Every question we get asked

A helpdesk for day-to-day problems, background monitoring and patching, antivirus, backups, and user administration for starters, leavers and mailboxes.

Answered in full on IT Support

No. On-site visits are included in our monthly support plans within our Nottinghamshire coverage area.

Answered in full on IT Support

Remote support usually starts within the hour, and most issues are resolved in that first session.

Answered in full on IT Support

Yes. We work alongside in-house staff and other providers regularly, covering the areas they do not handle or taking on the day-to-day helpdesk so internal people can focus on projects.

Answered in full on IT Support

It starts making financial sense somewhere around five users, and it is clearly worth it by ten.

Answered in full on IT Support

Mostly five to fifty staff: small firms with no in-house IT, across trades, care, home services and professional practices.

Answered in full on IT Support

We audit what you have, document it, take over the monitoring and antivirus, and fix the things the audit turns up, which is usually backups that were never tested and three admin accounts belonging to people who left.

Answered in full on IT Support

Our plans are £40, £70 and £100 per user per month. The UK market sits between £40 and £150, with most small businesses landing between £60 and £85 for a plan that genuinely includes security, backup and a response commitment.

Answered in full on Monthly Support Plans

About fifteen miles from Mansfield, which covers Mansfield, Sutton-in-Ashfield, Kirkby-in-Ashfield, Shirebrook, Warsop, Ollerton, Bolsover, Clowne, Alfreton, Chesterfield, Worksop, Hucknall, Arnold, Ripley, Heanor, Southwell and Nottingham.

Answered in full on Monthly Support Plans

Servers are £60 to £100 per server per month on top of the per-user fee, depending on role and size.

Answered in full on Monthly Support Plans

Five. Below that the maths rarely works in your favour and pay-as-you-go is usually the honest answer, which is what we will tell you on the call.

Answered in full on Monthly Support Plans

Our support plans run on a rolling monthly basis with a 30-day notice period.

Answered in full on Monthly Support Plans

Hardware and software licensing, projects such as server migrations and office moves, out-of-hours work, and on-site time beyond the coverage area.

Answered in full on Monthly Support Plans

Remote support usually starts within the hour, and most issues are resolved in that first session.

Answered in full on On-Site & Remote

Not a counted allowance. Included visits cover reactive faults and routine work during business hours inside the coverage area.

Answered in full on On-Site & Remote

About fifteen miles from Mansfield, covering Mansfield, Ashfield, Chesterfield, Worksop, Bolsover, Alfreton, Ollerton, Hucknall, Arnold and Nottingham.

Answered in full on On-Site & Remote

Yes. Home workers are covered by the same remote support as everyone else, and we handle the VPN, remote desktop and file access that makes working from home actually workable rather than technically possible.

Answered in full on On-Site & Remote

Sessions are started by an agent already installed on the machine, and unattended access is restricted and logged.

Answered in full on On-Site & Remote

Out-of-hours work is arranged rather than included, normally for migrations, upgrades and anything that would take the office offline during trading.

Answered in full on On-Site & Remote

Clients on our plans have automated backups running to both local and cloud storage, with restores tested on a regular schedule.

Answered in full on Servers & Backups

Sixty to a hundred pounds per server per month on top of the per-user fee, depending on role and size.

Answered in full on Servers & Backups

At least quarterly for a full restore, and monthly for a spot check of individual files.

Answered in full on Servers & Backups

It depends on what the server does. File shares and mail usually belong in the cloud now.

Answered in full on Servers & Backups

Yes, and most of the ones we look after fall into that category. We audit and document what is there first, tell you what we find including anything genuinely risky, then take it on.

Answered in full on Servers & Backups

Yes. We run Linux ourselves for hosting and application work, so it is not an unfamiliar corner for us the way it is for a lot of small MSPs.

Answered in full on Servers & Backups

We repair wherever repair makes financial sense, including storage failures, screens, keyboards, power faults and thermal problems.

Answered in full on Computer Repair

Desk-side work is usually the same visit. Anything needing parts depends on the part, and we will give you the realistic date rather than the hopeful one.

Answered in full on Computer Repair

Repair labour is included on the Support and Complete plans. Parts are charged at cost plus a small handling margin, quoted before we order anything.

Answered in full on Computer Repair

Often, yes, logical failures and failing-but-alive drives are routine.

Answered in full on Computer Repair

Yes for storage, memory where it is socketed, batteries, screens and software faults.

Answered in full on Computer Repair

Frequently. A mechanical hard drive swapped for an SSD, with the memory taken to 16GB, transforms a machine that feels unusable, for well under a fifth of the cost of replacing it.

Answered in full on Computer Repair

Multi-factor authentication, reliable patching, monitored endpoint protection, backups with tested restores, and staff who can recognise invoice fraud.

Answered in full on Cyber Security

If you bid for public sector work or supply larger organisations, increasingly yes.

Answered in full on Cyber Security

The certification itself is a few hundred pounds for a small business.

Answered in full on Cyber Security

No, and it has not been for years. Antivirus catches known malware. It does not stop someone entering their password into a convincing fake login page, which is how most small business breaches now start.

Answered in full on Cyber Security

The answer depends entirely on your backups. With copies held in two places and restores that have been tested, it is a bad few days of recovery.

Answered in full on Cyber Security

We provide plain-English guidance and practical sessions rather than a compliance video nobody watches.

Answered in full on Cyber Security

A UK government-backed certification covering five technical control areas: firewalls, secure configuration, user access control, malware protection and security update management.

Answered in full on Cyber Essentials

Cyber Essentials is a verified self-assessment. Plus adds a technical audit where an assessor tests a sample of your devices directly.

Answered in full on Cyber Essentials

If you bid for public sector work or supply larger organisations, increasingly yes, and it is appearing as a tender condition more often each year.

Answered in full on Cyber Essentials

If the gap analysis was done honestly and the remediation was completed, yes.

Answered in full on Cyber Essentials

Because the wireless signal is failing over that last stretch, not because the broadband is slow.

Answered in full on Networks and WiFi

Almost never, if the rest of the building is fine. That is the clearest sign the connection is working and the wireless is not.

Answered in full on Networks and WiFi

Yes, and it is one of the cheapest security improvements available. A visitor's device, or a compromised phone, should have internet access and no route to your file server or accounts machine.

Answered in full on Networks and WiFi

Network troubleshooting and configuration are included, and so are the on-site visits it needs within the coverage area.

Answered in full on Networks and WiFi

Usually, with outdoor-rated equipment positioned properly. It is a common requirement on the industrial sites around Mansfield and the A38, and it needs surveying rather than assuming a unit indoors will reach outside.

Answered in full on Networks and WiFi

That needs a proper remote access route rather than an open remote desktop port, which is one of the most commonly exploited configurations there is.

Answered in full on Networks and WiFi

For a small business, typically a few weeks in stages rather than a single weekend.

Answered in full on Cloud Migration

That is what the staging is for. Mail is copied before the switch with both routes working briefly, and old file shares stay readable until the new arrangement has proved itself.

