Every company starts as one clear idea.
Then it inherits everything else.
Rethink what you’ve inherited
01 The outside
From the outside, a company looks like one thing.
02 The inside
Inside, it’s everything it’s inherited.
Exports, re-keying, workarounds, habits
03 Take it apart
We take it apart. Most of it goes.
04 Rebuild
What’s essential gets rebuilt properly. With AI where it earns its place.
We go into companies and rethink the systems they’ve inherited. What’s essential gets rebuilt properly, with AI where it earns its place. The rest goes.
How an engagement works
For owner-run companies whose day still runs on re‑keying, spreadsheets and habit. It starts with a conversation, not a proposal.
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01
Question
We sit with the people doing the work and ask why each step exists. Nothing counts as essential just because it’s always been there.
You get: a plain map of how the work really flows.
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02
Strip back
We separate what the business needs from what it has simply got used to. Then we remove the second.
You get: a shorter process, agreed before anything is built.
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03
Rebuild
We build what’s left properly. Automation where work repeats. AI only where it earns its place. Plain software everywhere else.
You get: working systems, inside the tools you already use.
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04
Run it
We stay on to run what we built, so it keeps working when nobody’s watching.
You get: failure alerts, and a person who answers.
Part two
Selected work
What we’ve built, and what it changed.
A UK flower wholesaler
Their invoices now move from Florisoft into Xero on their own. Their accountant no longer uploads them by hand each month.
Illustration · example data
A night shift in five seconds
Before · each month, by their accountant
Export the month’s invoices from Florisoft (now done automatically)Upload them to Xero (now done automatically)Fix anything that didn’t match (now done automatically)
After · every night, on its own
- Invoices posted to Xero automatically
- Anything unsure waits for a person
What keeps it honest
- Nothing is sent twice. VAT is checked to the penny.
- If it isn’t sure, it holds the invoice and says why.
- Plain rules, no AI. Alerts if a run fails.
[N] hours a month of their accountant’s time, back.
Built, deployed and running nightly against Xero’s demo company. Live books from November.
We use AI where it removes work. Not where it decorates it.
If rules can do the job, we use rules. A UK flower wholesaler’s customer matching is an exact lookup plus name‑matching suggestions that a person confirms, because that was enough.
When AI does earn its place, it’s because it reads, sorts or drafts something people were doing by hand. Someone can always see what it did.
Sometimes the answer is less software, not more. We’ll say so.
Who we are
FromFirst is two people, James and Mitchel. The people you talk to are the people who do the work.
Tell us what you’ve inherited.