You didn't get into this to do data entry.
Deckhand builds systems that run the admin on the software you already use: quoting, invoicing, scheduling, records, follow-up. Your day goes back to the part that needs you in the room.
“Now the invoice goes out before I'm even at the site.”
What the desk work is costing you
Estimatehours a month back
at your own rate
Assumes a system handles about 60% of the work you'd hand to an assistant: the typing, the chasing, the copying between systems, and reading what people sent you in their own words. The decisions stay with you. The free hour replaces this guess with your actual numbers.
- Weeks, not monthsto have the first system running
- Nothing to migrateyour crew keeps the tools they know
- From $1,500to build it, priced before anything starts
On top of your stack, not instead of it.
You already bought the software. The problem isn't that you're missing a tool. It's that moving work between the ones you have is a person's job, and that person is you, at night.
- Jobber
- ServiceTitan
- Housecall Pro
- ArboStar
- SingleOps
- Service Fusion
- QuickBooks
- Xero
- Sage
- Wave
- FreshBooks
- Square
- Stripe
- Moneris
- Helcim
- e-Transfer
- DocuSign
- PandaDoc
- Jotform
- Google Forms
- Your own PDFs
- Google Workspace
- Microsoft 365
- Outlook
- Dropbox
- Calendars
- Text messages
- Mailchimp
- HubSpot
- The phone
Not seeing yours? There are hundreds of these and no list is complete. If your software has a way in, and almost all of them do, it can be plugged into. And when there is nothing to plug into at all: plenty of good businesses run on email, a whiteboard and one long-suffering spreadsheet. That works too. The system reads what is actually there rather than making you buy something first.
It asks permission until it has earned the right not to.
Handing your admin to software is only frightening if it acts before you trust it. A deckhand doesn't take the helm on day one: this starts by asking permission for everything, proves itself against work you have already done, and only then gets to act on its own.
It watches
Jobs, quotes, invoices, forms, email, bookings. One loop across every system work moves through, with a record for each job and where it has got to.
It asks
Anything customer-facing or irreversible reaches your phone as a one-tap decision first. It confirms where it had to guess, never where you already told it.
It proves
I backtest it against months of your real jobs and invoices, then run it live with you confirming everything, until it hits a bar we agree on in advance.
It runs
Only then does it act unsupervised, and it goes back to asking automatically the moment it slips. You get a short daily digest, not another dashboard to babysit.
Whole flows, end to end. Not features.
Each of these is a chain of small jobs that currently needs a human to carry it from one system to the next. That carrying is the part that goes.
Quote to invoice to paid
The quote goes out, the job gets scheduled, the invoice follows the moment it's done, and the reminders go out on their own. Nobody re-enters the same job three times, and nothing sits unbilled for a fortnight because the week got away.
How it runs, step by step →Scheduling and dispatch admin
Bookings, confirmations, reminders, reschedules and the phone tag around them, handled against your real calendar and crew availability, in your job software, not a new one.
How it runs, step by step →The follow-up nobody gets to
Cold quotes, service recalls, review requests, the customer you meant to ring back in March. All of it on a schedule, in your voice, and it stops the moment they reply.
How it runs, step by step →Once the first one has earned it
- Records and handoffsIntake, notes and files moved between systems without retyping.
- Capturing work as it arrivesCalls, forms and messages turned into a job record, not a voicemail.
- Something only you doThe screening, compliance check or dispatch logic nobody sells off the shelf. Scoped and quoted per job.
Start with one job. Then take the next one.
Nobody hands their whole operation to a system they have never seen work. So you don't. You start with the task you complain about most, and the rest follows once it has earned it.
One job off your desk
Usually invoicing or chasing quotes, whichever one you were complaining about when we met. Small enough that you find out quickly whether this works on your business, and cheap enough that finding out is not a risk.
Quicker and cheaper than the first
The connections into your job software and your books already exist, so the second system is mostly logic rather than plumbing. Most owners choose it themselves by this point. Once one thing is running unsupervised, it becomes obvious which task is next.
It stops being separate automations
Quote, job, schedule, invoice and follow-up start behaving like one operation instead of five errands. Work moves the whole way through without anybody carrying it between systems, which is the point at which owners tell me they stopped opening the laptop after dinner.
The thing nobody sells software for
The screening, the compliance check, the dispatch logic that exists only in your head and your business. This is where the biggest hours are usually hiding, and it is the work I like most, but it is the last thing to build, not the first.
There is no cap on how much of the operation this ends up running, and no per-seat cost as you grow. The monthly plan scales with what there is to look after. You move up a tier when the system is doing more, not when you hire someone.
Two numbers, both agreed up front.
What it costs to build the system, and what it costs to keep it running. Nothing is metered, nothing is per-seat, and a first system starts at fifteen hundred dollars, so you can find out whether this works on your business before committing to more.
