Short Work

We make short work of the jobs that eat your week.

make short work of (v.) to deal with something quickly and easily, so it stops taking up the day.

We do that for the repetitive work in offices: the retyping, the chasing, the copying between systems that nobody hired anyone to do. We are a small team of engineers working with businesses of 10 to 250 people, in the UK and worldwide. We also cut wasted tech spend and close security gaps.

Book a free 30 minute callSee the price list
Sheet 1: a typical Tuesdaydrawn in the workshop
Before and after Short Work Before: orders arrive by email, someone retypes them into a spreadsheet, then retypes them again into accounts. After: an automation reads the email, checks it and posts it to accounts, and only unclear orders go to a person. Order email Spreadsheet Xero Order email Xero unclear? ask Sam retype retype again BEFORE AFTER short work: reads, checks, posts about 2 hrs a day, plus typos

Sound familiar?

Most businesses we meet are not short of software. They are short of the joins between it, so people end up being the joins.

  • The same order, invoice or enquiry gets typed into two or three systems.
  • One person knows how the monthly report gets made, and they are going on holiday.
  • Enquiries sit in a shared inbox until someone has a quiet hour.
  • You check competitor prices or supplier stock by opening twenty tabs.
  • You bought an AI subscription for the team and can't say what it changed.
  • Nobody can explain the cloud or software bill, and it goes up every month.
  • Ex-staff can still log in to things, and nobody is sure what is backed up.
  • A developer quoted for a new system when you only wanted the old one to behave.

Three ways we help

Most problems land in one of three piles. You don't need to know which yet: the Walkthrough looks at all three and tells you where to start.

door 1

Save time

Stop paying people to be the glue between your systems.

  • SW-01
    Workflow automationData moves between your systems on its own: orders into accounts, forms into the CRM, job sheets into invoices.
  • SW-02
    AI that does one jobReading invoices and PDFs, sorting enquiries, drafting replies for a person to approve. Tested on your own examples before you rely on it.
  • SW-03
    Data feeds and web scrapingCompetitor prices, supplier catalogues, listings and tenders, collected on schedule and handed over clean.
  • SW-04
    Small internal toolsQuoting tools, job trackers and dashboards that replace fragile spreadsheets.
  • SW-05
    Team AI trainingA practical half day on your team's real tasks, plus a plain English policy on what goes into AI tools.

Walkthrough £1,950. Builds from £6,500.More on automation and ai

door 2

Save money

Find out what your tech really costs, and cut what you don't need.

  • SW-06
    Tech cost reviewWe go through your cloud bills (AWS, Azure, Google Cloud), unused software seats and subscriptions, and AI and API spend, then hand you a costed list of cuts.
  • SW-07
    Making the cutsWe make the changes for a fixed fee, so the savings actually land on next month's bill.
  • ✓
    Our guaranteeIf we don't find savings worth at least the review fee over a year, you don't pay for the review.

£1,500, or nothing if we find less.More on cost review

door 3

Stay safe

Close the obvious gaps before someone else finds them.

  • SW-08
    Security health checkEmail and file accounts, two-factor login, admin access, backups, cloud permissions, anything exposed to the internet, and protection against people spoofing your email.
  • SW-09
    Certification readinessCyber Essentials for UK businesses, or ISO 27001 for clients anywhere. We get you ready and through it.
  • SW-10
    Penetration testingRun with accredited testing partners. We scope the test, manage it and fix what they find.

Health check £1,750.More on security

Ongoing, SW-11

Engineer on retainer

The same engineer working through your list. A few hours a month as your tech lead, or one or two days a week inside your team.

from £950 a month
Ongoing, SW-12

Keep it running

Monitoring, fixes and small changes for anything we have built.

£390 a month
One-off, SW-13

Technical second opinion

An independent look before you buy a business, invest in one, or sign a big quote from a developer.

from £650

How a job runs

Short, predictable, and with a person you can call at every stage.

  1. Call

    Thirty minutes, free. You tell us what eats the week. We tell you honestly if we can help.

    this week

  2. Walkthrough

    Two days watching the real work, then a written plan with costs and savings.

    week 1 to 2

  3. Quote

    A fixed price and a date for each fix you want. Nothing starts without your sign-off.

    week 2

  4. Build

    We build in your systems, test on your data and show progress every week.

    weeks 3 to 7

  5. Handover

    Training, written notes, 30 days of fixes. Then it's yours, or we look after it.

    after go live

From the job book

The kind of jobs we take on. These are examples to show the shape of the work, so ask us about anything close to your own.

Lettings agency, 14 staff
BeforePortal enquiries copied by hand into the CRM each morning. Viewings booked by phone tag.
AfterEnquiries read, matched to the right property and logged within a minute, with viewing slots offered by email.
Trade wholesaler, 60 staff
BeforeSupplier price lists arrive as PDFs and spreadsheets in a dozen layouts. Two days a month to update the price book.
AfterEvery list read and mapped to your product codes automatically. A person reviews only the lines flagged as unsure.
Accountancy practice, 25 staff
BeforeClient documents land in one inbox and get renamed and filed by hand. Chasers written one at a time.
AfterDocuments sorted into the right client folder, missing items spotted, and chaser emails drafted for approval.
Building contractor, 40 staff
BeforeQuotes typed up in the evening from notes taken on site.
AfterA phone form on site produces a priced draft quote, checked and sent the same afternoon.
Online retailer, 12 staff
BeforeCompetitor prices checked when someone remembers.
AfterA daily sheet of competitor prices and stock, with an email when a key product is undercut.
Software agency, 30 staff
BeforeCloud bill creeping up every month and nobody able to explain it.
AfterUnused servers and seats switched off, the rest right-sized, and a monthly spend alert set up.
Recruitment firm, 20 staff
BeforeShared admin passwords, no two-factor login, ex-staff accounts still live.
AfterTwo-factor everywhere, old accounts closed, backups tested, and Cyber Essentials passed.

Who you'll work with

The idea is simple. Large companies hire engineers to sit inside their customers' teams and make software fit. Smaller businesses deserve the same thing at a price that makes sense for them.

Short Work is a small team of engineers who have built data pipelines, web scrapers, AI classification systems and enterprise APIs in production, and who are used to being the people customers call when something needs fixing.

More about how we work

House rules

  • You own everything we build.Code, accounts, passwords and documents are in your name from day one.
  • Prices are fixed and written down.If we underestimate, that's our problem.
  • We'll say when AI is the wrong tool.Sometimes a better spreadsheet or a simple rule does the job, and we'll tell you.
  • A person checks anything uncertain.Nothing important goes out on a guess.
  • Built so someone else could maintain it.Common tools, clear notes. You are never locked in to us.

Tell us what eats your week

Book a free 30 minute call. No slides, no hard sell. If we can't help, we'll say so.

Book a free call