Quotes built by hand
Each quote priced from a spreadsheet, typed into a document and checked before it goes out.
Could be costing you aroundA$19,500 a year6 hours a week at A$65 an hour
Free 2-hour Workflow Mapping Session for qualified businesses
For Australian businesses whose work follows the same steps every time: quoting, invoicing, orders, scheduling and reporting.
- A$3M+ revenue
- 5+ staff
- Work that runs through inboxes, spreadsheets and copy-paste
How Zeroth works
6 min
In six minutes: what your routine work costs you, how we estimate what automating each piece would return, why we build first the automations and systems that will benefit you most, and why the first step costs you nothing.
Where the week goes, and what it costs you
Most of the cost sits in small jobs that repeat every week and that nobody adds up. A few examples, and what each could be costing a business.
Invoices typed from job sheets
Completed jobs and delivery dockets typed into a spreadsheet, then typed again into the invoice.
Could be costing you aroundA$15,000 a year5 hours a week at A$60 an hour
Orders copied out of emails
Orders and enquiries read in the inbox and typed into another system, line by line.
Could be costing you aroundA$22,000 a year8 hours a week at A$55 an hour
Emails sorted and forwarded by hand
Someone reads the shared inbox and sends each email on to sales, accounts or operations.
Could be costing you aroundA$13,750 a year5 hours a week at A$55 an hour
Purchase orders raised and chased
Purchase orders typed up, sent, and chased by email until the supplier confirms.
Could be costing you aroundA$12,000 a year4 hours a week at A$60 an hour
The same report, rebuilt every week
Sales, stock or job figures pulled from three spreadsheets and pasted into the same report.
Could be costing you aroundA$13,500 a year3 hours a week at A$90 an hour
Illustrations, not client figures: hours a week × an hourly rate × 50 working weeks. In your Workflow Mapping Session, we cost your own workflows from your own numbers.
Four ways an automation pays back
Worked examples on an example business, not a client. In your Workflow Mapping Session, the figures come from your own numbers.
1Savings per automation
Orders entered from emails
Orders that arrive by email go straight into your system, and the hours your office spent typing them go to work that earns revenue.
What it's worth in this exampleA$13,800a year
2Increased capacity
Quotes in three-quarters of the time
Each quote takes 3 hours, not 4, so the same team sends about seven more a month and wins more work.
What it's worth in this exampleA$90,000a year
3Achieved value
A follow-up on every quote
Every open quote gets a follow-up, where by hand only a quarter of them did. The value is in the jobs those follow-ups win.
What it's worth in this exampleA$64,800a year
4Increased efficacy
Fewer orders that go out wrong
Every order is checked against the quote and the stock before it ships, so the chance of a costly mistake falls from 10% to 3%.
What it's worth in this exampleA$84,000a year
How Zeroth works
1Diagnose
Free · two hoursThe first phase: working out what to build first. For most businesses, Diagnose is one free Workflow Mapping Session: two hours, in person or online, with you and the people who run the work that repeats.
- 15–20 minThe call
A call with Peter McEvey to learn about your business and check the fit.
- 2 hoursThe Workflow Mapping Session
In the session we find what's limiting your business right now, map the few workflows where it sits, and pick the first thing to automate to relieve it.
- AfterwardsThe Workflow Automation Plan
The first build, with its estimated price and return, and the builds that would follow it.
- ThenYour decision
You decide whether to start the first build, or keep the plan and stop. Where a business is more complex than two hours can cover, Diagnose is our full Systems Diagnostic instead.
2Deliver
Go-live date in your delivery engagementWe build the automations or solutions that produce the greatest ROI.
Your build order, ranked on return for the price
- Design Review
- Build
- Test on your data
- Go live and train
3Evolve
Monthly, optionalYour business keeps changing after go-live. Evolve keeps what we built working as it does, and keeps building the next items on your list, at the pace you choose.
Each month: everything live kept running, and the next item built
Why the usual starting points stall
AI training and workshops
The team learns the tools. How the work runs stays the same.
Costs the work
Estimates each return
Built in
A free audit, then their software
The audit recommends what that agency sells. It covers part of the work, and the team works around the rest.
Costs the work
Estimates each return
Built in
Hiring another admin
The same work by hand, one salary higher.
Costs the work
Estimates each return
Built in
The Workflow Mapping Session
Your work costed, each return estimated, every build priced.