Answered in full on Cloud Migration

Not automatically, and anyone who says otherwise is skipping the arithmetic.

Answered in full on Cloud Migration

Yes, and this is the most expensive misunderstanding in this area. Cloud storage protects you from hardware failure.

Answered in full on Cloud Migration

Then it stays, and that is a legitimate outcome rather than a failure.

Answered in full on Cloud Migration

It stays powered on until nothing has needed it for a while, then it is decommissioned properly: a final backup retained, and the disks wiped or destroyed rather than left in a cupboard for somebody to find in three years.

Answered in full on Cloud Migration

Our websites start at £249 for a five-page starter site and £499 for a brand-led business site, with online shops and larger builds from £1,250.

Answered in full on Websites

Most sites go live within two to four weeks. The variable is almost never our end.

Answered in full on Websites

Yes, completely. The site, the domain and the content are yours. You are never locked in, and if you decide to move hosting elsewhere we will hand everything over rather than making it difficult.

Answered in full on Websites

Yes, and a fair amount of our work is exactly that. We can rebuild what is there, keep the URLs that already rank, redirect the ones that change, and take over hosting and support at the same time.

Answered in full on Websites

Every site we build ships with proper page titles, headings, structured data, a sitemap and a Google Business Profile set up alongside it.

Answered in full on Websites

Yes. We build sites your team can edit and show you how, so text changes, new pages and photo swaps never mean waiting on us or paying for an hour of someone else’s time.

Answered in full on Websites

Yes. Hosting, SSL, backups, updates and monitoring are all handled by the same team that built the site, so there is nobody to chase when something needs changing.

Answered in full on Websites

Our online shops start at £1,250 for a build with a manageable catalogue, and that is a fixed price agreed before we start rather than an estimate that moves.

Answered in full on Ecommerce

Four to six weeks for most shops. The variable is almost never the build.

Answered in full on Ecommerce

You own it. The build is a one-off price and the site is yours, including the code and the content.

Answered in full on Ecommerce

Usually yes, and it is one of the more valuable things we do. Whether it is worth it depends on how many orders you take and how much of the double entry is actually costing you.

Answered in full on Ecommerce

You hold the account with the payment provider directly, so the fees are yours and transparent rather than marked up through us.

Answered in full on Ecommerce

We arrange it where it is needed and price it separately so you can see what it costs.

Answered in full on Ecommerce

Simple booking on top of a standard site usually falls within a normal website budget.

Answered in full on Booking Systems

Yes, and it should. Bookings appearing in the calendar your team already checks is the difference between a system that gets used and one that gets ignored.

Answered in full on Booking Systems

Yes. For businesses losing money to no-shows this is usually the highest-value part of the whole build, and it tends to pay for itself well inside the first year.

Answered in full on Booking Systems

That gets built in. Every real booking business has exceptions, and a system that cannot handle them gets abandoned within a month.

Answered in full on Booking Systems

Not unless you want them to. Forcing an account before a first booking costs conversions.

Answered in full on Booking Systems

It is quoted as a software project rather than a website, and for a small business a focused first version normally lands in the low thousands.

Answered in full on Customer Portals

It is handled the way it should be: individual accounts rather than shared logins, encrypted connections, access limited to each customer's own records, and hosting we run and patch ourselves.

Answered in full on Customer Portals

Usually. Most business systems offer a route in, and where one does not there is normally a workable alternative.

Answered in full on Customer Portals

That is normal and it is still worth it. Portals rarely reach every customer, and the ones who do use them tend to be the ones generating the most administrative work.

Answered in full on Customer Portals

A focused first version is typically six to ten weeks depending on what it has to connect to.

Answered in full on Customer Portals

It depends on the size of the site and how much change you expect month to month, and we quote a fixed monthly figure before you commit.

Answered in full on Website Care Plans

No. Every site we build is yours outright and you are free to host and maintain it wherever you like.

Answered in full on Website Care Plans

Yes, on a schedule, and we can tell you the date of the last restore test.

Answered in full on Website Care Plans

Text edits, price and hours updates, swapping images, adding a page or a post, adding a team member.

Answered in full on Website Care Plans

Usually. We audit it first so both sides know what state it is in, and you get the findings in writing regardless of what you decide afterwards.

Answered in full on Website Care Plans

Monitoring alerts an engineer rather than logging it quietly, and hosting faults are ours to fix at any hour.

Answered in full on Website Care Plans

It can, and that is the main risk worth managing. The damage nearly always comes from changed URLs without redirects and from stripping content off pages that were ranking.

Answered in full on Website Redesign

The same as a new build, because it largely is one. Our sites start at £249 for a five-page starter and £499 for a brand-led business site, with shops from £1,250.

Answered in full on Website Redesign

Two to four weeks for most sites, four to six where there is a shop or a lot of content to rework.

Answered in full on Website Redesign

Yes. If you have a brand you are committed to, or a designer you already work with, we are happy to build to it rather than insisting on starting again.

Answered in full on Website Redesign

It gets audited rather than assumed. Pages earning traffic and enquiries are kept and improved.

Answered in full on Website Redesign

No. We build on WordPress where a content-managed site is the right answer, and on a proper application framework where the site is really software.

Answered in full on WordPress Web Design

Yes, and it is set up around the things you will actually change rather than exposing every setting.

Answered in full on WordPress Web Design

Every plugin is code someone else maintains, running on your site, with access to your data.

Answered in full on WordPress Web Design

A maintained WordPress site is fine. An unmaintained one is a liability, and the great majority of compromises we are called to involve a known vulnerability in an out-of-date plugin that had a fix available for months.

Answered in full on WordPress Web Design

Both are normal jobs. The important part in either direction is mapping the old URLs to the new ones so the rankings survive the move, and that gets planned before anything is built.

Answered in full on WordPress Web Design

Bespoke systems start from £549 and are quoted per project. A small internal tool might be one to three thousand pounds; a full job-management system for a team of fifteen is more likely to be five figures.

Answered in full on Custom Software

Because when it fits, it is the cheaper answer, and we will tell you so.

Answered in full on Custom Software

Smaller tools are a few weeks. Larger systems are built in stages across two to six months so that you get working value early rather than waiting for one big launch.

Answered in full on Custom Software

Yes. The system is yours, the data is yours, and there is no licence that expires if you stop working with us.

Answered in full on Custom Software

Usually, yes, accounting packages, payment providers, your website, email and calendars.

Answered in full on Custom Software

Systems change because businesses change, so we expect it. Small tweaks are covered under a support arrangement; larger additions are quoted the same way as the original build, fixed price, before anything starts.

Answered in full on Custom Software

When more than one person needs it at once, when the same information is typed into it twice, when only one person really understands it, or when simple questions about your own business take an afternoon to answer.

Answered in full on Replacing Spreadsheets

A focused first system that replaces one process end to end typically lands in the low thousands.

Answered in full on Replacing Spreadsheets

No. Moving the historic records across is part of the job, because the first time somebody needs to look up a job from two years ago and cannot, the new system loses their trust permanently.

Answered in full on Replacing Spreadsheets

That is the most common reason these projects fail, and it is why we build the smallest useful version first and run it alongside the spreadsheet.

