Business Process Automation in Farnham: The Job Sheet That Never Becomes an Invoice

Where the time goes

Ask a heating engineer what slows the business down and the answer is rarely the work itself. It is what follows. The job finishes at five. The details sit in a notebook or a phone. The invoice goes out at the weekend, or the following week, or after a reminder from the customer. Then nobody chases a payment that is overdue because chasing is awkward and the next job has started.

Farnham Direct lists 29 plumbers and heating engineers, 24 of them with a town-centre address. Picture a small firm of this kind. The chain of paperwork after a job is much the same whatever the size.

One job, followed through

Here is one job as a process:

1. An enquiry arrives and a quote goes out.
2. The customer says yes and the job goes into the diary.
3. The day before, a reminder is sent.
4. After the visit, details are copied from the engineer’s notes into the accounts.
5. An invoice is raised.
6. A late payment is chased.
7. On Friday, the owner wants to know what came in, what was quoted and what is outstanding.

Each step is a small decision with a clear rule, and each is a point where work slips. Business process automation just means having software perform the steps that follow rules, while a person handles what does not.

What can be handed over

Dean Keating’s website lists the following jobs: sending quotes and chasing unanswered ones, booking jobs into the diary, updates, confirmations and reminders, raising invoices, chasing late payments, copying details between systems, and a weekly report. That matches steps one to seven almost exactly. He builds the agents, installs them in the tools you already use, trains your team and supports them.

How to choose the starting point

Do not automate all seven at once. Pick the step that causes the most delay. For many owners that is the invoice, because money waiting is the most visible cost. His approach is to start with the single task that makes the most difference, then review.

What stays with you

Prices, exceptions and awkward customers stay with a person. The agent passes those on.

Cost and location

There is no published price list. The cost follows a free call and carries no obligation. Dean is in Horndean, Hampshire. Surrey work is done remotely, and his website says he can visit businesses in Hampshire or nearby.

Contact

Call or WhatsApp Dean Keating on 07418 627304, or email dean@deankeating.com. See the Dean Keating profile on Farnham Direct. Websites: ai-agent.deankeating.com and deankeating.com.

About this guide

Farnham Direct is published by Dean Keating, who also runs the service described here. He is based in Horndean, Hampshire, not in Farnham, and works with Farnham and Surrey businesses remotely. This guide recommends our own service, so compare it with other providers before you decide.