Costs the work
Estimates each return
Built in
Figures from our builds
Under a week
From the start of one client's Business OS build to signing in on their own Microsoft tenant, with email, calendar and Xero connected.
From the project log~A$43,700
A year of monthly invoicing at one business, by their own estimate. We've built an automation that prepares those invoices.
Their own estimate~A$15,500/yr
The estimated effective value of that invoicing automation, using the savings method above.
Estimate~10 hrs/week
Estimated saving from a tool we're building that reads incoming emails and enters the quote and delivery details into a stock management system.
EstimateWhat it costs
Diagnose
Starts hereThe first phase: working out what to build first
Workflow Mapping Session · two hours, in person or onlineFree
For qualified businesses doing more than A$3M a year in revenue with five or more staff, Diagnose is a free two-hour Workflow Mapping Session. For a business with many teams, many systems or compliance obligations, it is our full Systems Diagnostic, from A$3,900.
- Two hours with you and the people who run the work that repeats
- What's limiting your business found, and the workflows where it sits mapped
- A Workflow Automation Plan: the first build, with its estimated price and return
- No obligation to build anything afterwards
Deliver
After Diagnose, if you chooseTypically from A$5,000
Delivery usually starts from A$5,000, paid up front or monthly. The first build your Workflow Automation Plan recommends, designed with you first, each item priced before you order. Tested on your own data, and handed over with your team trained.
Evolve
Optional, month to monthQuoted
Quoted with your delivery engagement. If you decline it, everything is handed over on your own accounts.
Who this is not for
Businesses under A$3M a year, or with fewer than five staff
The free Workflow Mapping Session is for qualified businesses doing more than A$3M a year in revenue with five or more staff, ready to start now, with A$10k or more set aside for AI and automation. Below that there usually isn't enough work that follows the same steps for a build to return much, and the owner is often the one doing it.
Solo operators
You are the workflow, and there's nothing to hand off yet.
Processes that are "whatever needs to happen this week"
We automate processes that already exist. If there's no established way of doing things yet, settle that first.
If none of these describe your business, book the call. If the Workflow Mapping Session doesn't suit you, we will say so on the call.
Book a callCommon questions
Who qualifies for the free session?
Qualified businesses doing more than A$3M a year in revenue with five or more staff, with work that runs through inboxes, spreadsheets and copy-paste. We confirm it on the call.
What happens on the call?
It is a short sales call, 15–20 minutes, with Peter McEvey, who runs every engagement. We learn about your business, answer your questions, and if your business qualifies, book your free Workflow Mapping Session.
Is the session in person or online?
Either. The Workflow Mapping Session is two hours, in person or online, with you and the people who run the work that repeats.
How much of my team's time does it take?
Two hours: the Workflow Mapping Session, with you and the people who run the work that repeats. Bring them to the session: we draw out opportunities across the whole business.
Where do the figures in the plan come from?
From your own numbers and what your team tells us in the session. The prices and returns in the Workflow Automation Plan are estimates.
Do we have to build anything afterwards?
No. The Workflow Mapping Session is free. You see what the first build would cost and return, and then you decide whether to start it.
We want an AI strategy. Is this the right place?
Yes. The Workflow Mapping Session gives you what a good AI strategy should: a plan grounded in your own workflows, with the first build priced and its return estimated. You decide whether to build it.
How is a build paid for?
In full when you sign your delivery engagement, or monthly. If you pay monthly, the terms are written into your delivery engagement before you sign it.
Do we have to take Evolve?
No. Evolve is optional and runs month to month on 30 days' notice. The one exception is a build paid monthly, where Evolve runs for that payment term. If you decline it, everything is handed over on your own accounts.
Our work is very specific. Can any of it be automated?
That is what the Workflow Mapping Session tests. The work still needs judgement. We leave your judgement alone and find the copying and re-keying around it. If nothing is worth building yet, the plan says so.
What happens to our data?
What we build runs on your own Microsoft 365 or Google tenant and your own accounting package, with role-based access and a record of every action. You own all of it.
Book a call
A 15–20 minute call with Peter McEvey to learn about your business and check the fit. If your business qualifies, we book your free two-hour Workflow Mapping Session.
Request sent
Your request is in.
Peter will confirm by email and send the meeting link. Until then the time is held for you. A copy of your request is on its way to your inbox.
If anything changes, reply to that email or write to peter@zeroth.au.