Building it
One time · quoted against a written scopeThat is where almost everyone starts: one job taken off your desk, scoped tight, running in a fortnight. Each system after it is quoted against a written scope, and costs less to build than the first, because the hard plumbing is already done.
The scope is written down before anything starts, and anything added later is a change order you approve first.
Running it
Monthly · licence, support and changesOne system, running quietly.
- Licence and support on one invoice
- 3 hours of changes or repairs a month
- Monday to Friday coverage
- Automated health monitoring
For when the second system is on its way.
- Everything in Essential
- 6 hours of changes or repairs a month
- Next-business-day response
- A 30-minute review call every month: what it handled, and what to take off your desk next
- 10% off your second system
For when it runs a real share of the business.
- Everything in Standard
- 10 hours of changes or repairs a month
- Extended hours, weekends on critical, and a tight response target on anything urgent
- A quarterly planning session, in person on the Island if you like
- 20% off every new system, and yours go to the front of the build queue
You will do this arithmetic anyway, so here it is done properly: a first system plus twelve months on a plan.
Prepay the year and it is eleven months for twelve, so those become $4,800 and $8,100. Year two is the plan only. The build does not repeat. Move up or down a plan as the business changes, and if you ever want to take the system in-house there is a buyout figure in the contract from day one.
Ask them, not me.
The systems are running in vet practices, livestock operations and trades shops. The owners are the ones worth listening to.
I was doing invoices at ten at night after a day of house calls. Now the invoice goes out before I'm even at the site, the schedule looks after itself, and the local vet clinics get their follow-up without me having to remember. I didn't have to change any of the tools I use currently. Neil built the whole thing remotely. I never stopped taking appointments for it. I get almost a full day back a week, and I spend it with families instead of a laptop.
We were live in under two weeks, which is the part I tell people about. And the time it gave back went into the HR and admin work that had been sliding for months because nobody had the hours for it. Same team, same length of day. We just stopped spending it on document reviews and email responses.
The questions owners ask first.
Where does my data live?
In the software you already use. The system works through your job software, your books and your inbox rather than replacing them, so your customers and invoices stay where they are now. Where the data can't leave the building, as in clinics and firms, it runs on hardware in your building instead of the cloud. Which one is decided per client and written into the scope.
Will it send anything to a customer without my say-so?
Not until it has earned it. Anything customer-facing or irreversible reaches your phone as a one-tap decision first. It only acts on its own after it has been tested against months of your real jobs and has run live with you confirming everything, up to a bar we agree on in advance.
What happens when it gets something wrong?
It goes back to asking. The moment it slips, it stops acting on its own and puts decisions in front of you again until it is right. Health monitoring is included on every plan, and so are hours each month for changes and repairs, so fixing it is my job, not yours.
Why not just hire someone?
Sometimes you should, and the free hour will tell you if that is the answer. What a system does well is the carrying between tools: the retyping, the reminders, the invoice that should have gone out on Tuesday. It does not need training or holiday cover, and the cost is agreed up front. Most clients keep the same team and put the hours back into the work that needs a person.
Why not set it up myself in Zapier?
If you enjoy it and have the evenings, go ahead. Where do-it-yourself usually stalls is after the build: the odd cases, the automation that quietly stops working when an app changes, and the asking before acting that most home-made setups skip. The monthly plan exists so that part is looked after.
Do I have to change software, or retrain the crew?
No. There is nothing to migrate. Your crew keeps using the tools they already know, and the work just stops piling up on your desk.
What if I want to stop, or take it in-house?
You can move up or down a plan as the business changes. If you ever want to take the system in-house, there is a buyout figure in the contract from day one, so you know the way out before you start.
Are you local?
Based in Victoria. In person anywhere from Sooke to Nanaimo, and a call with a shared screen works just as well for everywhere else. Plenty of this runs perfectly well remotely.
An hour, and you'll know whether this is worth doing.
Not a sales call with a demo at the end. I ask how the work actually moves through your business, and then I give you a straight answer about whether there is anything here worth automating.
- Walk me through one job. Enquiry to paid. Every system it touches, every time somebody retypes something.
- I ask a lot of questions. Where it stalls, who chases what, which bit you do at nine at night because there was no time at two in the afternoon.
- I tell you straight whether there's anything worth automating. Sometimes there isn't, and you should hear that from me rather than find out after you have paid for it.
- If there is, a price before I leave. Not a range, not "it depends". What I would build first and what it costs.
I take on a limited number of clients at a time. So this hour is as much me working out whether I can genuinely help you as it is you working out whether you want me anywhere near your business.
No deck. No proposal to chase. No follow-up sequence. If the answer is no, you will not hear from me again unless you get in touch.
Nothing prepared. Just be near whatever you use to run jobs and invoices, so we can look at the real thing rather than your memory of it. In person anywhere from Sooke to Nanaimo, otherwise a call and a shared screen works just as well.
That's booked in.
I'll come back within one business day with a couple of times that might suit. Nothing to prepare. Just be near whatever you run jobs on.