Diagnose. Deliver. Maintain.

If you know AI should be helping by now but can't see where to start, that's what the Systems Diagnostic is for: we measure how your business actually runs and find the ROI first, then deliver the build your Diagnostics Report describes, and keep it maintained as you grow.

The process.

DiagnoseWeeks 1–2

The Systems Diagnostic

We start with a short onboarding call to lock in dates and confirm who's involved. Then we run the Systems Diagnostic on site: an education session for your team first, followed by a workshop that maps every role, workflow and system in the business. Over the following days your team answers the questionnaire, workflow owners document what they run, Zed — our time-study agent — measures where the hours actually go, and we sit down one-on-one with the people who own the work. From there we analyse what we found and hand you your Diagnostics Report: what's worth building for your business, and every recommended build individually priced. We walk you through it together at the Diagnostics Review, before anything is built.

DeliverWeeks 2–4

Delivery of what your Diagnostics Report describes

Once you've accepted the build order in your Diagnostics Report, we deliver exactly what it describes. Sometimes that's existing software or AI systems set up properly; sometimes it's automations built for your measured workflows; often it includes the Zeroth Business OS install, because the framework makes AI across the whole business usable and expandable, on shared context with role-based access and an audit trail. We test all of it on your live data, then deploy and run a training session, so your team is using it from day one.

MaintainOngoing · monthly

Maintenance and evolution of the system

From the day you go live, we start monitoring the system and responding to issues. It runs as a simple monthly plan: ongoing updates, a monthly status read-out, and a quarterly check-in to agree what's working and what should come next. Optional from day one, and cancel any time.

One platform, in five layers.

Where your build needs a platform, it runs on the Zeroth Business OS framework. How each layer works in your business.

L1

Foundation

Your context, written down

What your firm does, who your clients are, how you write, and how work actually gets done: how a proposal gets made, how an invoice gets raised, what "done" means. Captured during the diagnostic workshop, so when you ask for a proposal it reads like your firm wrote it. New staff inherit this on day one instead of absorbing it over eighteen months.

WhyWithout it, every conversation starts by explaining who you are. That's why most firms' AI never gets past generic.

L2

Database

Your records, in a real database

A database in your firm's name holding the things you have to be able to count: time, projects, clients and pipeline, tasks, tickets, leave and expenses, plus a read-only mirror of your invoices. "Which projects have unbilled hours?" becomes a query, not a guess, and each person sees only the rows their role allows.

WhyDocuments can't count. Anything you need to filter, total, invoice or reconcile needs a database behind it, with permissions the database itself enforces.

L3

Integrations

The gateway to your tools

The single door between the AI and the systems that touch the outside world: Xero, email, calendar, payments. This is what lets it draft your invoices from approved timesheets and send email from your mailboxes. Every action is permissioned by role, anything irreversible shows a person a preview and waits for a yes, and all of it lands on an audit log nobody can edit, including us.

WhyThe moment an AI can send an email or issue an invoice, "usually right" stops being good enough. Something has to pause the irreversible and show a person first.

L4

Workspace

Your files, where they already live

Your existing SharePoint or Drive, permissions unchanged: if someone can't open a folder today, the AI acting for them can't either. Ask for a document and you get a real file in the right folder, in your template, not a wall of text to reformat. Nothing is migrated and we take no copy.

WhyMoving your files onto a vendor's platform makes them the ones holding your documents. Staying on your own setup keeps your permissions, and your exit, yours.

L5

Intelligence

The interface your team works in

The model on top, operated straight from Claude Cowork or Microsoft Copilot: conversation, role-scoped dashboards of live numbers, and scheduled work like a Monday brief or a monthly invoice batch, all on the same permissions and the same audit trail. When better models ship, this layer gets swapped and the four below keep your knowledge, your data and your history exactly where they are.

WhyModels change every few months. Your operating system shouldn't have to. A firm whose AI is one vendor's chatbot starts again; you don't.

Explore the Business OS

One published price to start. Every build priced before you buy it.

The Systems Diagnostic's price is published below. Everything you'd build after it is priced in writing in your Diagnostics Report, before you buy. All figures AUD, ex GST.

The front door

Systems Diagnostic

Fixed price · invoiced at booking · on-site in one to two weeks

Under 10 peopleA$3,900
Over 30 peoplePrice on quote
  • The on-site diagnostic day: education session, then workshop
  • The Diagnostics Report, with every recommended build individually priced
  • No obligation to continue — a complete piece of work either way
Get in touch

The deliverables

  • Onboarding and the on-site day: dates locked on a short call, then an education session for your team, followed by the workshop where your people build the diagrams of how the business actually runs — endorsed by the business before the day ends
  • One-on-one interviews in the days after — the staff questionnaire conducted with each person, and every shortlisted workflow described in detail: the steps, the edge cases, the tools, the workarounds nobody writes on a form
  • Zed, our time-study agent, in your Teams: fed by the interviews, it fills the gaps, takes extra information and issues as they arise through the week, and measures how long each part of each task really takes — opt-in, working hours only, nothing captured passively
  • The Diagnostics Report: findings, a friction map and a prioritised plan, with every recommended build individually priced, walked through together
  • The Diagnostics Review: a 90-minute session to decide whether to build — no obligation to continue, and you keep the Diagnostics Report either way

Then, if you choose

Deliver — the build

Priced per item in your report · live in two to four weeks from build-order acceptance

We deliver what your Diagnostics Report describes, each item priced in writing before you commit. Often that includes the Business OS install: the platform that makes AI across the business usable and expandable.

