Automations

These are real automations I've built - for a local business, for past employers, and for my own business. Not theory. Each one saved someone hours, or stopped something going wrong. What can I build for you?

Customer-Ready Equipment Servicing Report

reporting

A servicing report that took three hours to put together by hand now takes 60 seconds - saving a local maintenance business 150 hours a month.

AI Form Reading Assistant

When you have paper forms, this AI assistant can help you process them more accurately, but still with human oversight.

Foote and Flame: A Whole Business in One System

systems

The custom system that ran my previous business for nine years - 30,000 orders, $1.8M in payments, from online order through to the parcel leaving the door.

Automatic Invoice Sync to Xero

invoicing

Every order was automatically pushed to Xero as an invoice and marked paid by payment method, turning hours of reconciliation into minutes.

Automated Adobe Illustrator Tasks

artwork

ExtendScript automations for filing, preparing, and exporting artwork saved hundreds of hours across tens of thousands of orders.

Online Artwork Approvals

artwork

A self-service online approval flow replaced back-and-forth emails, cutting approval time while keeping a personal touch.

After-Hours Locker Pickups

operations

A keypad-controlled electronic locker let customers collect orders outside business hours, safely and with a full audit trail.

Machine Completion Monitoring

monitoring

A workshop-wide dashboard announced when machines finished, boosting utilisation and giving long-term usage data for maintenance planning.

Etsy Product Sync

integration

Product changes made on the main website automatically pushed through to over 100 Etsy listings via the Etsy API.

Etsy Order Import

integration

A bookmarklet and API integration kept Etsy orders in sync with the main website, with automatic retries when Etsy's API failed.

MyPost Business Bookings

shipping

A one-click CSV export let 100 parcels be booked and paid for with MyPost Business in under 5 minutes, including international customs handling.

MyPost Business Label Rearranging

shipping

A script automatically re-sorted printed shipping labels into pick piles, slashing the time to match 100+ labels to boxes.

Artwork Filesystem Layout

files

Quickly find files, years later, saving your staff time, and impressing your customers.

Workshop Compressed Air Pressure Monitoring

monitoring

A sensor and audible alarm caught air-assist pressure drops on laser cutters early, before they became a fire risk.

More ideas

The automations above are ones I've already built - the tip of the iceberg. Here are a few more worth thinking about for your business.

Reports out of systems that won't give you one

You've got a system that holds the data, but getting a customer-ready report out of it is a fight. That was the story behind the servicing report. If the data is in there, I can usually get it out and into the shape you need.

Appointment booking

Let customers book themselves in where it makes sense - saving you the phone tag and giving them clarity. Use what you already have (Microsoft Bookings, Google Calendar) or a third party platform built for your industry.

Tracking inventory

A barcode on a label printer gives you an instant view of stock. Check it in when it arrives, check it out when it sells. Stocktake becomes a walk around with a scanner instead of a day of counting.

Monitoring

If it's important to your business, it should be monitored, with a plan for when it stops. That's a website, an end-of-month process, or a weekly task that quietly stopped happening because the only person who did it left.

Telephone systems

For the customers who just want to talk to someone. Modern phone systems can be smarter - routing, voicemail to email, after hours handling - without losing the personal touch.

Filing systems

A consistent, scripted way of storing files means you can find anything again in seconds, even years later.

Got something in mind that's not listed here? Let's chat about it.