The back office you never hired
Invoices, receipts, chasing and filing, handled by an AI employee instead of by the founder at nine in the evening.
What it does
Every small business has a back office. Almost none of them have anyone hired to run it, so it happens in evenings and weekends, or it happens late. An AI employee takes the repetitive half of it.
- Paperwork in. Invoices, receipts and statements arriving by email or photo get read, checked and filed into your accounting tool with the right amounts and dates.
- Money out the door on time. Overdue invoices get chased on a schedule, politely, in your wording, without you having to decide each week whether it is too soon to ask again.
- The reminders you keep forgetting. VAT dates, renewals, the supplier who promised a credit note three weeks ago. It watches them and tells you before they matter, not after.
- One version of the numbers. The spreadsheet, the accounting tool and the bank export stop disagreeing, because one worker is keeping them aligned all week instead of one person reconciling them all at once.
What it does not do
It does not decide what to pay, or make a judgment call about a customer relationship. Anything that spends money, commits you to something, or would embarrass you if it were wrong stops and asks a person. That boundary is set by you, per action.
How it runs at Oido
An AI employee with the tools you allow it: your inbox, your accounting tool, your files, your database. It works on a schedule as well as on request, so Monday morning is already done when you open the laptop. Everything it did is on the record, and anything it was unsure about is waiting in one list rather than scattered across five threads.
You can build it yourself in an afternoon on the standard plan, or have our team build it with you if setting things up is exactly the kind of job you never get to.
Where it fits
The usual first automation for a service business, an accounting practice or any founder-led team under twenty people. It pairs naturally with invoice processing, accounts receivable and data entry, which are the same pattern applied to one job each.
Not sure which part to hand over first? Tell us how your week actually goes and we will tell you which hours are worth buying back.
FAQ
How much admin does a small business actually lose to this?
UK owners of micro, small and medium businesses report about 11 hours a week on admin and finance work, roughly six working days a month, against 3.6 days a month on sales and growth. More than half say paperwork gets in the way of running the business.
We are five people. Is this not built for big companies?
The opposite. A 500-person company hires a bookkeeper. A five-person company cannot, so the work lands on whoever is least busy that week, which is why it is late and inconsistent. This is the job an AI employee is best at: repetitive, rule-based and constant.
What does it actually take off my plate?
Reading invoices and receipts and filing them where they belong, chasing the customers who have not paid, sending the reminders you keep meaning to send, keeping the spreadsheet and the accounting tool saying the same thing, and telling you what needs a decision.
Do I have to change the tools we already use?
No. It works in Gmail, your accounting tool, your spreadsheets and your bank exports as they are. Changing your tools is the part small teams never have time for, so it is not asked of you.
What if it gets something wrong?
You set what it may do on its own and what it must ask about first. Filing a receipt, on its own. Paying anything, sending a firm reminder to your biggest client, always your call. It asks in Slack, WhatsApp or email and waits.
What does it cost for a team this size?
It runs on the standard plan, one flat price for the whole team, and you can build the first version free. No implementation project needed, though our team can do it with you if you would rather not.