Automation Development
Get back the hours that copying, chasing and re-typing quietly costs your team every week
Starting small is welcome. See Pricing for what makes a project suitable for Starter pricing.
Most teams lose more time than they realise to work that no one would choose to do: copying data between systems, rebuilding the same report every Monday, chasing an approval by email, re-typing an invoice that already exists somewhere else.
None of it is difficult. That is exactly the problem — it is easy enough that it never gets prioritised, and it quietly consumes hours every week while people assume it is just part of the job.
We connect the tools you already use and automate the steps in between, so information moves by itself and the repetitive parts happen without anyone remembering to do them. DesignDotIT is a founder-led studio based in Japan working with startups and growing businesses worldwide. You get a fixed price after discovery, and you own what we build.
Who this service is for
Teams copying data between tools
The same information is typed into your CRM, your spreadsheet and your accounting system because none of them talk to each other.
Anyone rebuilding the same report every week
Someone exports, pastes and formats the same numbers on a fixed schedule. It is predictable work, which makes it a good candidate to stop doing by hand.
Businesses where enquiries sit unassigned
Leads land in a shared inbox and wait for someone to notice, read and forward them to the right person.
Companies with a manual onboarding checklist
Every new customer triggers the same sequence of accounts, emails, folders and reminders, done by hand each time.
Finance and admin handling invoices by hand
Invoices are created, sent, chased and reconciled manually, and something occasionally slips because a person had to remember it.
Growing teams hiring to keep up with admin
You are considering another hire mostly to absorb repetitive process work. It is worth checking what can be automated first.
Problems this service solves
- ✦Staff retype the same customer details into several systems, and the copies drift apart over time.
- ✦A recurring report takes hours of exporting and formatting before anyone can act on the numbers.
- ✦New enquiries sit in a shared inbox until somebody reads and forwards them.
- ✦Onboarding a customer means working through the same manual checklist every single time.
- ✦Invoices are raised, sent and chased by hand, and occasionally one is missed entirely.
- ✦Work stalls waiting on an approval that lives in somebody's email.
- ✦Your systems each hold part of the picture, so answering a simple question means opening four tabs.
Typical use cases
CRM synchronisation
Customer records kept consistent between your CRM, billing and support tools, so an update in one place is not a task in three others.
Automated reports
Scheduled reports built from live data and delivered to the right people, without anyone exporting or formatting anything.
Lead routing
Incoming enquiries captured, categorised and assigned to the right person automatically, with nothing waiting in a shared inbox.
Customer onboarding
The accounts, welcome emails, folders, records and reminders that follow a new customer, triggered automatically in the right order.
Invoice workflows
Invoices generated from real activity, sent on schedule, with reminders and status tracked without manual chasing.
Repetitive administrative processes
The recurring internal steps that exist in every business — approvals, reminders, data tidying, record creation — handled without someone remembering to do them.
What's included
Starter Engagement
- ✓A discovery call to find the single process costing the most time
- ✓One automation built, tested and running in production
- ✓Connections to the tools that process touches
- ✓Error handling so failures are visible rather than silent
- ✓A walkthrough of how it works and how to pause it
Full Build
- ✓Everything in the Starter engagement
- ✓Multiple connected processes across your systems
- ✓Two-way synchronisation where both systems need to stay current
- ✓Conditional logic that follows the rules your business actually uses
- ✓Notifications and alerts routed to the right people
- ✓A dashboard or log so you can see what ran, what succeeded and what needs attention
- ✓Retry and recovery handling for the steps that must not silently fail
- ✓Documentation covering each automation and how to adjust it
Delivery process
Discovery call
We map the process as it happens today, including the exceptions, because the exceptions are usually what breaks a naive automation.
Fixed-price proposal
A written scope, timeline and fixed price. If a process should be simplified before it is automated, we say so.
Connect and map
We establish the connections between your systems and agree exactly what data moves where, and what happens when something is missing.
Build and test with real data
Automations are built and run against real cases, including the awkward ones, before anything is switched on.
Parallel run
Where it matters, the automation runs alongside the manual process first so you can confirm it agrees before you rely on it.
Launch and handover
We switch it on, show you the logs and controls, and hand over the code and accounts.
What You Walk Away With
Deliverables
- ✓Working automations running in production
- ✓Full source code and configuration, transferred to your ownership
- ✓All service and API accounts set up in your name
- ✓Documentation covering what each automation does, what triggers it and how to pause it
- ✓A walkthrough of the logs, alerts and controls
Timeline & Pricing
Starter Engagement
$300 – $750
Typical timeline: 1–2 weeks
Full Build
From $950
Typical timeline: 2–4 weeks
Prices shown in USD, GBP and JPY quotes available on request. See the full Pricing page for how Starter and Full Build engagements differ across every service.
Technologies & integrations
Relevant case study
We don’t have a published case study for this exact service yet. Browse the full portfolio for real, completed projects.
FAQs
Which processes are worth automating first?▾
The ones that are repetitive, rule-based and happen often. A task done weekly that takes an hour is usually a better first candidate than a complex one done twice a year. We work through this with you during discovery and will tell you when something is not worth automating.
What happens when an automation fails?▾
It tells you. Every automation includes error handling so failures surface as alerts rather than silently doing nothing, and the steps that matter most get retry handling. Where a process is critical, we run the automation alongside the manual version first so you can confirm it agrees before relying on it.
Will this work with the tools we already use?▾
Usually, if they offer an API or webhooks — which most modern business tools do. We confirm exactly what is possible for your specific stack during discovery rather than assuming it.
How much does automation cost?▾
Starter engagements run from $300 to $750 and fuller builds start from $950, quoted after discovery. Automation is often the cheapest thing we build and frequently the fastest to pay for itself, because the saved hours are recurring.
How long does it take?▾
A single Starter automation usually takes one to two weeks. A set of connected processes typically runs two to four weeks depending on how many systems are involved.
Do we still need the staff currently doing this work?▾
That is your decision, and in practice most clients redirect people to work that actually needs a human rather than reducing headcount. Automation is generally most useful for removing the tedious parts of a role, not the role.
What if our process changes later?▾
Automations are built to be adjustable, and you get documentation covering how each one works. You can change it yourself if you have the capability in-house, or reach us for changes quoted per piece of work.
Security and quality
Automations connect to your systems using credentials held in your own accounts, with the narrowest permissions the job needs rather than full administrative access. Credentials are stored as encrypted secrets, never in code or spreadsheets. Data moves over authenticated, encrypted connections, and we agree during discovery which fields actually need to move rather than syncing everything by default. Every automation logs what it did so there is an audit trail, and failures raise alerts instead of passing silently. Where a process is critical, we run it in parallel with the manual version before you depend on it.
After You Launch
Every build includes a 30-day period after launch where anything not running as agreed is fixed at no cost. Because automations run continuously, we make sure failures are visible to you from day one rather than discovered weeks later. After the first month you can reach us directly for adjustments as your processes change, quoted per piece of work, with no retainer required.
Explore Other Services
Have a Project in Mind?
Free consultation. No commitment. Let’s discuss how DesignDotIT can help your business grow.