Answered in full on Replacing Spreadsheets

Often, and where it can we will say so. Off-the-shelf is cheaper to start and quicker to run.

Answered in full on Replacing Spreadsheets

Connecting the software you already run so information moves between it automatically instead of being retyped by a person.

Answered in full on Systems Integration

Far less than replacing a system, and normally the cheapest useful software work a small business can buy.

Answered in full on Systems Integration

It happens, particularly with older products. There is often still a route through scheduled exports, a database connection or a supported file drop.

Answered in full on Systems Integration

Integrations do need looking after, which is why we monitor the ones we build and fix them when a provider changes something.

Answered in full on Systems Integration

Yes, and that is most of this work. The great majority of what we integrate is off-the-shelf software the client chose long before they met us.

Answered in full on Systems Integration

Buy, unless your process is genuinely unusual or you have already outgrown a product in a specific, identifiable way.

Answered in full on CRM Systems

A focused first version covering one pipeline properly typically lands in the low thousands to low tens of thousands depending on scope.

Answered in full on CRM Systems

Yes, and it is planned before the build rather than after. Contacts, companies, history and documents all move.

Answered in full on CRM Systems

You do, including the code and the data. There is no per-user licence and no annual increase.

Answered in full on CRM Systems

That is the normal path. A custom system is built to be extended, and most clients add to theirs over years rather than in one project.

Answered in full on CRM Systems

A focused first version of a business application typically runs from the low thousands to the low tens of thousands depending on scope and what it has to connect to.

Answered in full on Laravel Development

Yes. Working alongside an in-house developer or another agency is common, whether that means taking a defined piece of work or covering the areas they do not handle.

Answered in full on Laravel Development

You do, in full, along with the data. It is handed over in a repository you control, and you are free to take it to another team whenever you want without asking us.

Answered in full on Laravel Development

Yes, and most clients take that. The same engineers who built the application run it, which means an issue does not begin with somebody reading the code for the first time.

Answered in full on Laravel Development

Our normal arrangement is a scoped project at a fixed price, because that is where we do our best work and where the risk sits with us rather than with you.

Answered in full on Laravel Development

The current stable release, and we keep applications we host on a supported version rather than letting them drift.

Answered in full on Laravel Development

For a narrow set of jobs, genuinely yes: repetitive reading, extracting, drafting and answering.

Answered in full on AI Automation

Not in anything we build. We aim it at the work people already resent doing: the retyping, the filing, the same eleven questions, so the team spends its time on customers and the jobs that need judgement.

Answered in full on AI Automation

We use reputable providers, we set out in writing exactly what data leaves your systems and what stays put, and we design around not sending customer records anywhere you would be uncomfortable explaining to a client.

Answered in full on AI Automation

The free process review can usually happen within a week. From there we start with one job, normally the smallest one with the clearest saving, so you see whether it works for you before committing to anything larger.

Answered in full on AI Automation

No. We set things up inside the tools your team already opens every day, so in most cases the change your staff notice is that a job they used to do by hand is already done when they get to it.

Answered in full on AI Automation

It will, occasionally, which is why a person stays in the loop at any point where a mistake would reach a customer or an account.

Answered in full on AI Automation

Not if it is built properly. It answers from your own documents and prices rather than general knowledge, it is told to say when it does not know, and every conversation is logged so you can see what it is telling people.

Answered in full on AI Chat Assistants

There is a build cost and a running cost, and both are quoted before you commit.

Answered in full on AI Chat Assistants

Yes, and it should. The handover carries the conversation so far, so the customer is not asked to repeat themselves, which is the failure that makes people hate chat widgets.

Answered in full on AI Chat Assistants

We agree up front what the assistant sees and what is retained, keep the logs where you can access them, and avoid putting personal data into it where the job does not require it.

Answered in full on AI Chat Assistants

Many businesses do not, and we will say so. If your enquiry volume is low or your sales need a conversation, the money is better spent on the website answering the questions properly.

Answered in full on AI Chat Assistants

When a call comes in and nobody answers, the system sends the caller a text within seconds explaining you are on a job and asking what they need.

Answered in full on Lead Handling

The messages are written in your voice and say something true rather than pretending to be a person typing.

Answered in full on Lead Handling

The build is quoted up front and the running cost is mostly message charges, which for a typical small business is modest.

Answered in full on Lead Handling

Usually. It connects to the number and the website you already have rather than requiring you to change either.

Answered in full on Lead Handling

Then the automation should just make sure nothing is missed and everything is acknowledged, and leave the actual conversations to you.

Answered in full on Lead Handling

On clean, consistent documents it is very good. On handwriting, poor photographs and unusual layouts it is less certain, which is exactly why the system is built to flag low-confidence documents for a person rather than posting a guess.

Answered in full on Document Processing

A build cost quoted up front, plus a running cost that scales with volume.

Answered in full on Document Processing

In whichever system already needs it: the accounts package, the job system, payroll.

Answered in full on Document Processing

We set that up so it is not, and we put the arrangement in writing. For most businesses handling supplier and customer paperwork, that is a requirement rather than a preference.

Answered in full on Document Processing

Usually, and we test that on your actual documents before quoting rather than after.

Answered in full on Document Processing

Managed hosting is the server, plus everything around keeping it healthy: SSL, DNS, domain renewals, patching, monitoring, backups and restore testing.

Answered in full on Hosting

Yes, regularly. We audit what is there first, put the risks in writing, then migrate out of hours with the old environment kept live until the new one is verified working.

Answered in full on Hosting

Monitoring alerts us rather than you, so in most cases we are already looking at it.

Answered in full on Hosting

Backups run daily to separate storage, and restores are tested on a schedule rather than assumed to work.

Answered in full on Hosting

Yes: registration, renewal, DNS, and the SPF, DKIM and DMARC records that decide whether your email lands in an inbox or a spam folder.

Answered in full on Hosting

Website hosting is quoted alongside your plan rather than bundled into the per-user price, because a five-person firm with one brochure site and a five-person firm running a booking platform are not the same job.

Answered in full on Hosting

Mailboxes on your own domain, run as a service, so your addresses end in your company name rather than a free provider.

Answered in full on Business Email

Three DNS records that together tell receiving mail servers which systems may send as your domain, prove a message was not altered on the way, and say what to do with anything that fails.

Answered in full on Business Email

No. Existing mail is copied across before the switch and the change is made at a quiet point with both routes working briefly.

Answered in full on Business Email

Yes. Old addresses are kept as aliases so anything printed years ago still reaches you.

Answered in full on Business Email

Mail hosted with us is backed up, and we will tell you the retention. This matters more than most businesses assume, because a mailbox on any platform can be emptied by a person or by malware and the provider's own retention is often shorter than people expect.

Answered in full on Business Email

Priced per mailbox with the figure given before you commit, and there is no charge for setting up the authentication records or moving existing mail across as part of an initial migration.

Answered in full on Business Email

Not automatically. It is good value for a business that needs a site now and cannot fund a build, or that needs one only temporarily.

