste.
  • You have tried an off-the-shelf AI assistant: it writes well, but it knows nothing about your part numbers or your prices.

What an automation project includes

  • The process, written down

    How the job is done today, step by step, with volumes, odd cases and the point where a person has to decide.

  • The workflow

    Built in n8n and installed on a server in the European Union, in your name. It reads, extracts, checks and prepares; every step stays visible and editable.

  • The sign-off screen

    The person sees the original document next to what the workflow proposes, corrects it if needed and approves. By default, nothing is posted or sent without that click.

  • Connections to your tools

    Mailbox, ERP, CRM, spreadsheets: through an API, file exchange or a connector.

  • Log and alerts

    Every document handled is recorded: what was read, what was proposed, who approved it. An alert goes out if the workflow stops.

  • Handover

    Documentation, admin access and a walk-through for the person who approves and for your IT contact.

Example: sorting the shared inbox

A typical run, for illustration. The company and the messages are made up.

  1. 1

    A customer writes to the sales inbox: ‘Could you resend the material certificate for our last delivery?’

  2. 2

    The workflow classifies the message: document request, known customer, order found from its number.

  3. 3

    It fetches the certificate from the order record and drafts a reply with the attachment.

  4. 4

    The sales office reads the draft, edits it if needed and sends it with one click.

  5. 5

    A complaint or a price request gets no drafted reply: it is passed to the right person with a short summary.

How a project runs

  1. Specification

    We map the process with the person who does it, on a sample of 30 to 50 real documents. Scope, pass criteria and price are fixed in writing.

    2 to 3 days

  2. Build

    The workflow is built on a test environment and run against the sample. You see the results document by document.

    1 to 2 weeks

  3. Pilot

    The workflow runs alongside the normal routine. Every difference is logged, then fixed or added to the list of cases left to a person.

    3 to 5 days

  4. Launch

    Go-live, training for the person who approves, documentation handed over. One month of fixes against the specification is included.

    1 to 2 days

Durations to scale, using the longest stated

What the price covers

The starting price is for one process, one input (a mailbox or a folder) and one connection to a tool, sign-off screen included. The specification here is a short scoping of 2 to 3 days, included in the price; no audit is needed for a single process. The final price is fixed at the end of it, before the build.

Estimate my projectSee pricing

One process automated
from £3,400 ex VAT
Connection to an extra tool
from £800 ex VAT
AI review and roadmap (optional), deducted from the first project we build for you
£1,650 ex VAT
Maintenance
from £390 ex VAT a month
Server and language model
billed by the providers to your own accounts

Payment, for each stage

30%
on order
70%
on accepted delivery

Which business processes are worth automating?

The ones that come round every day, follow rules you can write down, and give a result someone can check at a glance. These are the five to look at first in a manufacturing SME.

ProcessWhat comes inWhat the automation doesWho signs off
Sales order entryEmails, PDFs, customers’ Excel filesReads the order, finds the customer and the items, checks prices and quantities, prepares the draft in the ERP.The sales office
Quote preparationWebsite form, email, attached drawingReads the request, matches items and options to the price list, prepares the quote.The salesperson
Supplier invoicesPDFs and e-invoicesMatches the invoice to the purchase order and the goods received note, proposes the coding.Accounts
Sorting incoming requestsShared inbox, website formClassifies, summarises, routes to the right person, drafts replies to routine requests.The person it is routed to
Moving data between toolsERP, CRM, spreadsheetsCopies customers, prices or stock from one tool to another and flags differences.The owner of the tool, on differences only

A project covers one row of this table. If you are not sure which to start with, the AI review is there to choose it.

What not to automate yet

  • A process nobody can describe. If two people handle the same order in two ways, agree on one first. Automation applies a rule; it does not find it for you.
  • Low volumes. At five documents a week, keying them in costs less than the project and its upkeep.
  • Decisions that bind the company. Agreeing a discount, accepting a lead time, answering a complaint: the workflow prepares the file, a person decides.
  • Messy data. Duplicate part numbers or a price list kept in several spreadsheets will break the matching. Clean up first.
  • What your ERP already does. If a module from the vendor covers the need, switch it on. A customer portal also fixes the problem at the source: the customer keys in the order.
A language model is sometimes wrong, and does not say so. That is why every project keeps a human sign-off by default and counts the corrections during the pilot.

Bespoke automation, an online tool or specialist software?

OptionAdvantageLimit
Specialist software (order entry, accounts payable)Designed for high volumes, with a vendor’s support desk.Subscription, prices rarely published for an SME, set-up work still needed.
Online automation tool (Make, Zapier)Quick for linking two cloud tools.Billed by volume, data processed on the vendor’s servers. See the comparison with n8n.
Bespoke automationFollows your rules, your part numbers and your ERP; the workflow and the accounts are yours.Needs a named contact on your side and upkeep over time.

If you handle high volumes in many different layouts, specialist software earns its place. If your rules are unusual or the volume is modest, a bespoke workflow is enough, and it stays yours.

Where your data goes

  • A server in the EU, in your name. The workflow runs on a server in the European Union, opened in your name. Processed documents and the log are kept there.
  • The model sees only the document. The text of each document is sent to the language model through its API for the time it takes to process it. It receives neither your customer records nor your price list: matching against ERP data happens on your server.
  • A model chosen with you. Claude, GPT or Mistral, called through an option that processes data in the EU when the provider offers one. The access keys are yours.
  • An agreement before real data. A GDPR data-processing agreement is signed before we touch any real data, including the sample used for the specification.

The hosting options for models are set out on the AI consultancy page.

Frequently asked questions

How much does it cost to automate one process?

From £3,400 ex VAT for one process, one input and one connection to a tool, sign-off screen included. The price is fixed at the end of the specification. To see where that sits in the market, read the guide to AI automation pricing.

How long before it is live?

2 to 4 weeks. The timing depends mostly on access to your tools and on the availability of the person who does the job today.

Will it work with our ERP?

Yes, as long as we can write to it through an API, a file import or a connector, whether you run Sage 200, Access Dimensions, Pegasus Opera, Odoo, SAP Business One or an in-house system. The specification checks what your version allows before the price is fixed.

What happens when the AI gets it wrong?

The person signing off sees it before it has any consequence: the proposal sits next to the original document, and anything the workflow is unsure about is flagged with the reason. During the pilot we count the corrections to decide whether the workflow is ready.

Who owns the workflow?

The server, the n8n account, the language model keys and the documentation are in your name from day one, and rights in the workflow pass to you as each stage is paid. You can then change it without us.

What happens after go-live?

One month of fixes against the specification is included. After that, maintenance (from £390 ex VAT a month, no lock-in) covers monitoring, updates and two hours of adjustments a month, for instance when a customer changes the layout of their orders. Beyond those two hours, re-tuning is quoted.

Read next

Start with a fixed-price audit

In one to two weeks you know what to build, in what order and in what price range. The audit fee is deducted from the first project we build for you.

£1,650 ex VAT 1 to 2 weeks See a sample report

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