Systems

Everything on this page is running.

I run my own company on these before I put them in anyone else's. Most are built on the Microsoft software a business already pays for, with custom pieces where that software stops. Any of them can be set up for you, in your own accounts, owned by you. Start with the one that hurts most. The rest connect to it.

Running today

Thirteen of them. Each is doing real work in my own business right now.

DOCUMENTS

Paperwork that files itself

Drop a receipt, an invoice or a photo from your phone into one folder or one email address. Within about a minute it has been read, turned into a PDF, given a proper name, filed under the right customer or job, checked against anything you have already filed, and recorded as an expense.

If it can't tell where something belongs, it asks. You pick, it files, and it remembers for next time.

What you get: one place to drop things, and paperwork that is where it should be when you look for it.
APPROVALS

Bills approved by the right person

A bill comes in. It is read, matched to the supplier and the job, and sent to whoever is allowed to approve that amount. Who approved it, and when, is on the record. Once approved it is ready for your accounting system.

What you get: nothing sitting in someone's inbox, and a clear answer when the accountant asks who signed off.
EQUIPMENT & FIELD

What a machine costs per hour

Inspections, defects, hour-meter readings, time cards and work orders, in one place. Equipment is charged to the job by the hour and totalled overnight. Every night the system checks its own numbers and writes up anything that doesn't add up, with the evidence attached. It writes up records, never people.

What you get: the real cost of running each machine, while the job is still going, not after it closes.
ONE SCREEN

The whole business on one page

What needs you today, what happened since yesterday, what each automated helper is doing, and a picture of how it all connects. It opens as a tab in Teams. Every number on it is live.

What you get: the morning check in two minutes, from your phone if you like.
MAP

A daily map of your systems

Every list, table, workflow and connection you have, checked each morning against what was there before. Anything new, missing or odd is flagged for a person to look at. It looks at structure only. It never reads mail, chat, files or anything about a person.

What you get: you find out the day something changes, not the day it breaks.
MAIL

Mail handled, not read for you

Mail that needs no reply is filed. Mail that does gets a draft in your voice. You give it a few words, it writes the reply and checks every fact in it against your records before you see it. Teams nudges you when something needs you. A short brief lands twice a day.

It never sends anything. That is always your click.

What you get: an inbox you can clear in ten minutes, without a reply going out that you didn't read.
REPORTING

A daily report nobody had to write

What was built, changed, filed and decided today, pulled from the records themselves rather than from memory. One for the company, one for each customer, with a note to the customer drafted for you to edit or throw away.

What you get: a customer who hears from you every day, and a record of the work that nobody had to sit down and type.
MEETINGS

Meetings that leave a record

For meetings you are in: what was said, what you committed to, and the follow-up, captured and filed without anyone typing notes. Commitments become tracked items. Follow-up mail lands in your Drafts folder. It works at the desk and on a phone in a room, whatever the meeting is on.

This one is my own application. It is easier to show than to explain, so ask and I'll walk you through it.

What you get: the notes, the to-do list and the follow-up, done before you have left the room.
AGENTS

A helper that answers from your records

Ask in plain words, in Teams: how many machines are down, what did that job cost last week, where is that document. The answer comes from your records and says where it came from. It can update a handful of things you approved in advance, and it asks first. It cannot delete anything.

What you get: answers without hunting through folders. What agents are, in plain words.
SECURITY

Your Microsoft account locked down properly

Most small businesses run Microsoft 365 on the settings it came with. I check yours against the published standards, several hundred checks, fix what is wrong, and hand you the before and after. Sign-in that resists phishing. An emergency account sealed away for a bad day. Company devices held to a standard. Email set so nobody can pretend to be you.

What you get: proof of where you stand, and every setting written down with the reason for it.
PORTAL

A portal for your own customers

Your customers sign in with the Microsoft account they already have and see their projects, invoices, expenses and payments. Invoices carry a Pay Now button. It handles more than one currency.

What you get: fewer "can you send me that invoice again" emails, and faster payment.
ONBOARDING

A new customer set up in minutes, the same every time

One command creates the folders and who can see them, produces the contracts and paperwork from one master copy so they never disagree with each other, logs them, and sends the welcome pack. Change a term once and every document follows.

What you get: day one with a new customer looks professional, and it took you five minutes.
WEBSITES

A website people and search engines understand

Plain, fast, works on a phone, and written so that search engines and AI assistants describe your business correctly when somebody asks about you. This one included.

What you get: the site, the files behind it, and the hosting in your own name.

Built to fit you

Not everything comes as a package. Some of the most useful things are small: one email that turns into a filed record. Others are built from the ground up and connected to everything above. Both come under the same monthly fee; the difference is how long they take. A few I get asked for:

FIELD BY TEXT

Updates from the field by text message

A crew member texts a progress note, a safety report, a receipt photo or a voice message to one number. Seconds later it has been read, sorted, coded to the job and put in front of the right person for approval, in the same records as everything above. Nothing to install, no login, works on any phone.

REMINDERS

Chasing what hasn't come in

An inspection is due and hasn't arrived. The system texts the person. Still nothing by the cut-off, and the supervisor hears about it too. You set the times and the rules; it does the chasing.

FIELD APP

A phone app for crews without a Microsoft account

For the people who do the work but don't sit at a computer: hold to talk, take a photo, scan a form, and it syncs when the signal comes back. The office sees it in the same system the supervisors already use.

BOOKS & PAYROLL

Field hours and costs into the books without re-typing

Time from the field into payroll. Approved bills and coded expenses into accounting. Job costs against the estimate. The same numbers everywhere, entered once by the person who knows them.

If what you need isn't here, that doesn't mean no. Tell me what happens in your business that shouldn't take a person's afternoon, and I'll tell you whether it can be done and roughly how.

How it gets to you

Everything above runs in my own business first, so I know how it fails before it fails for you.

Set up in your own accounts

It lives in your Microsoft subscription, or your own cloud account, through an admin login you create and can switch off in one click. Nothing has to be moved out later, because it was never anywhere else.

You can see everything

Every change I make is logged where you can read it. If any piece runs outside your accounts, I tell you which piece and why.

One fee, no meter

One flat monthly fee covers whichever of these you need. Hours are not counted. How an engagement works.

Want to see one of these run?

Tell me which, and what you'd want it to do in your business.

Or take the first look: six taps, one page, no email needed.

justin@cronkcompanies.com