Answered in full on Subscription vs Owning

Usually access rather than an asset. The design, the build and often the hosting remain the provider's, and the site comes down if you stop paying.

Answered in full on Subscription vs Owning

Our sites start at £249 for a five-page starter and £499 for a brand-led business site, with online shops from £1,250.

Answered in full on Subscription vs Owning

Usually not, which is the point of the model. You can normally take the domain, the content and the copy you have written, and rebuild elsewhere.

Answered in full on Subscription vs Owning

Hosting, which is included with us for the first year, and optionally a care plan covering updates, backups and small changes.

Answered in full on Subscription vs Owning

Sometimes, and less often than software companies suggest. It is worth it when your process is genuinely your own, when the workarounds propping up a product cost more than the licence, or when per-user pricing has outgrown the value it delivers.

Answered in full on Off-the-Shelf vs Custom

Much cheaper in year one, and the gap narrows over time. A per-user subscription grows with headcount while a build is a fixed cost followed by hosting and support.

Answered in full on Off-the-Shelf vs Custom

That it costs more than expected, takes longer than expected, or solves a problem the business has stopped having by the time it ships.

Answered in full on Off-the-Shelf vs Custom

Yes, and it is often the sensible path. Use a product, find out precisely where it fails you, then build the part that matters and integrate it with the rest.

Answered in full on Off-the-Shelf vs Custom

With a product, you migrate under time pressure to whatever your data can be exported into.

Answered in full on Off-the-Shelf vs Custom

Somewhere between five and ten users for most businesses. Ten users on our £70 plan is £8,400 a year, which buys about 99 hours at £85, or just under two hours a week.

Answered in full on Managed IT vs Break-Fix

Yes, in three cases: under about five users, a business running almost entirely on cloud services with a few laptops and no server, or a team with a genuinely capable internal person handling the day-to-day.

Answered in full on Managed IT vs Break-Fix

A monthly fee covering monitoring, patching, antivirus and backup, with all labour charged hourly on top.

Answered in full on Managed IT vs Break-Fix

Add up twelve months of IT invoices including on-site travel, then add the faults you chose not to report because of the call-out charge and the hours your staff spent working around them.

Answered in full on Managed IT vs Break-Fix

Yes, and plenty of clients do exactly that. We work pay-as-you-go at £85 an hour with no minimum commitment, and most businesses move onto a plan once they have added up a few months of call-outs and seen the shape of it.

Answered in full on Managed IT vs Break-Fix

It moves in favour of a plan every time you hire. Break-fix costs scale with the number of things that can break, and the preventative work that stops them is a fixed effort spread across more users.

Answered in full on Managed IT vs Break-Fix

The audit is the free review and costs nothing. The changeover itself is ordinary work under your plan at the published per-user price, with no joining fee.

Answered in full on Switch to SetWeb

Not until you have decided. The audit, the parallel monitoring and the test restore all happen before notice is given, which is deliberate: it means you are choosing from a position of knowing what you have rather than announcing a decision you have not finished making.

Answered in full on Switch to SetWeb

Start the audit now and diarise the first date notice is permitted. Everything that removes the risk from a switch happens before notice anyway, so beginning early costs nothing and often removes the overlap entirely rather than leaving you paying two providers.

Answered in full on Switch to SetWeb

They should notice one thing: the support number changes. Mailboxes, files and applications are not moved, so there is nothing for them to log back into and nothing to relearn.

Answered in full on Switch to SetWeb

You give notice, in writing, once we have verified access. From there the technical handover runs engineer to engineer and we ask for what is needed in writing.

Answered in full on Switch to SetWeb

Yes, and it is a common way to start. Taking the helpdesk while an internal person keeps the projects, or taking backups and monitoring while a specialist keeps a line-of-business system, are both arrangements we run today.

Answered in full on Switch to SetWeb

Ours start at £249 for a five-page starter site and £499 for a brand-led business site.

Answered in full on Websites for Trades

That is what it is built for. It needs a page per area with real content about that area, plus a properly set up Google Business Profile.

Answered in full on Websites for Trades

Yes, where that suits your work. For plumbing, heating, servicing and inspections it removes a lot of phone tag.

Answered in full on Websites for Trades

Either you, from a phone, with training included so adding a job photo takes a minute.

Answered in full on Websites for Trades

Word of mouth still ends up on Google. Somebody is given your name and immediately searches it to see whether you look real, and what they find decides whether they ring.

Answered in full on Websites for Trades

That is the biggest single leak in a trades business, and it is fixable with missed call text-back and automatic acknowledgement.

Answered in full on Websites for Trades

One system holding quotes, scheduling, job sheets and invoicing, so a job is entered once and moves through stages instead of being retyped between a spreadsheet, a diary and an accounts package.

Answered in full on Software for Trades

Buy, unless you can name the specific thing the products will not do. Where your pricing rules, certificates, property records or subcontractor arrangements genuinely do not fit, or where per-user pricing has outgrown the value, a build starts to make sense.

Answered in full on Software for Trades

It has to. Job sheets get filled in in plant rooms, lofts and basements.

Answered in full on Software for Trades

Only if it is faster than paper for them personally, which is a design problem rather than a training one.

Answered in full on Software for Trades

Usually, and it is worth doing. Invoices raised from job sheets landing in accounts without re-entry removes the last piece of double typing, and it is normally the second thing we connect after the first version is running.

Answered in full on Software for Trades

Yes, and in a trades business they are the priority rather than the extra.

Answered in full on IT Support for Trades

It changes the order of everything. The device that stops an engineer working is a phone, not a desktop, and the connectivity that matters is mobile signal in a loft rather than office Wi-Fi.

Answered in full on IT Support for Trades

They get a named login with access to the one system they need, and a removal date recorded at the same time it is granted.

Answered in full on IT Support for Trades

Off the device, in a place that is backed up and that somebody in the office can search.

Answered in full on IT Support for Trades

We do the first hour of it. Sign-ins, devices, sync, connectivity and the network underneath are ours, and most stoppages turn out to be one of those rather than the product.

Answered in full on IT Support for Trades

That is the week worth planning for rather than reacting to. Before it, the devices are known to be working and the enquiry routes are known to land somewhere.

Answered in full on IT Support for Trades

Thick walls, long corridors and buildings extended in several different decades, combined with a requirement that coverage works in every resident room rather than only where staff gather.

Answered in full on IT Support for Care Homes

Yes, as part of the ordinary work rather than as a separate exercise. We keep access control, backup testing and incident records in a state where the evidence exists with dates on it, so the annual submission is a review of what is already true rather than a fortnight of assembling it.

Answered in full on IT Support for Care Homes

We keep them working: the handhelds, the network under them, the accounts, the sync at handover and the devices themselves.

Answered in full on IT Support for Care Homes

Within about fifteen miles of Mansfield, same day for anything stopping the home operating, and on-site visits are included in the monthly plan rather than charged as a call-out.

Answered in full on IT Support for Care Homes

By replacing them without making a shift harder, which usually means fast individual sign-in on shared devices rather than a policy telling staff to stop.

