With the team · Business audits

Find out where the hours go

A business audit is a structured look at how a business actually runs, where the time goes, and which work a computer should be doing instead. Our audits are led by David Perkins, a former internal auditor who works alongside us, and come as part of working with Marbl Codes. You get plain findings, the automations worth building, and an honest list of what not to build.

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With David Perkins

What does a business audit from Marbl Codes involve?

A business audit from us is a structured look at how your business actually runs, led by David Perkins. He follows the work through the people and systems it touches, finds the manual and repeated steps, sizes what they cost in time, and writes down what is worth changing. You get plain findings you can act on, including a list of what not to build.

Who is David Perkins?

David is based in Northamptonshire and helps small and medium businesses in the UK sort out the parts of their work a computer should really be doing. He was an internal auditor for over a decade, across professional services, government and technology. The job was to walk in, work out how a business actually runs rather than how it says it runs, and then say so out loud, including to people who would rather hear something else.

That is still what he does. He has just pointed it at AI and automation.

Why audit before automating?

Because automating the wrong process only makes the wrong thing faster. Most businesses know roughly where the frustration is, but not where the hours go. The two are often different.

An audit also stops money going on tools nobody needs. There is a great deal of noise about AI at the moment, and much of what an audit recommends is simpler: a form that feeds the right system, a report that builds itself, a step that can be removed entirely.

What do you get at the end?

Findings written in plain English. How the work currently flows, where the time goes, what it roughly costs, and an ordered list of changes starting with the ones that save the most for the least effort. The list includes the things that would cost more than they save, because knowing what not to build is often worth the most.

Then what?

That is up to you. You can act on the findings yourself. Or we build the automations that earn their keep, with David, on your own systems so you own them outright, train your team, and look after them once they are running. He will tell you if the honest answer is to leave something alone.

What's included

What the work covers

01

How it really runs

Time with the people doing the work, so the findings describe the business as it is, not as the process document says it is.

02

Where the time goes

The repetitive, manual and duplicated work, found and roughly sized, so you can see what it costs.

03

What to fix first

A short, ordered list of changes worth making, starting with the ones that save the most time for the least effort.

04

What not to build

The ideas that would cost more than they save. Often the most valuable part.

How it works

Three steps, no surprises

  1. 01

    A proper look

    David spends time with the people who do the work and follows it through the systems it touches. No questionnaire does this.

  2. 02

    Plain findings

    What he found, what it costs in hours, and what is worth changing, written so you can act on it with us or without us.

  3. 03

    Build if it is worth it

    Where an automation earns its keep, David builds it on your own systems so you own it, and trains the team to use it.

Questions people ask us

Straight answers

A business process audit is a structured review of how work actually gets done in a business, from the first enquiry to the final invoice. It finds the manual, repeated and duplicated steps, sizes what they cost in time, and recommends what to change. Ours are led by David Perkins, who spent over a decade as an internal auditor.

No. David has no software to sell, so he has no reason to talk anyone into anything. The audit is a paid deliverable you can act on with us or without us, and it will tell you when not to build something.

Maybe not. Most of what an audit finds is not an AI problem. It is two systems that should talk to each other, or a step nobody needs any more. Where AI genuinely helps, we say so and explain what it costs.

You decide. Some businesses act on the findings themselves. Others ask us to build the automations, with David, on their own systems so they own them, then train the team and look after what we build.

Where do your hours go?

No obligation, no jargon, no pressure

Tell us what you’re trying to do. We’ll tell you where to start.

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