Team, stock, an accountant, and four systems
You do not have to move everything. You have to stop retyping it.
Keep the systems that work. Vestae connects to them, reads what is in them, and does the office work across the top. Move things in later if you want to, or never. Both are supported, and neither is a condition of starting.
The cost is not the systems, it is the seam
By this size nothing is missing. There is a system for everything. The problem is that the job number lives in one, the customer lives in another, the stock came off a spreadsheet, and somebody in the office spends their week being the integration between them.
That person is expensive, and they are also the single point of failure. When they are on holiday the month end slips. When they leave, a chunk of how the business actually runs leaves with them, because most of it was never written down anywhere except in what they knew to do next.
Note what the problem is not. It is not that your systems are bad. Replacing four working systems is a project, a risk, and a year you do not have. The seam between them is the thing costing you, and the seam can be closed without touching what sits either side of it.
So Vestae does not start by asking for your data. It starts by connecting to where your data already is.
Two ways to work with what you already have
Most businesses end up doing some of both, in that order.
Connect to it, and leave it where it is
Your accounting stays in the system your accountant knows. Your email stays on the addresses your customers already write to. Vestae reads and writes across them, and does the work in between. Nothing is imported, nothing is retired, and you can stop at any point with everything exactly where it was.
Or bring it in, when it earns its place
When something is clearly better held here, move it. Customers, price lists, jobs, documents. One at a time, when you are ready, checked against what you had. Migration is an option you take because it helps, not a toll you pay to get started.
What connecting actually means
Your accountant keeps their software, their reporting and their relationship with you. Invoices, payments, purchases and what is owed flow between here and there, so the numbers agree without anyone keying them twice.
Your email stays yours. Connect the Gmail or Outlook accounts your team already have, and Vestae triages, drafts replies and files what belongs to a customer against that customer. It sends from your addresses, not ours. Nobody learns a new inbox.
For the rest there is a credential vault for the services you connect, webhooks so Vestae hears when something happens elsewhere, and an API so your business can be reached by other software, including AI tools your people already use. If a system of yours has a way in, it can be wired up.
And your records stay yours throughout. Whatever ends up here you can export, and if you ever go, you take it with you. Being hard to leave is not how we plan to keep you.
What Vestae does across the top
The work that currently falls between your systems, and onto a person.
The office job, done
Quotes out, invoices raised, the unpaid ones chased, enquiries answered, the diary kept. The work that used to wait for someone to have a spare hour.
One place to ask
Ask what is happening with a customer, a job or a month, and get an answer drawn from everything it is connected to, rather than from whichever system you happened to open.
The handover problem
What used to live in one person's head is written down as it happens. Somebody being away stops being a risk to the month end.
Everyone, with their own access
Own login, own role, down to the individual record. The front desk takes bookings without seeing wages. A fitter closes a job without seeing margins.
Priced per business, never per seat
One price however many of you there are. Taking somebody on changes your wage bill and not your software bill, which is the opposite of how most of this market prices.
An audit trail by default
Everything it did, in plain English, attributed and reversible. Nothing happens that you cannot read back.
And the operating side, if you want it here
Available when you are ready for it. Not a precondition.
Jobs, end to end
Estimate, authorise, schedule, photographs and location captured on site, the asset recorded, parts consumed, signature taken, invoiced.
Stock that knows about jobs
Parts used come off the shelf without anybody writing it down, with levels, reorder alerts and a full movement history.
Purchasing and suppliers
Purchase orders, goods received and spend, with reorder suggestions from the stock that is actually moving.
Projects, three ways
A board, a list or a timeline, split into tasks and milestones, with who has what and where it has got to.
People, leave and time
Employees, leave and balances, timesheets and clock in and out, feeding job costs rather than sitting in a separate folder.
Quality and compliance
Complaints, defects, incidents, supplier problems and audit findings, with the corrective actions that close them. The records a bigger contract asks to see.
How this actually starts
No data moves until you want it to, and you will have seen it working before that question comes up.
We look at what you are actually running
The systems, the spreadsheets, the shared drive, and the parts of the process that only exist in somebody's habits. No obligation, and you get the assessment either way.
We tell you what can be connected, and what cannot
Straight about it. Some systems have a clean way in, some have an awkward one, and some have none at all. You get that in writing before anybody commits.
We wire up the connections
Accounting, email, calendars, and whatever else has an interface. Your systems carry on exactly as they are. Nothing is imported and nothing is switched off.
Vestae starts doing the work in between
The quoting, the chasing, the filing, the answering. This is the point where you find out whether it is worth anything to you, and you have not moved a thing.
Then you decide what, if anything, moves in
Some businesses bring their customers and jobs across because it is plainly better. Some leave everything where it is and just keep the seam closed. Both are fine, and you can change your mind later.
Connecting and any migration are a paid consultancy engagement, quoted after the assessment. The assessment is not.
What established owners ask
Do we have to move off our current systems?
No. That is the point of this page. Connect Vestae to what you already run and it does the work across the top. Moving something in later is an option you take when it is obviously better, not a condition of starting.
So what do we actually change on day one?
Nothing, structurally. Your systems keep running, your team keep their logins and their inboxes. What changes is that the work between the systems stops landing on a person.
Which systems can you connect to?
Anything with an interface: accounting packages, Gmail and Outlook, calendars, and anything reachable by API or webhook. Some are a clean connection, some are awkward, and a few have no way in at all. We tell you which is which after looking, in writing, before you commit.
Does this replace our accountant or our accounting software?
Neither. The money moves between here and there so the numbers agree, and your accountant keeps their software, their reporting and their relationship with you.
What about our email? We have addresses people know.
They stay exactly as they are. You connect the accounts you already have and everything sends from your addresses. Nothing is migrated to a new domain and nobody has to learn a new inbox.
We are on a per user licence now and it is why we hesitate to hire.
That is the thing this prices against. One price for the business with unlimited people, because the argument is that you should not need to hire for the office side, and charging you more when you do would be that argument inverted.
If we did want to move data in, how does that go?
One thing at a time, checked against what you had, with both running in parallel until the new one is obviously right. Nobody sensible switches a working business over on a Monday, and we will not ask you to.
What if it does not suit us?
You stop, and everything is where it was, because that is what connecting rather than migrating means. Anything that did end up here, you export and take with you.
Start with the assessment
Tell us what you are running now and we will tell you what can be connected, what cannot, and what it would actually involve. In writing, before anybody commits to anything.