Answered in full on IT Support for Care Homes

Offboarding is part of the plan, not an extra. Accounts closed, devices recovered, access to resident data removed and recorded.

Answered in full on IT Support for Care Homes

Ours start at £499 for a brand-led business site, which is the right level for most single homes.

Answered in full on Care Home Websites

It is your decision and we will build it either way. In our experience a published range with an honest explanation of what moves it produces better-qualified enquiries and fewer wasted visits, because families rule themselves in or out before ringing rather than after a tour.

Answered in full on Care Home Websites

We would rather not, and for a care home it is close to counterproductive.

Answered in full on Care Home Websites

Yes, and the important part is what happens next. The enquiry needs to reach a named person quickly with an acknowledgement that sounds human, because a family is usually contacting several homes at once and the first real reply matters.

Answered in full on Care Home Websites

That gets handled properly, with consent recorded and a straightforward way to remove an image later if a family changes its mind.

Answered in full on Care Home Websites

Yes. A group needs each home to have genuine local identity while sharing the enquiry route and the brand, which is a structure question worth getting right at the start rather than bolting on later.

Answered in full on Care Home Websites

Care planning and medication records are specialist regulated products with years of clinical development behind them, and the sensible thing is to keep the one you use.

Answered in full on Software for Care Homes

Four things, in this order of value: an enquiry-to-admission pipeline, a rota with agency bookings and spend recorded against it, a checks and evidence log filled in on a phone as the check happens, and an occupancy and fee report.

Answered in full on Software for Care Homes

Usually, and it is worth doing where it removes re-entry on admission.

Answered in full on Software for Care Homes

A focused first system covering one process end to end typically lands in the low thousands, at a fixed price agreed before work starts.

Answered in full on Software for Care Homes

On UK hosting we manage, with access limited to the roles that need it and an audit trail of who saw what.

Answered in full on Software for Care Homes

For a single home, start with one thing rather than a platform. An enquiry pipeline or an agency booking record is a fortnight of work and pays for itself on one filled bed or one month of checked invoices.

Answered in full on Software for Care Homes

That is the main thing that changes for a practice. Maintenance and updates are planned around the calendar rather than dropped into it, nothing structural happens in January, and anything with risk attached is scheduled where there is room to fix a problem.

Answered in full on IT Support for Accountants

We keep it working: the machines, the network, the data, the updates and the access.

Answered in full on IT Support for Accountants

Through a portal or a secure exchange route rather than ordinary email attachments.

Answered in full on IT Support for Accountants

They get the same treatment as permanent staff and, crucially, they get offboarded when they leave.

Answered in full on IT Support for Accountants

We work with professional services firms across Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire, and we would rather be straight that we do not currently hold a named accountancy client we can point you at.

Answered in full on IT Support for Accountants

A secure logged-in area where each client sees what records you are waiting on, uploads them, approves and signs documents, and gets reminded automatically as a deadline approaches.

Answered in full on Client Portals for Accountants

Probably not, if clients use it. Make that one work first, which is a far smaller job.

Answered in full on Client Portals for Accountants

Individual accounts rather than shared logins, encrypted connections, access limited to each client's own records, and hosting we run and patch.

Answered in full on Client Portals for Accountants

Only if it is easier than email for them, which is a design constraint rather than a training problem.

Answered in full on Client Portals for Accountants

Usually, and it is worth checking before anything is quoted, because it is the biggest factor in the cost.

Answered in full on Client Portals for Accountants

Ours start at £499 for a brand-led business site, as a one-off price with the first year of hosting included, and the site is yours outright.

Answered in full on Accountancy Websites

They are quick and require no decisions, which is a real advantage if nobody in the practice has time.

Answered in full on Accountancy Websites

It helps, and for most practices the Google Business Profile and its reviews do more.

Answered in full on Accountancy Websites

We help with it, which for a practice usually means interviewing you and writing from that.

Answered in full on Accountancy Websites

We keep it running: the machines, the network, the data, the updates and the access control.

Answered in full on IT Support for Dental

Within about fifteen miles of Mansfield, the same working day for anything stopping treatment, and usually inside the hour.

Answered in full on IT Support for Dental

It gets isolated on the network and protected rather than forced to update, with a full image taken so a hardware failure is an afternoon rather than a shutdown.

Answered in full on IT Support for Dental

Copies held in more than one place, with restores tested on a schedule rather than assumed.

Answered in full on IT Support for Dental

Not yet, and we would rather say so than borrow a testimonial from another sector.

Answered in full on IT Support for Dental

Ours start at £499 for a brand-led business site as a one-off price with the first year of hosting included, and it is yours outright.

Answered in full on Dental Practice Websites

For private treatment, yes, at least as a from figure with an honest explanation of what changes it.

Answered in full on Dental Practice Websites

For some appointment types it works well. For new patient assessments and anything clinical, a well-designed enquiry that reaches reception quickly is usually better, because the triage matters.

Answered in full on Dental Practice Websites

We build with them in mind: substantiated claims, genuine and consented before and after images, and accurate descriptions of what each clinician is registered to do.

Answered in full on Dental Practice Websites

Not yet, and we would rather be straight about it. We work in care and in sectors with comparable requirements around enquiry handling and data, and we are happy to introduce you to those clients.

Answered in full on Dental Practice Websites

No, and building for that wastes the budget. The portals own buyer search.

Answered in full on Estate Agent Websites

Ours start at £499 for a brand-led business site. Where listings need to feed in from your CRM automatically, that integration is quoted on top once we have confirmed what your system allows, and the total is fixed before we start.

Answered in full on Estate Agent Websites

Usually. Most agency CRM and property software offers a feed, and we confirm what yours allows before quoting rather than after, because it is the biggest factor in the cost.

Answered in full on Estate Agent Websites

Yes. A landlord and a vendor want completely different things and mixing them means neither gets a page that speaks to them.

Answered in full on Estate Agent Websites

Yes, and it needs surveying on site rather than estimating. Steel frames, racking and outdoor areas need access points positioned by measurement, and it is exactly the kind of job that has to be done in the building.

Answered in full on IT Support for Manufacturing

It is common and it is manageable. The answer is normally to isolate it on the network, protect it and take a full image, rather than force an update that breaks a production line.

Answered in full on IT Support for Manufacturing

It has to, and it gets agreed with whoever runs the schedule rather than assumed.

Answered in full on IT Support for Manufacturing

A prepared, imaged machine sat in a cupboard matching your most common shop-floor configuration.

Answered in full on IT Support for Manufacturing

Yes. We do a gap analysis against the five controls first so the cost is known up front, then the remediation and the evidence gathering, which makes the assessment straightforward rather than a scramble.

Answered in full on IT Support for Manufacturing

Within about fifteen miles of Mansfield, same day for anything stopping production, and on-site is included in the monthly plan.

Answered in full on IT Support for Manufacturing

Build the two or three things that actually hurt, usually stock accuracy, job tracking and a floor dashboard, and leave your accounts package and existing systems where they are.

Answered in full on Manufacturing Software

A focused first system covering one area properly typically lands in the low tens of thousands or below depending on scope, with a fixed price agreed before work starts.

