Services & pricing
Three ways to work with us. All fixed price.
Every engagement starts with a short call. Most clients then begin with an Automation Discovery — it’s quick, it pays for itself, and it gives you a plan you can act on whether or not you go further with us.
We work with limited companies and limited liability partnerships.
Automation Discovery
For finance leaders who know there’s waste in the process but want a clear-eyed view of where, how much, and what to fix first.
- Process walkthroughs with the people who do the work
- Systems and hand-off map
- Hours quantified per process
- Controls review
- Prioritised automation roadmap with ROI
- Fixed-price proposal for the build, if we recommend one
- Written report + 45-minute readout
- Fee credited against a build started within 30 days of the readout
£1,500 for the first walkthrough — one process area, such as bank reconciliation — and £500 for each additional one. So two is £2,000, three £2,500, four £3,000. Four is the most we take on, in this and in everything else we do. A month-end usually runs to four to six processes, so a larger close means choosing the four that matter most — which is a better conversation than examining everything anyway. Which processes are in scope is agreed in writing before anything is signed, so you know what you are buying and we know what we are quoting.
Book a callAutomation Build
For teams ready to remove manual work — up to four processes from the discovery.
- Automated month-end pack and management accounts, produced in your own systems, with plain-English commentary drafted for your review
- Reconciliation checks that flag what needs fixing and surface exceptions for your team to clear
- System-to-system data flows: bank, ledger, CRM, payroll, e-commerce, regulatory returns
- Document & invoice intake; reporting dashboards
- Xero, QuickBooks and Sage workflow automation
- Controls, approvals and audit trail designed in
- Documented hand-over, team trained, and for 30 days after go-live we fix anything that doesn’t work the way the build was specified
Quoted after the discovery, and always fixed. £7,500 for the first process, and £4,500 for each additional process. A process counts as two where a system has no usable interface and the connection has to be built by hand. Everything we build runs on your systems and under your approval. Most cloud accounting, CRM, payroll and banking platforms can be connected with standard tooling. The discovery tells you which of your processes are which, and the price is fixed once it has. As a guide, one process is about two weeks, two or three about three to four weeks, and four about four to five weeks. Where four processes also need connections built by hand, we would normally recommend fewer processes rather than a higher price. Those are build times — design, build, and a demonstration on your own data. 50% on signing, 50% on go-live. Your discovery fee comes off the first instalment in full.
Systems that don’t currently talk to each other are the normal case, not an exception — it is usually why clients call us. What moves the price is whether a system can be connected with standard tooling or has to be worked around. The discovery answers that before you commit to anything, and the price is fixed once it has.
What we build runs on your own infrastructure, under your own accounts — not rented from us. In practice that means n8n, on an account in your name — typically around £20 a month, paid directly to n8n and not part of our fixed price; the discovery confirms the exact cost for your volume. We cover your first three months of it ourselves — a £60 credit off your build invoice — so it's running and proven before you pay for it yourself. If you don't have an account today, that is the normal case and not a problem — we set it up during the build and hand you the keys. More on this below.
Four processes is the ceiling, and it is a deliberate limit rather than a capacity problem. Past four, a fixed price stops being something we can stand behind and you stop being able to check what you are getting. We would rather do four properly than five approximately.
Then we run it alongside your existing process for one full cycle and reconcile the two, before anyone calls it live. A weekly process takes a week. A monthly one waits for your close, so the calendar decides, not us. It is the week clients want to skip and the one that prevents the call nobody wants.
Go-live is the day it has run that full cycle with your team using it and nothing has broken. That is when the second half falls due — or 60 days after you accept the build, whichever comes first, so a delay at your end does not leave the work unfinished and unpaid. For our part, we commit to go-live within 60 days of you signing the build letter, extended only for any days we are waiting on something from you.
The price is fixed against the scope agreed after the discovery. If the process changes, or a new system comes into it, we agree the change and the price before any extra work starts.
Automation Retainer
For clients who want their automations looked after and a steady pipeline of improvements without hiring for it.
- Monitoring and maintenance of everything we’ve built
- Improvements each month — the next item on the roadmap, up to half a day each. Larger changes are quoted separately as a fixed-price build.
- Monthly one-page report on how the automations performed — hours saved, volumes processed, and the number of exceptions the system raised for your team to clear
- Priority response, on both tiers: your issue goes ahead of non-retainer work in our queue and is acknowledged in writing the same working day
- A standing hour each month to review how the automations are running and plan the next improvement
£950 / month — up to two automations, one improvement a month. £1,850 / month — up to four automations and two improvements a month. Four automations is the ceiling here too — the same limit that applies to walkthroughs and to processes. Then rolling monthly. The retainer starts once two or more automations are running; a single automation is covered by the 30 days’ support included in the build.
