Done-for-you AI and software for New Zealand small businesses 

For a New Zealand small business, done for you means one accountable partner scopes, builds and runs the systems that take admin off your plate, connects them to the tools you already use and works to your hours. Trades, accounting, construction and financial services businesses are where it most often starts.

In other words, done for you is an arrangement in which one partner takes responsibility for the whole job of putting a working system into your business, not only for supplying a tool.

What does "done for you" mean?

A tool on its own rarely fixes anything in a small business. Someone still has to decide what to set up, connect it to the rest of the business and teach people to use it. In a small firm, that someone is usually the owner, working late in the evening.

Done for you hands that work to a partner. We scope the problem with you, build the fix, connect it to your tools, train your people and keep it running. You review and approve, but you do not run a project and you do not collect yet another subscription.

A person on your side approves anything your customers see. Replies, quotes, reminders and invoices can be drafted ahead of time, but they go out only when you say so.

It is worth being clear about what it is not. It is not a subscription that leaves you to do the setting up, and it is not a slide deck about what you could do one day. Nor is it a project you have to manage, or a system that makes decisions on your behalf.

There is a simple test. Once the work is finished, can your business do something it could not do before, without you learning a new tool? If yes, it was done for you. If you simply have more to manage, it was not.

Which tools do New Zealand businesses already run?

Most small firms already hold a familiar set of tools, and the work starts from them.

• Xero or MYOB for accounts, invoices and bills.
• ServiceM8 for jobs, quotes and scheduling in trades and service businesses.
• HubSpot for enquiries, contacts and follow-up.
• Spreadsheets, email and messaging apps, which usually hold more of the business than owners care to admit.

What can be connected depends on your plan and on what each tool allows. We check that at the scoping step, before any promise is made.

What does it look like in the industries it starts in?

Trades

A plumber, electrician or builder often finishes a job and then types the details into a quote or invoice at night. A done-for-you fix reads the completed job, drafts the invoice for the owner to approve and lists jobs that were done but never billed. Missed calls can also become a short message and a note in the job tool, ready for the owner to follow up.

Accounting

Accounting practices lose a great deal of time chasing clients for documents and re-typing figures. Collecting documents in one place, reminding clients politely and drafting entries for an accountant to check takes most of the chasing away. The accountant's judgement and sign-off stay exactly where they were.

Construction

Builders and contractors run on measurements, variations, subcontractor bills and progress claims. Keeping all of these on one set of figures helps claims go out on time and shows early whether a job is making money. A person approves every claim before it is sent.

Financial services

Advisers and brokers handle a steady flow of client documents, file notes and follow-ups. Drafting file notes from meetings, tracking what is outstanding and reminding clients of the next step saves hours each week, and the adviser still reviews everything that goes on file or to a client.

A fleet example: road user charges

A transport or trades business with diesel vehicles pays road user charges, known as RUC. NZTA says RUC is paid in advance for distance, in units of 1000 kilometres, and that the cost per unit depends on the vehicle's type and weight. Anyone tracking this from memory can easily miss a renewal.

A simple fleet record holds each vehicle, its distance readings and its licence position, and reminds the right person before a licence runs out. The record does not decide what you owe. NZTA sets that, and the record helps you plan for it and check it.

Across all of these, the pattern is the same. Find the repeated task, record the facts once in a shared place, let a draft be prepared and have a person approve it. Then check the time and money saved before you move to the next task.

Your data stays under your control. We agree in writing what the system can read, where it is stored and who can see it. This matters most for accountants, advisers and brokers, who hold client information. Your own professional and legal duties come first, and the set-up is built to follow them.

What should you ask before you agree?

• Who do I call when something breaks, and how quickly do they reply?
• Will it work with the plan I hold on Xero, MYOB or my job tool?
• What do I approve, and what happens if I am away for a week?
• Where is my customers' information kept, and who can see it?
• Can I stop after the first task without losing my data?

Take your time over these. No small business owner should feel rushed into a set-up that nobody can explain in plain words. Clear answers to all five tell you the provider has thought about your side of the work, while vague ones usually point to a tool with some help attached.

How does working on New Zealand hours work?

Part of the work is done from India, so we agree a working window with you at the start and fit questions and approvals around your day. Most of the work needs no live call. Drafts are prepared, left in your queue and approved when it suits you, and where a call does help, we book it at a time that works for you.

How does it start?

1. A short conversation about how your week runs and which task costs the most time or money.
2. A scope: what will be built, which tools it will connect to and what done looks like.
3. A first version, tested on your real work, with your approval at each step.
4. A review after a few weeks. If it helps, it keeps running and you pick the next task. If it does not, you stop.

Start with one task rather than a programme. A task that sits between two tools, such as re-typing a quote into an invoice, is often the best first choice.