Answered in full on Manufacturing Software

It has to be designed for that from the start: large targets, short workflows, scanning instead of typing, and usable with gloves on a wall-mounted terminal.

Answered in full on Manufacturing Software

Usually, and often that connection is the whole project. Where the pieces of the picture already exist in separate systems, joining them is cheaper than replacing any of them.

Answered in full on Manufacturing Software

When you have complex multi-level bills of materials, real MRP requirements, multiple sites or genuine planning complexity.

Answered in full on Manufacturing Software

We support manufacturing and engineering businesses across the Mansfield and A38 corridor on the IT side.

Answered in full on Manufacturing Software

We understand the parts that depend on technology: contemporaneous records, availability of information to staff who need it, and personal data handling under Key Question 5.

Answered in full on Care Homes

Yes. Access control, staff training records, incident handling and demonstrable backup restores are the areas homes most often struggle to evidence, and we gather that evidence as part of ongoing support rather than as a separate project.

Answered in full on Care Homes

Almost always, and it needs a site survey rather than guesswork. Thick walls, long corridors and extensions from different decades make care homes genuinely difficult, which is why it needs someone physically walking the building with a meter.

Answered in full on Care Homes

Yes. We support the devices, the network and the accounts around those systems and liaise with the vendor when the issue is inside the application itself, so you are not stuck between two suppliers.

Answered in full on Care Homes

That is the scenario worth planning for in advance rather than during.

Answered in full on Care Homes

Often not. If the package fits your process, the right answer is to configure it properly and connect it to your accounts system rather than build anything, and that is what we will tell you.

Answered in full on Trades & Home Services

That is exactly what the free process review measures. We put hours against each repetitive job: how long, how often, who does it, so you get a number rather than a feeling.

Answered in full on Trades & Home Services

Only if capturing a job takes under a minute on a phone at the job itself.

Answered in full on Trades & Home Services

Yes, and that connection is frequently where most of the saving is, because it removes the retyping rather than replacing the software you are used to.

Answered in full on Trades & Home Services

With managed devices, the data is recoverable and the access is revocable the same day.

Answered in full on Trades & Home Services

The build is staged so the highest-saving, lowest-risk piece lands first.

Answered in full on Trades & Home Services

We support the servers, machines, accounts and network those suites run on, and we deal with the vendor directly when a problem is inside the application.

Answered in full on Accountants

It is the most common state we find in practices, and it is manageable, but it should be a decision rather than a drift.

Answered in full on Accountants

Multi-factor authentication everywhere, email filtering that catches impersonation of your own domain, and a verification process for bank detail changes that does not depend on an email being genuine.

Answered in full on Accountants

Increasingly, yes, and larger clients are starting to ask as well. The Complete plan includes preparation: gap analysis, remediation and the evidence gathering that makes the assessment straightforward.

Answered in full on Accountants

With a documented build and a tested backup, it is a morning. Without either, it is the worst week of your year.

Answered in full on Accountants

We support the servers, workstations, network and accounts those systems run on, and we work directly with the vendor when the fault is inside the application.

Answered in full on Dental Practices

Yes, and carefully. Sensors and capture software have specific driver and workstation requirements and are often tied to a particular machine, so imaging workstations get documented and imaged before anybody replaces or rebuilds them.

Answered in full on Dental Practices

They form part of the clinical record and must be retained for as long as the record itself, which is considerably longer than most backup arrangements are designed around.

Answered in full on Dental Practices

Same working day inside the coverage area, and prioritised ahead of routine work because a stopped practice is a trade-stopping fault.

Answered in full on Dental Practices

Not on the Support and Complete plans within the coverage area. Given that an idle surgery has a known hourly cost, a call-out charge is precisely the wrong incentive to put in front of a practice manager.

Answered in full on Dental Practices

Yes, and it is a more useful thing to monitor than the server. A feed can stop silently and run for two days before anybody notices, and a property that is not on Rightmove is not being marketed.

Answered in full on Estate Agents

We support the devices, accounts, connectivity and network those systems depend on, and we deal with the vendor directly when the fault is inside the application.

Answered in full on Estate Agents

It should not stop the branch working, and designing for that is part of the job, usually a failover connection at branches where a day offline is genuinely costly.

Answered in full on Estate Agents

Same-day revocation across the CRM, email and mobile devices, plus recovery of anything held only on the handset.

Answered in full on Estate Agents

With managed devices, encryption and remote wipe, generally not, which is exactly why the management is worth having.

Answered in full on Estate Agents

Long enough to meet your AML and contractual obligations, and no longer.

Answered in full on Estate Agents

Segment and protect rather than patch. They go on their own network segment, get imaged so a failure is a restore rather than a reconstruction, and we put the residual risk in writing.

Answered in full on Manufacturing

That is a hard requirement, not a preference. Patching and maintenance windows are planned around your shifts, because a provider applying a standard Tuesday-afternoon schedule to a manufacturing site will eventually stop your line.

Answered in full on Manufacturing

Almost always. Steel-framed buildings, mezzanines and yards need access points positioned by survey rather than guesswork, and intermittent coverage problems are routinely misdiagnosed as faulty scanners for months.

Answered in full on Manufacturing

We support the servers, workstations and network they run on and deal with the vendor when the fault is in the application.

Answered in full on Manufacturing

That is a process review question rather than an IT one, and it is usually one of the biggest single savings available in a manufacturing business.

Answered in full on Manufacturing

A critical machine with no image and no documented build, sat in a dusty corner with a power supply that is visibly on borrowed time.

Answered in full on Manufacturing

Between £40 and £150 per user per month, with most small businesses paying £60 to £85 for a plan that includes endpoint security, backup, patching and a response commitment.

Answered in full on What IT support costs

Break-fix and pay-as-you-go work is charged at £75 to £150 an hour in the UK, with £85 to £95 typical for small business work outside London.

Answered in full on What IT support costs

Most do. The common structure is a monthly per-user fee for remote support with on-site charged separately at an hourly rate plus travel.

Answered in full on What IT support costs

A frequently quoted benchmark is 3 to 6 per cent of turnover across all technology: support, licensing, hardware and software.

Answered in full on What IT support costs

Above about ten users, almost always. Ten users at £70 a month is £8,400 a year, which is roughly 99 hours at £85, about two hours a week.

Answered in full on What IT support costs

Because a published price can be compared. There is no technical reason a per-user managed service cannot carry a rate card, and the providers who publish one are generally the ones confident that the comparison goes their way.

Answered in full on What IT support costs

Usually Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace licensing, hardware and software purchases, project work such as migrations and office moves, out-of-hours cover, and, most importantly, on-site visits and travel.

Answered in full on What IT support costs

Per head, usually yes, though the discount is smaller than buyers expect.

Answered in full on What IT support costs

Monthly in advance is standard and it is the arrangement that keeps both sides honest.

Answered in full on What IT support costs

Covered scope, response commitments by severity, on-site terms including the coverage area, hours of cover, explicit exclusions, backup and retention specifics, the security baseline, a documentation commitment, change control, term and notice, price review terms, and exit arrangements.

