Copying information between systems. Rebuilding the same spreadsheet. Writing the same email with three words changed. Chasing people to find out if something happened.
Record the task once and send it to us. We'll tell you whether it can be eliminated, simplified or automated — then build the fix for a fixed price in 7–14 days.
No audit required. No retainer. If we don't think we can make it meaningfully better, we'll tell you before you spend anything.
Most people don't call it "automation"
If any of these are in your week, there is almost certainly a better way — and it usually isn't complicated.
Ten minutes, twenty times a week, is 173 hours a year. That's a month of someone's working life spent moving text between boxes.
Manual re-entry is where the wrong attachment, the missed owner and the forgotten follow-up come from. Those cost more than the time.
Half these tasks depend on a human remembering to check. That load never shows up on a timesheet, but your team feels it every day.
Free · nothing to install · nothing sent until you press send
Describe one task you keep repeating. We'll tell you whether it's worth fixing, and roughly what it's costing you to keep doing it by hand.
Rough is fine — include wage plus on-costs. We only use it to size the problem.
The more of those are true, the more of this task can disappear.
Takes your answers to the form below so you don't retype them. Estimates only, and deliberately conservative — nothing is sent until you press send.
How a Friction Fix runs
Send a 5-minute screen recording, or walk us through it live in 15 minutes. Do it exactly as you normally would and talk while you go.
You get back: a verdict (yes / partly / not worth it), the type of fix, an estimate of the time it's costing, and a fixed price.
7–14 days. One workflow, up to three systems, one main output, one or two approval points.
We design it, show you a small demo on sample data, get your sign-off, build it, test it, document it and train whoever runs it. 30 days of defect support included.
We measure it. You get a one-page before/after you can show your team, your partners or your board.
Then the only question left is: what's the next thing you'd love to never do again?
The software is cheap and it should be in your name, on your account — we don't mark up a $20 subscription. You're paying us to work out what should and shouldn't be automated, pick the right method, handle the exceptions, build it so it doesn't fall over, test it, and make sure your team actually uses it.
And sometimes the right answer is boring: a template, an inbox rule, a form, a setting already in the software you own, or deleting a step nobody needed. The cheapest fix that works, wins — and we'll say so even when it earns us less.
What you get back
This is a real-shaped example: the monthly owner statement run at a property management agency, 140 owners.
Result: 5–10 staff hours back every month — and no more wrong statement going to the wrong owner.
| What starts it | Monthly statements become available in the management system |
|---|---|
| How it works now | Download statement → rename file → update tracking spreadsheet → write email → attach → send → tick off in sheet |
| How often | 140 owners, once a month · 3–5 minutes each |
| What goes wrong | Wrong statement attached to the wrong owner; owners missed entirely; no record of who was sent what |
| What we'd change | Statements auto-matched to owners; email drafts created with the correct attachment and merged detail; sent log written automatically |
| What stays human | Reviewing and approving the batch; the 3–4 owners with unusual arrangements |
| Time back | 5–10 hours per month |
| Next step | Standard Fix · fixed price · 10 business days |
Fixed price · no retainer · no hourly billing
Your free Task Check tells you which one you're in before you commit to anything.
One system, or a simple hop between two. Templates, form logic, spreadsheet logic, generated emails, filing rules.
Typically 5–7 days
The usual one. Multi-step workflow across two or three systems, with conditions, approvals and follow-ups.
Typically 7–14 days
Stubborn software with no integration, browser automation, messy documents, or a long tail of exceptions.
Scoped after a paid discovery session
$750 for a Quick or Standard Fix, in exchange for honest feedback, permission to measure the before-and-after, and a testimonial if you're happy. We'll anonymise the case study unless you'd rather we didn't.
Three related workflows — e.g. intake, approval, follow-up — bundled at a discount and designed to work together.
$150–$500/month. Automations break when apps change fields, screens or permissions. We watch it, repair it, and make small changes as you grow.
The wide-angle version: AI-assisted review, then a human going through it with you, to find the friction you haven't noticed.
Which door
"I already know what's annoying"
You can name the task. Start here, spend little, get it gone in a fortnight, and judge us on one result.
"Something's wrong, I can't put my finger on it"
An AI-assisted operational review, then a real person going through it with you — surfacing missed demand, unclear ownership, bottlenecks and rework, not just copy-paste.
Free Task Check
Two days for an answer. A verdict, the type of fix, and a fixed price — or an honest "don't bother, here's a free tip instead."
Use your usual screen recorder, Loom, or the built-in recorder on your computer. Talk through the task as you do it, then add the share link below.
Add my recording link Up to 5 minutes is plenty. Please use dummy or redacted customer data.Then drop the link in the field below, or email it to hello@frictionlist.com.
Straight answers
Then we say so, for free, and usually suggest something simpler — a template, a setting you already own, a form, or dropping a step nobody uses. We'd rather send you away with one good tip than sell you an automation that breaks in six weeks.
Not for the Task Check — a recording is enough. For the build we'll need limited access to the specific apps involved, ideally through a dedicated account you create and can switch off. We'll tell you exactly what we need before you grant anything, and we never need your banking logins.
You do. The tool accounts are in your name, on your credit card, so you're never locked to us. Entry-level automation platforms are typically $15–$25 a month. We charge for the thinking and the build, not a markup on someone else's software.
In small businesses, almost never — it gives an already-stretched person their afternoons back and removes the work they hate. We deliberately keep humans on judgement, exceptions and approvals. The computer does the predictable coordination.
Everything we build gets documented and includes 30 days of defect support. After that you can maintain it yourself, or put it on Friction Care ($150–$500/month) and we'll monitor and repair it. We won't pretend automations are set-and-forget forever.
Yes — and if you don't know where your time is going, that's the better starting point. Many clients do the audit, pick the ugliest item off the list, and that becomes their first Friction Fix. The audit fee is credited toward it.
Not before we've watched the task — anyone who does is guessing. What we will guarantee: if we review it and don't believe there's a worthwhile improvement, we tell you before you spend a cent.
Show it to us once. That's the whole ask.
Show us the task →