  • Invoiced only on acceptance of a build order, at or after the Diagnostics Review
  • Software set up properly, automations, and the Business OS platform where the build needs one, each priced per item
See what's included

The deliverables

  • The build, as your report describes it: existing software or AI systems set up properly, automations built for your measured workflows, and, where the build needs a platform, the Zeroth Business OS
  • The Business OS, when it's part of the build: foundation and shared context, five role groups (admin, IT, HR, marketing, staff) and the base business-function set: time tracking, invoicing, CRM, projects, IT tickets, leave, expenses, staff onboarding and marketing, plus your team's skills delivered as a versioned plugin from a private repository in your own GitHub organisation
  • System design, then the build, live: locked with you in a short review session before anything is built, installed on the systems you already own, wired in through a permissioned, audited gateway, grounded in your voice and SOPs, tested on your live data
  • Training and handover: a session with your team on the running system, with written instructions per role, so it's in use from day one
  • Every item priced individually in your Diagnostics Report, offered at the Diagnostics Review, and built in the same window if you choose it

Ongoing

Maintain

From go-live · optional, cancel any time

Every build item is priced in your Diagnostics Report before you commit a dollar to building. Maintain is quoted with the build.

  • Monitoring and a monthly modification allowance
  • A monthly team session and status read-out
  • Database hosting included
Get in touch

The deliverables

  • Monitoring and support: we watch the system from go-live and respond to issues as they arise
  • Updates: model updates, API changes and dependency upkeep, the things that break quietly when nobody owns them
  • Monthly read-out: a written status update and a session with your team each month
  • Modification allowance: a monthly allowance for changes and small additions to the system
  • Quarterly check-in: we agree what's working and what should come next
  • Hosting: your database hosting is included in the plan

How we compare to the alternatives.

Three other shapes turn up when you go looking: an agency building agents one capability at a time, a one-day Claude training workshop, and a consultancy that embeds with you for months. Here's how the four models differ.

Agent agency Claude business training Zeroth OS for Business Embedded consultancy
What gets built Prebuilt agents per capability. The same product every client gets A demo you build on the day The Zeroth OS: shared context, five role groups, role-based access and an audit trail, plus automations on top Whatever the consultant you're assigned can build
Built for you, or not Not really. A free 30-minute audit leads to their product with your name on it No. The same group workshop every attendee sits through Yes. It starts with an in-person diagnostic workshop that maps how your firm actually runs, and what gets built comes from that In time. After a consultant learns your business on your invoice
Build cost Rarely published. Priced per agent, with fitting it to your tools extra Usually A$500 – A$1,000 a seat, and nothing is built Starts with a published-price diagnostic (A$3,900 – A$4,900). Every build item priced in writing in your Diagnostics Report before you commit Sometimes published as bands. Often tens of thousands
Ongoing No maintenance plan. Nobody owns the fix when it breaks None. There's no one to lean on afterwards A flat monthly plan, no minimum term — priced for your size before go-live Often A$10,000+ a month
Time to live Quick, because it's prebuilt. Narrow for the same reason A demo by the afternoon. The rest is left with you Two to four weeks from signature A quarter or more
Built for Any size, one capability at a time Solo operators. It doesn't reach a team Firms of 5 people and up Larger businesses, usually 30 people or more

Five questions to ask any AI consultancy.

Including us. Put all five to everyone on your shortlist and write the answers down. The differences between firms show up here faster than in any capability deck. Our answers sit under each question.

01

What ships, and who owns it afterwards?

If the deliverable is a strategy document, the price is too high at any number. If the system stops working the day you stop paying, you were renting it.

Ours: your Zeroth OS, running on your own database and your own Microsoft 365 or Google tenancy. You hold the accounts and the credentials. If we vanished tomorrow it keeps running, and the database hosting transfers to your billing.

02

Who maintains it when it breaks, and what does that cost?

Integrations break. Vendors change their APIs, models get retired. If the answer is "give us a call", ask what the call costs.

Ours: a flat monthly plan priced for your size before you commit to it; month to month, thirty days' notice, no minimum term. It covers monitoring, a modification allowance, a monthly session with your team and your database hosting.

03

Could our team build the next one without you?

The expensive version of AI consulting is the one you have to buy twice.

Ours, and this is where we're least flattering: your team runs the OS from day one. That's what the role groups, the written instructions and the monthly session are for. Building new automations on top stays our job. Anyone promising you'll be fully self-sufficient in ninety days is describing an outcome we've never seen. What actually changes is the price: once the platform is standing, each new automation is cheap.

04

Can we see progress while it's happening?

Visibility of what's shipped versus what's queued should be table stakes, not a premium feature.

Ours: the whole engagement runs two to four weeks, with a written update at every gate and a design you sign off before anything gets built. On a job this short, fortnightly reviews would cover most of the project. You see it running instead.

05

What do I have to spend before I know what everything costs?

If the price is hard to get, that tells you something on its own.

Ours: A$3,900–A$4,900, published. That buys the Diagnostics Report: the install price and every automation, individually priced, in writing — before you commit a dollar to building. Above thirty people we scope and quote, and we say why instead of leaving a blank.

Ready for an operation that runs itself?

If you want your business running more efficiently and you're not sure where to start, get in touch below. We'll tell you what we would build, what it would change and what it would cost.