Answered in full on What belongs in a contract

A rolling monthly term with 30 days’ notice either way is fair and increasingly standard for small business support.

Answered in full on What belongs in a contract

It usually means unlimited remote support during business hours for covered devices and reactive faults.

Answered in full on What belongs in a contract

Response times can be guaranteed; resolution times generally cannot, because the cause of a fault is unknown when it is reported.

Answered in full on What belongs in a contract

The asset register and network documentation, administrative credentials for every system they hold, a final backup in a restorable and documented format, and reasonable cooperation with the incoming provider, at no charge, and not contingent on any disputed invoice.

Answered in full on What belongs in a contract

Only if the contract allows it, which many do via an annual review clause with no cap.

Answered in full on What belongs in a contract

You should, unambiguously, and the contract should say so. If the documentation of your own network is treated as the provider’s intellectual property, switching becomes far harder and far more expensive than it needs to be.

Answered in full on What belongs in a contract

Naming a person is unusual and generally unwise, since people leave. What is reasonable is a commitment to continuity of knowledge: that your environment is documented, that a named account contact exists, and that you are not starting from scratch every time somebody new picks up a ticket.

Answered in full on What belongs in a contract

That administrative accounts are individually named rather than shared, protected by multi-factor authentication and logged, and that your credentials are held in a managed vault.

Answered in full on What belongs in a contract

What a visit to your office costs including travel, what is not covered by the monthly fee, when they last performed a test restore for a client your size, who answers the phone at 9am, and what you get back if you leave.

Answered in full on Questions to ask a provider

Yes, from businesses of similar size in a similar sector, and then call them.

Answered in full on Questions to ask a provider

Normalise both to an annual total for your actual business: twelve months of per-user fees, plus server fees, plus last year’s on-site visit count at their rate including travel, plus licensing and backup if charged separately.

Answered in full on Questions to ask a provider

Refusing a detailed proposal is reasonable. Refusing to indicate a per-user range for a business of your size is a negotiating position rather than a technical limitation, and it is worth naming as such.

Answered in full on Questions to ask a provider

It is a fair thing to ask, since they will hold administrative access to your whole estate.

Answered in full on Questions to ask a provider

An audit, full documentation, and a written list of what they found including the parts you will not enjoy reading.

Answered in full on Questions to ask a provider

Three. Beyond that the proposals blur, the process drags on, and the decision tends to get made on whoever chased hardest rather than whoever fits best.

Answered in full on Questions to ask a provider

Yes, and how they behave during it is the most useful data you will get.

Answered in full on Questions to ask a provider

Twenty minutes of it changes every conversation that follows. Write down your user count, your machine count, whether you have servers, what happened the last three times something went badly wrong, and which single system stopping for a day would stop you trading.

Answered in full on Questions to ask a provider

About four weeks: one week to audit and document, one to run new monitoring and backup in parallel, one to verify restores and access before giving notice, and one to cut over and remove the old tools.

Answered in full on How to switch provider

It should not. Your data, email, files and applications are not moved: only the monitoring, protection, backup and administrative access change.

Answered in full on How to switch provider

After the new provider has verified administrative access and completed a test restore, not before.

Answered in full on How to switch provider

It slows a switch but cannot stop one. Microsoft and Google both have documented processes for a domain owner to recover tenant control, and registrar access follows domain registration.

Answered in full on How to switch provider

Global admin credentials, domain and DNS access with a record export, server and network device access, backup platform access and retention settings, licence keys and vendor accounts, and the asset register and documentation.

Answered in full on How to switch provider

Your busiest trading period, and the middle of an active incident. Otherwise the best trigger is often a hardware refresh or an office move, because the duplicated effort disappears when machines are being rebuilt anyway.

Answered in full on How to switch provider

Documentation you did not previously have, a written list of the risks found during the audit, and a tested restore.

Answered in full on How to switch provider

Close to cutover, and once. They need the new number, the new email address and the date, not a fortnight of anticipation about an IT change, which reliably produces tickets from people worried their machine is about to be taken away.

Answered in full on How to switch provider

Yes, and it is a perfectly good outcome. Most poor IT relationships are caused by drift rather than incompetence, and a written list of specific findings restarts that conversation in a way a general complaint does not.

Answered in full on How to switch provider

Three copies of your data, on two different types of storage, with one copy held offsite.

Answered in full on Backups explained

No. Microsoft replicates data for their own infrastructure resilience, which is not a backup for you.

Answered in full on Backups explained

Longer than the common thirty-day default. Use tiered retention: frequent snapshots for weeks, daily copies for months, monthly copies for as long as your sector obligations require.

Answered in full on Backups explained

Recovery point objective is how much data you can afford to lose, if backups run nightly and the failure is at 4pm, you lose a day.

Answered in full on Backups explained

It will try, and that is exactly what makes businesses pay. An attacker with administrative access looks for backups first.

Answered in full on Backups explained

At least for users who keep anything locally, which is more of them than will admit it.

Answered in full on Backups explained

Stop writing to the affected system, and disconnect it from the network rather than shutting it down.

Answered in full on Backups explained

Rarely because they do not exist. Usually because the copy caught a database mid-write and is not restorable, because the restore needs a licence key or installer nobody kept, because it is slower than the business can absorb, or because the only person who knows the process is on holiday.

Answered in full on Backups explained

Yes if you bid for central government contracts involving sensitive information, and increasingly if you supply larger private organisations or your professional indemnity insurer asks.

Answered in full on Cyber Essentials

The same five controls. Cyber Essentials is a self-assessment questionnaire verified by an assessor; Cyber Essentials Plus adds hands-on technical verification where an assessor tests your machines rather than taking your word for it.

Answered in full on Cyber Essentials

Four to six weeks for a business already in reasonable shape, of which about two weeks is remediation.

Answered in full on Cyber Essentials

Most often: unsupported software or an out-of-date phone left in scope, multi-factor authentication applied to most but not all accounts, administrator accounts used for daily email, personal devices in scope that do not meet the controls, and third-party software not patched within 14 days.

Answered in full on Cyber Essentials

If they are used for work email or to access work data, yes. That is a business decision worth making deliberately before you start the questionnaire rather than discovering it partway through.

Answered in full on Cyber Essentials

Whole-organisation, in almost every case for a small business. A sub-scope covering one department or system is permitted, but it produces a certificate with a caveat attached, and the caveat is the first thing a procurement team reads.

Answered in full on Cyber Essentials

No, and it does not claim to be. It assesses five technical controls at a point in time.

Answered in full on Cyber Essentials

Take the manual job you want to remove, multiply time by frequency by a fully-loaded hourly cost to get an annual figure, then add the second-order costs: late invoices, pricing errors, mistyped details, which are usually larger.

Answered in full on What custom software costs

Most of the time. Accounting, payroll, email and file storage are solved problems, and mature sector packages usually beat anything you could build.

Answered in full on What custom software costs

Hosting and running costs of roughly £25 to £150 a month for a small business system, plus support and changes at 10 to 20 per cent of the build cost per year.

