We sent the proposal and never heard back.
Proposals and RFPs go quiet
After submission, follow-up depends on someone remembering. A good bid sits unanswered because no one had a free hour on day 7 to send a short, polite nudge.
For owners & principals of civil, structural, MEP and land surveying firms
Your engineers do the engineering. We automate the chasing.
We build 2–3 fixed-scope automations that follow up on proposals, move finished field work to billing sooner, and answer “where is my deliverable?” without pulling a project manager off billable work. You approve every stage, and licensed professionals keep every professional decision.
Built for firms of roughly 8–80 staff and $1M–$20M in revenue. Fixed-scope engagements, $5k–$25k, quoted in writing before any work starts.
Where the hours leak
The work gets done. The coordination around it doesn’t.
These are patterns we hear from firms like yours, not statistics. Which of them sound familiar?
The crew finished Tuesday. Billing heard about it Friday.
Field notes reach billing late
Completed survey or inspection data sits in a truck, a tablet or a text thread. The invoice waits for someone to chase the details, and cash waits with it.
Where is my deliverable?
Status emails eat the day
Clients email for updates that already exist somewhere. A project manager stops what they’re doing to dig up the answer, again.
I think the county got back to us. Check Sam’s inbox.
Sub and permit status lives in inboxes
Subconsultant replies and permit updates are scattered across personal email. When someone is out, nobody knows where things stand.
How much work is done but not billed yet?
Unbilled work and slow collections
Finished work waits to be invoiced, and sent invoices wait to be chased. Both tie up cash that the firm has already earned.
What we build
Illustrative example
Illustrative example
Illustrative example
Three sample flows, each with a human in the loop
Every engagement is scoped to your firm and covers 2–3 automations tied to the pains above. These diagrams are illustrative examples of the shape a flow takes. Your steps, tools and approval points are set during scoping.
Trigger: what starts it
Action: what the system does
Human approval: where a person decides
1. Proposal and RFP follow-up sequencer
Targets: proposals that go silent after submission.
- TriggerA proposal is marked “submitted” in your tracking sheet or project tool.
- ActionThe system schedules follow-up reminders and drafts a short, plain follow-up email for each one.
- Human approvalA principal or business developer reviews, edits or skips each draft before anything is sent.
- ActionLogs the outcome and stops the sequence once the client replies or the bid is marked won or lost.
2. Field-work-to-draft-invoice handoff
Targets: completed field work that reaches billing days late.
- TriggerA crew lead marks field work complete (a form, a status change or a short checklist).
- ActionBuilds a handoff checklist: job number, scope completed, files and notes received, anything missing. Alerts the billing person.
- Human approvalThe project manager confirms what is billable and the percent complete.
- ActionPrepares a draft invoice summary for billing to review. Nothing is sent to a client automatically.
3. Client project-status and deliverable-request responder
Targets: repeated “where is my deliverable?” emails, plus sub and permit updates buried in inboxes.
- TriggerA client emails asking for status or a deliverable.
- ActionLooks up the project’s status record (stage, expected dates, latest sub or permit note) and drafts a reply.
- Human approvalThe project manager approves or edits the draft. Any answer that touches technical content stays with them.
- ActionSends the approved reply and logs it to the project record so the next person sees it.
Also available in scope: an overdue-invoice reminder cadence. It follows the same pattern: a trigger on invoice age, a drafted friendly reminder, and your approval of the wording and timing before anything goes out.
How an engagement works
Four steps, with your sign-off along the way
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Free 20-minute fit conversation
We talk through where time and cash leak in your firm and whether automation is the right fix. If it isn’t, we’ll tell you.
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Scoped proposal
You get a written scope: which 2–3 automations, what each does, where approvals sit, what’s out of scope, and a fixed price.
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Build, with owner sign-off at each stage
We build one flow at a time and show you each working flow with sample data before it touches live work. Nothing goes live without your approval.
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Handover and documentation
You receive plain-language documentation: what each flow does, how to pause it, how to change an approval step, and who to contact if something looks wrong.
Transparent pricing range
$5k – $25k
Fixed scope, fixed quote. Scope sets where your project lands in this range, and you receive the written quote before any work begins.
No hourly meter, and no surprise add-ons: changes to scope are quoted and agreed before they’re built.
What moves the price within the range
- Number of automations. Two focused flows cost less than three or four.
- Number of systems involved. Each tool a flow must read from or write to adds build and testing work.
- State of your current process. Clear steps and tidy records are quicker to automate than ones that live in people’s heads.
- Approval and exception paths. More approvers and more edge cases mean more to design and test.
- Documentation and training depth. Larger teams usually need more handover material.
We don’t promise a specific return, hours saved or payback period. That depends on your firm. In the fit conversation we’ll help you judge whether the problem is large enough to justify the build.
Tools: We work with the tools your firm already uses, such as email, calendars, spreadsheets, accounting and project-management software. We confirm exactly what can connect to your setup in the fit conversation, before you commit to anything.
Questions owners ask
Straight answers
What data and system access do you need?
Only what each flow needs. We scope access per flow during the proposal, request the minimum permissions required, and list them in writing. We never need access to your sealed or stamped drawings or calculations to build a follow-up, handoff or status flow. You can revoke access at any time.
How is client confidentiality protected?
We design flows to handle as little client-sensitive information as possible, and we discuss your confidentiality and contract obligations before scoping begins. If a client agreement restricts what can be processed by outside tools, we build around that or leave that work out. We’ll flag any concern for you to review with your own counsel. This page isn’t legal advice.
Who stays in control?
You do. Each flow has named approval points where a person reviews, edits or declines before anything reaches a client. You sign off at each build stage, and you can pause or turn off any flow. The handover documentation explains how.
What happens if a flow breaks?
Flows are built to fail safe: if something is missing or unclear, the flow stops and flags a person instead of guessing or sending. Your documentation explains how to pause a flow and what to check first. Support terms after handover, if any, are written into your proposal so you know what to expect before you sign.
What do you NOT automate?
We do not automate engineering or surveying judgment, and we do not generate, alter or release sealed or stamped deliverables. Anything that requires a licensed professional stays with that professional. Our flows handle coordination: reminders, handoffs, status lookups and drafts for a person to review.
Will the system email my clients on its own?
Not unless you decide it should. By default, client-facing messages are drafts that a person approves. If a low-risk message type (for example, a simple invoice reminder) proves reliable, you may choose to relax approval for that one. That’s your call, made in writing during scoping.
Not automated, by design
- Engineering and surveying judgment and technical review
- Sealed, signed or stamped deliverables
- Anything that needs a licensed professional’s decision
Start here
Tell us your biggest bottleneck
A few details are enough to start. We read each message and reply by email to set up the free 20-minute fit conversation. Replies come from a person on business days, not from an instant booking system.
- No obligation. The fit conversation is free.
- Fixed written quote before any work begins.
- Please don’t include confidential client or project details in this form.