PROCESS · HOW WE WORK

What happens after you fill in the form

A lot of vendors treat the discovery process as a sales exercise. We don't. Here's exactly what happens, step by step, from the first form submission to a project kicking off — or not, if we're not the right fit.

scoping call · written proposal · fixed price · no pressure

01

You fill in the form — we actually read it

The contact form asks four things: your name and email, what systems you're using, roughly what you're trying to connect or build, and your timeframe. That's it. No 20-field qualification form.

What we're doing with it: before we reply, we read what you've written and do a quick assessment of whether this looks like something we can scope cleanly. If it's in a space we know well — Shopify, Xero, ServiceM8, Australia Post, MYOB — we'll have useful context before we even pick up the phone.

// what makes a good brief
  • Name the tools: "Shopify and Xero" is much more useful than "our ecommerce platform and accounting system"
  • Describe what you're doing manually today: "we re-enter every order into Xero by hand each morning"
  • Say what's breaking: "refunds never reconcile", "we can't tell which orders are actually fulfilled"
  • Give a rough volume: orders per day, invoices per week, records in the system
02

We reply within one business day

We aim to reply the same day for anything submitted before 3pm AEST. If we need more information before booking a call, we'll ask one or two specific questions. If we can already see that your problem is out of scope for us — too large, too small, or a better fit for an off-the-shelf tool — we'll say that directly rather than waste your time on a call.

Speed matters here. We know that if you've submitted a form, you've been sitting on this problem for a while. A next-day reply isn't just courtesy — it signals that you're dealing with people who are on top of their work.

03

30-minute scoping call

Free. No pitch deck. The call has one job: for both of us to understand the problem clearly enough to write a fixed-price scope.

We run about 30 minutes, almost always on time. You don't need to prepare anything — we'll drive it with questions.

// what we ask on the call
  1. Walk us through the current process, step by step — what happens when an order comes in / a job is completed / stock needs updating?
  2. Where does it break down, and how do you know when it has?
  3. What have you already tried? (Zapier, a plugin, a previous vendor — what happened?)
  4. What does your version of "fixed" look like? Do you have a picture in your head?
  5. Who else in the business is involved in this decision?
  6. What's your timeframe — is there a date you're working toward?

At the end of the call we'll tell you honestly: whether we think we can scope this cleanly, what tier it's likely to fall into on price, and whether there's anything we need to check before writing the proposal. No pressure, no commitment on either side.

04

Written proposal — fixed price, no surprises

Within 2–3 business days of the call, we send a written proposal. It's a real document, not a one-line quote. It contains everything you need to make a decision — and everything we need to hold ourselves to.

// what the proposal contains
Problem statementOur understanding of what you're trying to fix. If we've got it wrong, this is where you catch it before anything starts.
Scope of workExactly what we will build. Named systems, named data flows, named edge cases we'll handle. What's in, what's out.
What's excludedJust as important as what's included. If there's a related thing we're not doing, we say so explicitly so there's no ambiguity later.
PriceOne number, AUD inc. GST, fixed. Not a range. Not "starting from". The number.
TimelineA realistic build window. How long it takes is a function of complexity, not a sales promise.
Payment termsTypically 50% to start, 50% on delivery for smaller projects. Milestone payments for larger builds.
AssumptionsThings we're relying on: that the API is accessible, that we can get sandbox credentials, that there's a staging environment. If any assumption proves false, we'll raise a variation before proceeding.
05

You take a week to review it — no pressure

We don't do follow-up calls to "check in on where your head's at." The proposal is clear. If you have questions, we'll answer them by email or on a quick call. If you want to negotiate the scope, we're open to that — but the price follows the scope, not the other way around.

We hold the quoted price for 30 days. After that, if something has changed — our availability, the API landscape, the problem itself — we may need to re-scope. That's rare, but we'll tell you if it happens.

// if we're not the right fit

If you've read the proposal and we're too expensive, or the scope isn't what you were hoping for, we'd rather know. Tell us honestly and we'll either find a way to descope to fit your budget, or point you toward something that actually fits. We'd rather lose the job than watch you pay for the wrong thing.

06

Kick-off — we start with a deposit and a shared document

Once you sign off on the proposal, we invoice the initial deposit and set a kick-off date. On day one, we share a working document: the data mapping, the field-by-field decisions we need to make, any credentials we need to request. From there we work in weekly check-ins — you see real progress, not status updates.

// what kick-off looks like
  • Shared document with data mapping — every field, every decision, in writing
  • API credentials and access sorted in the first week (we'll walk you through what to request)
  • Sandbox/staging environment set up before we touch production data
  • Weekly updates: what's built, what's next, any blockers surfaced early
  • You test it before it goes live — we don't flip the switch without sign-off
07

Handover — and then we're easy to leave

When the build is complete, we do a structured handover. That means: a walkthrough of what was built and why, full documentation of how it works and how to extend it, and deployment to wherever it needs to live — our infrastructure or yours.

The code is yours. We don't use proprietary platforms that create dependency on us. We document things so that another developer can pick it up without calling us. That's not just a nice-to-have — it's how we work, because we think it's the right way to work.

After handover we provide 30–90 days of support (depending on the engagement size), then a small optional retainer for ongoing maintenance if you want it. If you'd rather handle it yourself or hand it to an internal developer, we'll make that as easy as possible.

Common questions

How long does it take to get a proposal after the call?

2–3 business days. For straightforward scopes we sometimes send it same day. For anything complex, we'd rather take the extra day and get it right than rush something ambiguous.

What if the scope changes during the build?

If something genuinely changes — you discover a requirement that wasn't on the call, or the system you're connecting works differently than you described — we raise it before we continue. We don't do surprise invoices. A variation is a conversation, not an ambush.

Do you sign NDAs?

Yes, if you need one. We have a standard mutual NDA we can execute before the scoping call if your business requires it. Let us know when you submit the form.

Can I see examples of what you've built?

Yes — the teardown library on The work page shows real integrations at the API level. They're illustrative rather than named client case studies (we're a new business), but they show how we think and what we build.

What if it turns out Zapier or a plugin would do it?

We tell you on the call. We'd rather lose a $7k project than watch you pay for something unnecessary. If an off-the-shelf connector handles your use case cleanly, we'll say so and point you at it.

Do you work with businesses outside Australia?

The work we do is specifically tuned for Australian businesses — GST, BAS, ATO compliance, Australian carriers, Australian banking. We take the occasional project from NZ or SE Asia if the systems and problems overlap, but AU is the focus.

Ready to talk through your problem?

30-minute call, free. We'll tell you what tier it's likely to be, whether custom is the right call, and give you a written scope within a few days.

Book a scoping call