No price list. Here is what decides yours.

Why no list

Every tool is different, so every price is.

A price list would mean building the same thing for everyone, and we do not. The tool that chases a plumber's unpaid invoices and the one that sorts a letting agent's enquiries have almost nothing in common except the idea.

So the number comes after you have told us what you need, not before. It arrives on one page, in writing, and it is fixed. Not an estimate, not a range, and not a figure that grows once we are halfway in.

If we cannot build the thing you need, or it is not worth what it would cost, we say so on the call. That is a cheaper answer for both of us than three weeks of finding out.

What it depends on

Four things, and you already know the answers.

• How many of your systems it has to touch.

  Reading your Xero is one job. Reading your Xero, your inbox and your calendar, and keeping all three telling the same story, is a much bigger one.

• How much of the work needs judgement.

  "Send this on day fourteen" is a rule, and rules are quick. "Work out which of these is worth chasing first, and how firmly" is judgement, and judgement takes longer to get right.

• Whether it drafts or whether it sends.

  A tool that writes something and waits for you to press send is simpler than one trusted to act on its own. Most should start as the first kind, and some should stay there.

• What state your information is in.

  If it already lives in one place, that helps. If it lives in a spreadsheet, an inbox and somebody's head, then part of the job is getting it into one place first, and that part is real work.

None of this is homework. You do not need to have worked any of it out before you call. Working it out is what the meeting is for.

The build

One fixed price, agreed before anything starts.

Half when you accept the quote, half when the tool is doing what the quote said it would do. Nothing before that, and the call and the quote cost you nothing either way.

How we get to that number, and how long it takes, is set out on how it works.

After it is built

Three things can happen. The fee covers two of them.

Once your tool is running, there are only ever three things that happen to it.

Most months, nothing happens. It does its job and you forget it exists. That is rather the point of it.

Sometimes it breaks. Not usually because of anything we did. Xero, Google and the social platforms change how they work whenever they feel like it, and they do not write to tell us first. We watch for it and we fix it. No extra charge, and nothing for you to report.

And sometimes you want it to work differently. Chase at twenty one days instead of fourteen. Word the reminder more gently. Copy the office in.

The fee always covers the first two. The two plans differ on the third, and that is the only way they differ.

• Upkeep

  We keep it running.

  If you want something changed, we tell you the price first and you decide. Same as the build.

  £99 a month

  • every running cost in one bill
  • monitoring
  • we fix it when something it depends on changes

• Workshop

  We keep it running, and changes are included.

  You ask, we do it. No quote, no invoice, and no conversation about whether it counts.

  £149 a month

  • every running cost in one bill
  • monitoring
  • we fix it when something it depends on changes

Choosing

Most people start on Workshop, and plenty move down.

The first few months are when you find out what you actually wanted, and that is when you will ask for the most. Getting a small bill every time you have a good idea is a miserable way to run it.

Then the asking stops. Once the tool fits how you really work, most people go months without needing anything. When we think you should move down to Upkeep, we will tell you. We would rather have you on the right plan for years than the dearer one for six months.

Where the line is

Changing how it does its job is a change. Giving it a new job is a build.

A change is the wording, the timing, who gets a copy, what counts as overdue, how firm the third reminder is. Things the tool already does, done differently.

A build is a new job. If the tool that chases your invoices should also start writing your quotes, that is a new thing, and it gets its own fixed price agreed before anything starts. Exactly like the first one did.

Fair use

There is an amount included, and it is written in your words.

Invoices chased. Quotes built. Documents read. Not in anything you would need us to translate. Your quote says what the number is and what it costs if you go past it.

But if you are going past it every month, we will move you to the right plan rather than keep billing you for the extra. You growing is not something we should be quietly charging you for.

No lock-in

You keep the tool. You always did.

Give us a month's notice and we move it into accounts in your name, at no extra charge, and we do not make it difficult. After that you pay whoever hosts it directly, and we tell you what that costs before you decide rather than after.

It is your tool. The monthly fee is for looking after it, not for letting you use it.