River~Code
[ Operations automation for professional services ]

Your billable hours are going into paperwork.

River~Code builds the client intake and document systems that stop engineering, architecture and accounting firms retyping what clients send. Fixed price and a fixed date, agreed in writing before we start.

How work moves before and after an automation system On the left, forty jobs in a month, each carried by hand through the same chain of steps across separate inboxes, spreadsheets and drives. Several stop dead and are dropped. On the right, all of the surviving work arrives at one system, from which a single automated workflow runs continuously without anyone carrying it. Every step by hand Retyped by hand ✕ Engagement signed File created
How work moves before and after an automation system On the left, jobs carried by hand through the same chain of steps, several stopping dead. On the right, all the surviving work on one automated workflow that runs continuously. Every step by hand Engagement signed

[ What we automate ]

  1. 01

    Client intake & engagement setup

    The system that stops it happening again.
  2. 02

    Document intake & processing

    Read, checked and filed without anyone retyping.
  3. 03

    Engagement status & recurring packs

    Assembled and sent without anyone remembering to.

… and plenty of other systems. These are the three we get asked for most.

[ Sound familiar ]

The work starts days after the client says yes.

  • A new engagement arrives. Documents come in and get retyped into the practice system by someone billable.
  • Client files, folders, permissions and schedules get assembled by hand, every time.
  • Nobody can see which engagements are waiting on which document.
  • Growth means hiring another admin, not taking on more clients.

Your capacity is capped by paperwork, not by expertise. That’s the wrong constraint to be growing against.

[ What changes ]

From eight manual steps to one system that runs itself.

Nothing changes about how your team works. It runs behind them.

Now — carried by a person
  1. 01Engagement signed
  2. 02Documents emailed over
  3. 03Downloaded one by one
  4. 04Retyped into the practice system
  5. 05Folders created by hand
  6. 06Permissions set one at a time
  7. 07Schedule built by hand
  8. 08Days lost before work starts

8 manual steps

After — runs by itself
  1. 01Engagement signed
  2. 02Documents extracted
  3. 03Validated
  4. 04Client file created
  5. 05Team notified
  6. 06Ready to work

1 workflow

[ Examples ]

Some of what we automate.

Client Intake System

New engagements set up without anyone retyping.

  • Intake capture
  • Client file & folder creation
  • Permissions set
  • Team notification
  • Status across open engagements

Document Intake Pipeline

Client documents extracted, validated and routed into your practice or accounting system.

  • Extraction
  • Validation
  • Routing to the matter
  • Exception flagging
  • Practice-system handoff

Engagement Status Board

Which engagement is waiting on which document, visible without asking anyone.

  • Status per engagement
  • Outstanding-document tracking
  • Automatic client reminders
  • Team notifications

Recurring Deliverable Assembly

The monthly or quarterly pack that gets rebuilt by hand every cycle.

  • Data pulled from your systems
  • Templated assembly
  • Review step
  • Scheduled delivery

These are examples, not a menu. If the thing eating your week isn’t here, describe it — the Roadmap exists to work out whether it’s worth automating.

[ How it runs ]

How a build runs.

Three phases — and you have the price and the date in writing before the first one starts.

01

Map

Access, process mapping, specification signed off. You know exactly what’s being built, and what it costs, before anything is built.

02

Build

We build it, and you see it running on your own data — not a status report, not a demo environment. The thing itself, working, while there’s still time to change it.

03

Hand over

Testing on live data, training your team, a recorded walkthrough and a written runbook. Then we keep it running — handover is where we start, not where we finish.

[ How long does it take ]

One workflow is usually about three weeks. Bigger systems get split into stages, and every stage carries its own fixed price and its own date — so scope grows in steps you agreed to, not in an invoice you didn’t expect.

[ Every proposal includes ]
  • What’s in scope
  • What’s explicitly out of scope
  • The definition of done
  • Two rounds of revisions
  • The price of a change request

All five, in writing, before you pay anything. This is our answer to “we tried this before and it didn’t stick.”

[ Proof ]

Systems we’ve actually built.

A few examples of real projects we’ve delivered. What each one replaced:

Built for iC Consulenten

Time tracking & payroll

Before
Everyone kept their hours in Excel. At month end somebody added them up by hand, per person and per project, then worked out leave separately.
After
Hours are logged as the work happens. Totals per person and per project, reports and leave balances all come out of the system — nobody re-enters anything.

Running today

Built for CES Clean Energy Solutions

Compliance assessment

Before
Each client’s environmental assessment was worked through by hand in a spreadsheet, by someone who knew the rules, one client at a time.
After
The client’s data goes in, the assessment runs itself, and the result comes back in a form the business can act on and take into a client conversation.

Running today

Built on Microsoft Power Automate

Mail & attachment routing

Before
Attachments arrived by email and were opened, renamed and filed into the right folder by hand, every time.
After
Mail is sorted and attachments filed on arrival, on the Microsoft tools the company already paid for.

Running today

[ What’s left ]

Questions we get asked.

What if my team won’t use it?

They won’t have to. It runs in the background. If your team has to change how they work, we’ve built it wrong.

Do we have to replace our software?

No. We connect what you already have and fill the gaps between it. If a project requires you to migrate systems, we’ve scoped it wrong.

Who maintains it?

We do, monthly. That’s the actual product, and it’s why the retainer exists.

Our documents are confidential. How does that work?

We build with AI tools, so some project content passes through third-party AI providers during development. We say so before anyone asks, and it’s why we don’t sign formal NDAs. What we commit to in writing is on our privacy page — read it before you decide.

Does it connect to our practice management system?

Usually. If it has an API or an import format, we connect to it. If it genuinely doesn’t, we’ll tell you at the Roadmap stage rather than after you’ve paid for a build.

What if you disappear?

You own everything we build: code, workflows, accounts, credentials. Everything is documented in a runbook at handover. Another developer could pick it up.

Where does my data go, and can you sign an NDA?

We use AI tools as part of how we build, so some project content passes through third-party AI providers as part of the development process — we won’t pretend otherwise, and it means we can’t offer the kind of absolute confidentiality a formal NDA implies.

What we do commit to, in writing: we never disclose that we work with you, discuss your business, or share your documents or data with anyone outside the project. If your work requires a stricter data-handling standard than that, tell us before we start and we’ll tell you honestly whether we’re the right fit.

Do I own what you build?

Yes. Entirely, from day one, in writing.

Find out where the money is leaking.

The Automation Roadmap maps your process, counts the manual steps and prices the fix. Two weeks, $1,200.

We reply within one business day.