The difference between a zap and a system
Most businesses already have a few automations someone set up on a Friday afternoon. They work until a field is renamed, an API token expires or a customer types their email address with a space in it. Then they fail silently, and someone finds out weeks later.
We build workflows the way you would build any other production system: with clear inputs and outputs, validation at every step, retries for temporary failures, alerts for real ones, and a log that shows what happened to every record.
That is the gap between automations that save time and automations that quietly create cleanup work.
Workflows we commonly automate
Order and quote handling
New orders from forms, email or your store created in the ERP, with confirmations sent and the team notified.
Approvals
Purchase requests, invoices, discounts and time-off routed to the right approver with reminders and escalation.
Customer onboarding
Forms collected, documents checked, accounts created in each system and welcome messages sent. See client onboarding.
Lead handling
Leads captured from every source, de-duplicated, enriched, assigned and followed up. See CRM automation.
Data synchronisation
Customers, products, stock levels and statuses kept consistent between systems. See inventory sync.
Scheduled reporting
Data pulled from several systems, combined and delivered as a report or dashboard. See reporting automation.
Inbox triage
Incoming email classified and routed, with routine requests answered automatically. See shared inbox automation.
Document generation
Quotes, contracts, statements and certificates generated from templates and system data.
Employee onboarding and offboarding
Accounts created and removed across your tools from a single checklist.
Choosing a platform
We work across the major platforms and recommend based on your team, volumes, security needs and budget, not on which one we prefer.
| Platform | Good fit for | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| n8n | Complex logic, high volumes, self-hosting for data control | Needs hosting and updates if self-hosted |
| Make | Visual multi-step scenarios at moderate volumes | Operation-based pricing can grow with volume |
| Zapier | Simple app-to-app automations your team can maintain | Cost and limited logic for complex workflows |
| Power Automate | Microsoft 365 organisations, SharePoint and Teams workflows | Premium connectors need extra licences |
| Custom code | Heavy volumes, unusual systems, strict performance needs | Requires a developer to change it, or a support plan |
Standards every workflow we ship meets
- Input validationBad data is caught at the start, not three systems later.
- IdempotencyRunning a step twice never creates duplicate records or double emails.
- Retries and alertsTemporary failures retry automatically; real failures alert a named person.
- Run historyEvery run is logged, so "what happened to this order?" has an answer.
- Least-privilege accessService accounts with only the permissions each workflow needs.
- Written documentationWhat it does, what it depends on, and how to pause it safely.
An example workflow finding
Most workflow problems we are asked to fix look like this one.
- What we found
- Orders with an accented character in the customer name failed at the CRM step. The platform logged the error, but no one was alerted.
- Fix
- Normalise input data, add a retry and an alert to a named person, and a daily reconciliation that compares orders received with records created.
- Result to check
- Zero unexplained gaps between orders and CRM records each day.
How a workflow project runs
Map
The current steps, systems, volumes and exceptions, with the people who do the work.
Design
Inputs, outputs, validation rules, error handling and who gets alerted.
Build and test
Built against test data and real sample records, including the awkward cases.
Run alongside
Live with monitoring and a person checking results before full handover.
Common questions
Can you fix automations someone else built?
Yes. We often start by auditing existing Zapier, Make or Power Automate workflows, fixing the fragile ones and documenting the rest. That work can be covered by a support plan.
Will our team be able to change the workflows?
If that matters to you, we build on a visual platform your team can learn and include training. If the workflow is complex enough to need code, we say so up front.
What does workflow automation cost?
Single workflows connecting two or three apps usually cost $5,000 to $20,000 to build properly, plus platform subscription fees. See pricing.
What is the difference between workflow automation and business process automation?
Workflow automation removes manual steps from how work is done today. Business process automation first questions whether those steps should exist at all, then automates the redesigned process. Many projects start as one and grow into the other.
Can workflows run on our own servers?
Yes. n8n and custom code can be self-hosted in your cloud account or data centre when data must stay in-house.
Find out what one process could save you
Book a paid automation assessment. We map the process with your team, measure the time it takes, and give you a fixed-price build plan with expected savings. If automation is not worth it, we will tell you.