Numbers and records
We build bespoke software around how your business runs: a daily brief that answers "how are we doing?" from your own systems, job status in one view, and records apps where nothing off the shelf fits. Your existing systems stay the source of truth.
The problem
The answer is spread across the accounts software, the job system, the CRM and a spreadsheet, and you're the one who joins it up, usually from memory and usually late.
As of October 2026, Xero's and QuickBooks' own AI answer finance questions, and an AI seat such as Claude can read Xero data. Neither can see your jobs, rotas, stock or sector systems until someone joins those up safely.
What you get
Timeline
Define the numbers, who checks each alert, and the states and roles of one core workflow.
Click through the main screens and a sample brief with the team before we commit.
Build the app, connect up to two systems, add reporting and an audit trail.
Release with documentation and an operational handover.
Connected to
In depth
A daily owner brief is a short message, sent each morning, with the few numbers you would otherwise go and find yourself. For most owner-managed firms that means cash in the bank and due this week, overdue invoices, jobs booked against capacity, enquiries still waiting, and any deadline coming up. Each number comes from the system that already holds it: the accounts software, the job system, the CRM or the calendar. Nothing is retyped.
The brief only helps if someone other than you acts on it. So each number gets a named owner and a threshold. When cash due this week drops below a level you set, or a job slips past its date, the alert goes to that person as well as to you. The brief arrives by email, in team chat or through the AI seat you already pay for, and it records what it reported, so you can check it against the source.
We scope a brief inside a Build or Run engagement rather than selling it as a product. Before building one, list the questions the team brings you in a normal week. That list is the specification, and after go-live it is the test: tick how many the brief answered before anyone asked you. The guide The daily owner brief defines each number, its source and who checks it.
For finance questions, you may not need us. Xero offers a connector for Claude that reads your Xero data and has no write actions, and a ChatGPT plugin built on Xero's own JAX assistant. Either lets you ask about cash, invoices and bills in plain English. Xero also publishes a developer MCP server that can read and write, which is the route for anything that needs to change records, with the controls that implies.
What those connections can't see is the rest of the business: the job system, the CRM, stock, rotas and any sector tool. "How are we doing?" usually crosses all of them. We join those systems to the AI seat the firm already has, read-only where possible, with a person checking anything that would trigger an action. We choose the model per task, and the firm isn't locked into one provider. Connecting Claude or ChatGPT to Xero covers what each connector answers today, with dates.
The full guide, section by section
Some records have a date attached. Digital Waste Tracking is becoming mandatory in stages: permitted receiving sites in England and Wales from 1 October 2026, in Northern Ireland and Scotland from January 2027, and carriers, brokers and dealers from October 2027, after a public beta in spring 2027 (GOV.UK and DAERA, checked 24 October 2026). Sites can report through a spreadsheet or through an API linked to their waste software, and the spreadsheet route is expected to stay until at least October 2027.
An illustrative example, not a client result: a site whose weighbridge records each load already has most of the data. A small records app, or an integration with the existing booking or weighbridge software, can collect the missing fields at the gate, check them by rule and send the report through the API, with an exception list for anything incomplete. The site manager, not the owner, can then produce a full year of records on request. Digital Waste Tracking: spreadsheet or API covers who reports when and both routes in detail.
The same pattern fits other dated duties, such as holiday records under the Employment Rights Act 2025 or a letting agent's audit trail under the Renters' Rights Act, where the records are spread across tools nobody joined up. We build the record-keeping. Your regulator's guidance, solicitor or trade body confirms what you must keep.
Got a date you can't move? Tell us the duty and the records. We'll say on the call whether your current tools can hold them, and what it would take before the date. Book a call before the deadline
Buy first when a standard product can hold the states, roles and rules after careful setup; sometimes a required field, a shared view or a template is the whole fix. Connect when the data exists in systems you already pay for and someone just needs to see it together, or the AI seat needs to read it. Build when the team needs one place to see and act on the work, such as status, owners, approvals and exceptions, and connected tools can only represent it through fragile workarounds.
A bespoke app reads and writes through integrations, so the CRM, accounts software or job system stays the official record for its own fields. The app owns only what is missing elsewhere: the shared view, the brief, approvals, exception notes and the audit trail. The guide Automation or an operational application? goes through the choice in more detail, and quotes to cash covers the case where moving data is the whole job.
