The questions we'll ask

We start with the basics — what you do and who handles what.

• In your own words, what does the business do and who are your customers?
• How long have you been going, and how big is the team now?
• Who does what day to day — owners, office/admin, on-the-tools or field staff, contractors?
• Are there busy seasons or quiet patches through the year?

We map the software you already use, so anything we build plugs into it rather than replacing it.

• Accounting — do you use Xero? What for: invoicing, bank reconciliation, GST, reporting? Who's in it day to day?
• Job management — do you use Tradify (or Fergus, simPRO, ServiceM8, AroFlo)? For quoting, scheduling, timesheets, job tracking?
• How do you pay your staff — Xero Payroll, Smartly, IMS, manually, or mostly contractors?
• Email and calendar — Google Workspace (Gmail) or Microsoft 365 (Outlook)?
• Customer comms — how do you reach customers: phone, text/SMS, email, WhatsApp?
• Enquiries — where do new ones land: website form, Facebook/Instagram, Google, phone?
• Payments — how do customers actually pay you: bank transfer, card, online pay link?
• Anything else in the mix — spreadsheets, a CRM, inventory, supplier portals, a shared drive?

We trace one job from the first enquiry all the way through to getting paid.

• Walk us through what happens from a new enquiry all the way to getting paid.
• How does an enquiry reach you, who replies, and how quickly?
• How do you put a quote together, and how long does that usually take?
• After you send a quote, do you follow up — and honestly, how often does that slip when it's busy?
• How do you schedule the job and remind the customer it's booked?
• How does the invoice go out, and how long until it's paid? Many that drag on?
• Do you ask for reviews or check in after the job's done?

We dig into the admin that quietly eats your week.

• Where does most of your own week go that you wish it didn't?
• What does your admin or office person spend most of their time on?
• What's the single most repetitive task in the business?
• What eats into your evenings or weekends?
• What slips through the cracks when you get slammed?
• If you could wave a wand and have one part just run itself, what would it be?
• Have you tried to fix any of this before? What didn't stick, and why?

A rough sense of the numbers so we can right-size what we build.

• Roughly how many enquiries, quotes, jobs and invoices in a typical week or month?
• Ballpark average job or invoice value?
• How many people would actually use the new tool?
• Any sense of what the admin is costing — hours a week, or a part/full-time salary?

We get clear on what a genuine win looks like for you.

• If this works, what's genuinely different in six months?
• What's the one thing that, fixed on its own, would make this worth it?
• Who makes the call on something like this, and what's your rough timeframe?
• Do you have a budget in mind, or would you rather we come back with options?
• How do you feel about us connecting to your tools — we can start read-only?

We make sure nothing's been missed and agree the next step.

• Is there anything we haven't asked that we should have?
• Here's what happens next: we turn this into a short design spec — what we'd build, a fixed price and a timeline — and send it over within a few days.