Talk it throughFounding client rate — the first three engagements
Bluequill opens for bookings on 14 September 2026. The first three clients to commission a Build take 25% off the Build, in exchange for a written case study and a reference call once the work is running and has proved itself. Nothing is asked for up front, and nothing is published without your approval of the exact wording.
The Discovery is not discounted. It is the work that makes a fixed price possible, and its fee already comes off the Build in full. When the third engagement is signed, this offer comes off the page.
Frequently asked
Straight answers
Do you do our bookkeeping or accounts?
No. Bluequill is an automation partner, not an accountancy practice. We work alongside your accountant or finance team and never act as accountant of record.
Which systems do you work with?
Anything with an export or an API — Xero, QuickBooks, Sage, NetSuite, Dynamics, bank feeds, Shopify, HubSpot, payroll platforms, spreadsheets — and regulatory-reporting tools. If it holds numbers, we can usually connect it — and where a system has no usable interface at all, the discovery says so before you commit to a price.
Will an automation actually do my bank reconciliation for me?
Not entirely, and we'd rather say so than let the name imply it. No accounting platform's public API — Xero included — exposes the bank feed lines still sitting unmatched, waiting to be matched, in the reconcile screen. That part stays something a person, or the platform's own matching screen, does. What we build is what we call a reconciliation control check: it reads what's already coded in your ledger and catches what's wrong with it — duplicate entries, an invoice or bill marked Paid where the amount paid doesn't actually match, things coded but never ticked off — and tells you within days, not at month-end. Where the real problem is a backlog of untouched lines rather than errors in what's coded, we can check against your actual bank statement instead, which does show every line — a short manual export each cycle rather than a live feed, but one that reaches the backlog directly. The discovery tells you which shape you actually need.
Is AI safe to use in finance?
Used properly, yes. We use AI for well-defined tasks with a review step, log what it did, and never let it post, pay or file without a human approving — what's sometimes called human-in-the-loop: there's always a point in the process where a person checks the work before it moves. You’ll be able to show your auditor exactly what happened and why. And your records stay with you: during a discovery we take no copies of your files, we don’t record the sessions, and none of your records or personal data goes into any third-party AI tool. We write up from our own notes, which contain no personal data and no financial figures from your records. Where an automation we build for you uses AI, it runs inside your own systems on your own account with that provider — so that relationship, and your data, stays directly between you and them. We name the provider before you sign anything.
I've never worked with an AI-driven supplier before — is that a problem?
No — most of our clients haven't either. We scope AI to specific, well-defined tasks, explain in plain English what it is and isn't doing before we build anything, and keep a human checking the work throughout — what we call human-in-the-loop. You don't need to understand AI to work with us; you just need to tell us where the time is going.
Will AI and automation replace jobs?
No — and it's worth being precise about why. A job is made up of many tasks, and it's the task we automate, not the job. We take on the repetitive, rules-based parts — matching, flagging, drafting a first pass — and leave the judgement, the exceptions and the sign-off with your team. In practice that usually means the same people spend less time re-keying and more time on the parts of the job that actually need a person.
Where does the automation actually run?
On your infrastructure, under your own accounts. We do not host your automations, and you do not rent them from us.
We build on n8n. Usually that means n8n’s own hosted service on an account in your name — nothing for anyone to install or keep patched, typically around £20 a month. Where you would rather it ran on your own infrastructure, it can, and some clients prefer that.
You pay the provider directly and it is not included in our fixed price. The discovery report confirms the exact cost for your volume before you commit to a build. We cover your first three months ourselves — a £60 credit off the build price — so you’ve seen it running, and seen it prove itself, before you’ve paid for the platform yourself. If you don’t have an account today, that is the normal case and not a problem — we set it up as part of the build, on an account in your name, and hand you the keys.
Why it works this way: you own what we build, you can see it running, and if we ever parted company you would need someone to look after it but you would not lose it.
Where are you based?
Bournemouth, working with clients across the UK. Walkthroughs are held by video call, which is quicker for everyone and keeps the price fixed. If you would rather we came to you, we’ll agree the day rate and travel costs in writing before we travel.
What stops you recommending a build you would profit from?
A rule we apply to every engagement, and it is in the engagement letter as well as here: we do not recommend a build unless it either pays back within twelve months on the hours saved, or fixes a specific control or compliance risk that we name in the report. Either way the report shows the arithmetic, so you can check it and disagree with it. The first Automation Discovery we ever completed recommended against a build — on our own company, because the payback came out at twenty-one months, so the answer was no.
What if the discovery says there’s nothing worth automating?
It happens, occasionally. You still get the map, the numbers and the recommendations — and you haven’t bought a build you didn’t need.
Not sure which one you need?
Twenty minutes on a call will tell us both. No obligation.
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