Answered in full on What custom software costs

Integrations with systems that have no proper API, role-based permissions added late, genuinely offline-capable mobile apps, data migration from inconsistent spreadsheets, and configurable reporting that non-technical staff can build themselves.

Answered in full on What custom software costs

Fixed price against a written scope. A day rate with an estimate attached transfers the supplier’s risk to you.

Answered in full on What custom software costs

You should, along with the data, with no licence that expires if the relationship does.

Answered in full on What custom software costs

Because the thing being estimated is frequently not the thing that gets built.

Answered in full on What custom software costs

More than most businesses have ever calculated. The direct cost is the hours; the indirect costs are the errors reaching customers, the invoicing that lags, and the work turned down because the admin would not scale.

Answered in full on What custom software costs

A structured walk through how work actually flows in your business, recording every point where somebody does something a computer should be doing.

Answered in full on The repetitive admin audit

Minutes per occurrence times occurrences per year times a fully-loaded hourly cost, gross pay plus 25 to 35 per cent for employer costs and overhead.

Answered in full on The repetitive admin audit

About 90 minutes to walk one job end to end and put numbers against what you find.

Answered in full on The repetitive admin audit

No, and sorting the findings matters. Some jobs exist because of a decision nobody remembers making and can be stopped for free.

Answered in full on The repetitive admin audit

The people who actually do the work, not only the people who designed the process.

Answered in full on The repetitive admin audit

Annually. Businesses accumulate new repetitive admin continuously: a new system, a new reporting requirement, a new customer with a different process, and the second audit is considerably faster than the first.

Answered in full on The repetitive admin audit

Put a named owner and a date against every item, including the free ones.

Answered in full on The repetitive admin audit

Why the admin accumulated, which is usually more useful. Work existing because two systems cannot talk points at a purchasing decision made in isolation.

Answered in full on The repetitive admin audit

Between £250 and £5,000 for most small business sites in 2026. A five-page brochure site with a custom design typically costs £500 to £2,500, a larger service or location site £1,500 to £5,000, and an online shop from £1,250 to £8,000 depending on catalogue complexity and integrations.

Answered in full on What a website costs

The same national bands apply, with the local difference that almost no Mansfield agency publishes a figure.

Answered in full on What a website costs

Mostly because they include different things. Content, photography, hosting after year one, training and redirects from an existing site are the items most often excluded from a cheaper quote.

Answered in full on What a website costs

For the first year or two, often yes, particularly if cash flow is tight.

Answered in full on What a website costs

Hosting at roughly £5 to £40 a month, an optional care plan covering updates, backups and small changes at £20 to £100 a month, and the domain renewal annually.

Answered in full on What a website costs

Two to four weeks for a small brochure site, four to eight weeks for a larger service site, and four to six weeks for a shop.

Answered in full on What a website costs

You should, including the design, the content and the code, and the domain should be registered in your name.

Answered in full on What a website costs

They survive if every old URL is redirected to its replacement and the pages that were earning traffic keep their content.

Answered in full on What a website costs

A well-built cheap site beats an expensive one that nobody maintains. What matters more than the price is whether it loads quickly, says something specific, delivers enquiries reliably and has somebody responsible for updating it.

Answered in full on What a website costs

The twelve above, and if you only ask three, ask whose name the domain is registered in, how they will preserve your existing rankings, and whether you can speak to a client whose site they built two years ago.

Answered in full on How to choose a web designer

Look at sites they built two years ago rather than last month, and check how they load on a phone.

Answered in full on How to choose a web designer

Yes, always. Everything else on a website can be rebuilt and a domain cannot be recreated.

Answered in full on How to choose a web designer

Entirely normal and not a problem in itself. What matters is that it is disclosed and that you know who to ring.

Answered in full on How to choose a web designer

Between £250 and £5,000 for most UK small business sites, depending on type and how much content and design work is included.

Answered in full on How to choose a web designer

Rebuilding without redirecting the old URLs. The site launches, it looks far better, and within a fortnight the enquiries have halved because every page Google had indexed now returns a not-found error.

Answered in full on How to choose a web designer

A fixed price against a written scope, so the risk of an underestimate sits with the supplier rather than with you.

Answered in full on How to choose a web designer

Decide first whether you need a brochure site or something that does a job, whether you want to own it or rent it, and whether you genuinely need a local supplier.

Answered in full on Choosing a Mansfield web designer

For a brochure site, rarely. Building and supporting a website is remote work.

Answered in full on Choosing a Mansfield web designer

The Google Business Profile and the reviews on it, usually ahead of anything on the website itself.

Answered in full on Choosing a Mansfield web designer

It suits a business with no upfront cash or a temporary need. Over five years at £40 a month you will have paid £2,400 and typically own nothing.

Answered in full on Choosing a Mansfield web designer

It is an industry habit rather than anything sinister, and it exists because quotes vary with scope.

Answered in full on Choosing a Mansfield web designer

Yes, in a narrow set of places: handling enquiries that arrive when nobody is free, reading documents into systems, chasing on a schedule, and moving information between systems.

Answered in full on Can AI save my business time?

Take one repetitive job, multiply how long it takes by how often it happens by a fully loaded hourly cost to get an annual figure, then add the cost of the errors it causes.

Answered in full on Can AI save my business time?

Missed call text-back and immediate enquiry acknowledgement. It costs very little to build or run, and for a trades or service business it routinely recovers more work in a month than the build cost, because the alternative is silence and silence sends people to the next number.

Answered in full on Can AI save my business time?

When the process is broken rather than slow, when the volume is too low to recover a build cost, when you buy a capability and then look for a use for it, or when something requiring judgement is automated without a route for a person to check the uncertain cases.

Answered in full on Can AI save my business time?

In a small business, rarely, and it is rarely bought for that. It removes the typing, chasing and sifting, and the person generally gets capacity back rather than losing their role.

Answered in full on Can AI save my business time?

A narrow first automation is typically low thousands to build with a modest running cost, and a document processing system with real volume behind it more.

Answered in full on Can AI save my business time?

It should not be, and you should ask directly and get the answer in writing.

Answered in full on Can AI save my business time?

There is no single answer, and any guide that gives one is ranking products rather than fit.

Answered in full on Choosing a CRM

Per-user pricing typically runs from £15 to £70 per user per month in the UK.

Answered in full on Choosing a CRM

You need one when more prospects are in flight than one person can hold in their head, when more than one person needs to know the state of a relationship, or when work is being lost to missed follow-up.

Answered in full on Choosing a CRM

Almost always on adoption rather than on software. If updating a record after a call takes five minutes and eleven fields, it gets done on a Friday from memory.

Answered in full on Choosing a CRM

When you can name the specific thing off-the-shelf will not do: a record structure that does not fit, a quoting calculation nobody else performs, per-user pricing that has outgrown the value, or a product already held in shape by three integrations and a spreadsheet.

Answered in full on Choosing a CRM

Establish that before you commit rather than afterwards. Ask for an export of everything including notes, attachments and conversation history, not just a contact list.

Answered in full on Choosing a CRM