Swipe or scroll to compare the columns.
| Area | Rules (the application) | AI (bounded) | Person |
|---|---|---|---|
| Model and state | Maintains identifiers, transitions, dependencies and logs | Not used | Defines states, approves model changes, resolves conflicts |
| Visibility | Applies roles and separates internal from client-safe fields | Summarises a case for the next owner | Decides who may view, edit or export each type of information |
| Coordination | Calculates deadlines and flags blockers by rule | Drafts updates or replies for review | Confirms changes to scope, deadline or commitment |
| Exceptions | Creates a queue, keeps context, allows resumption | Proposes a likely cause or category | Takes the case, fixes the cause, decides if the process must change |
Complete this before asking for screens. It separates the work object from the system that owns it and the action the interface must allow.
Swipe or scroll to compare the columns.
| Object / case | Input | System of record | State and transition | Next owner | Permitted action | Exception and recovery |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Example: active project | Approved engagement | CRM + project system | New → planned → blocked → complete | Project manager | Confirm milestone | Delayed approval → alert and resume |
If you cannot fill in the owner or the system of record, you do not yet have an interface requirement; you have an operational decision to make.
AngajatAI agentic AI platform is a published case study of six connected product surfaces: an agent workspace, company knowledge as graph memory, assigned tasks, scheduled jobs, tool integrations and deployable sub-apps, with permissions and approvals visible. No performance metric is published.
PaxBespoke sales automation includes an operations interface for finding customers, updating details, moving meeting stages and managing room files, connected to the workflows behind it. People remain responsible for measurements, pricing and exceptions; no outcome metric is published.
Service delivery operations hub is a solution blueprint, not a client result. It proposes one view connecting engagements, milestones, dependencies, approvals and exceptions.
In the UK, a Build delivers one responsive operational web application with up to three user roles, one core workflow, up to two integrations, basic reporting and an audit trail for £35,000 excluding VAT, typically over eight to twelve weeks. Native mobile apps and large data migrations are not included. See the engagement models.
Complete the map for one case type, then compare options in Automation or an operational application? and read how we work. The AI readiness check suggests a direction in about three minutes.
If the numbers and records already exist but only you can join them up, book a call about your numbers to discuss the questions, the owners and a first release. Describe the workflow at role and state level; do not send credentials, customer data or internal documents.
"Operational application" means an interface built for the states, actions and responsibilities of one workflow that existing configuration does not express well. "Source of truth" means the system where a field is officially edited. "Bounded AI" means an assistant step with a defined purpose, sources, output and authority. This page describes an approach, not a quote or a promise of adoption, savings or timing.
FAQ
For finance questions, often yes. Xero offers a read-only connector for Claude and a plugin for ChatGPT, so you can ask about cash, invoices and bills in plain English. The assistant still can't see your job system, CRM, stock or rotas. We join those systems to the seat you already pay for, read-only where possible, with a person checking anything that triggers an action.
For the finance side, increasingly. Xero's JAX and QuickBooks' Intuit Intelligence (in beta on the UK site in October 2026) answer cash and invoice questions inside each product. What they can't see is the rest of the business. A daily brief is useful when the questions cross systems: jobs, staff, stock, sector tools and finance together.
Parts of it are. A scheduled brief, inbox sorting and answers that look across systems all work today, with a person approving anything consequential. An assistant that runs the business unsupervised doesn't, and we wouldn't build one. We sell the useful parts inside a Build or Run scope rather than as a product.
Our Build is £35,000 excl. VAT: one responsive web app with up to three user roles, one core workflow, up to two integrations, basic reporting and an audit trail, typically over eight to twelve weeks. Price rises with users and roles, integrations, approvals and data migration. Native mobile apps aren't included.
No. Those stay the source of truth for their own data. The app reads and writes through integrations and adds what's missing: the shared view, the brief, the approvals and the records for your process.
List the questions the team brings you in a normal week: where a job is, who owes what, what's due. After go-live, tick how many the brief or the app answered before anyone asked you. The ones left are what to build next, or what to stop worrying about.
