One trigger. Five tools updated. Zero human touch.
The 90-minute multi-step process your operations manager runs every morning becomes a 90-second background job. Built on production orchestration infrastructure. Auditable end-to-end. Replaces the Zapier spaghetti with code you own.
Workflow Automation at Compass means custom multi-step agents that connect your existing tools and run an entire process end-to-end - triggered by a form, webhook, inbound email, or scheduled time. Typical builds replace 90-minute manual processes with 90-second background jobs and log every step for audit. Built for Canadian SMBs in engineering, law, real estate, and studios. Single-workflow builds run $8,000–$20,000 CAD; multi-workflow systems with shared state run $20,000–$40,000.
One RFP comes in. A proposal is on its way out.
A preview of an RFP-intake workflow built for a Canadian engineering firm. Same agent shape, different business logic, your own integrations.
A new RFP email lands. The agent picks it up before anyone reads it.
Four phases. One signed-off process.
Every workflow follows the same four phases - whether the trigger is a form submission, an inbound webhook, or a scheduled time. The business logic in the middle is what we custom-build for you.
Catches the trigger
A new form submission, an inbound email, a webhook, a scheduled time, a Slack message. The agent listens on whatever signal matters and starts the workflow.
Gathers context across your tools
Pulls related records from your CRM (Customer Relationship Management), looks up the customer in QuickBooks, checks calendar availability, fetches order history. The agent reads the situation before acting.
Decides and acts with branching logic
If new customer, do A. If VIP, route to B. If error in stripe, retry then page on-call. Custom logic, custom branches, no rigid template.
Writes the result back everywhere it needs to go
Updates the CRM, fires the email, posts to Slack, creates the ticket, syncs the spreadsheet. One trigger, every downstream system updated, audit trail complete.
Same engine. Your process.
Every workflow is custom-coded around how your team already operates. Below is a sample of what we have scoped and shipped.
RFP (Request for Proposal) to proposal pipeline
New RFP lands in email. Agent extracts scope, checks calendar capacity, pulls similar past projects from the CRM, drafts a proposal outline, and posts it to the partner team in Slack for review. Cuts 4 hours of pre-work to 4 minutes.
New matter intake automation
Intake form submitted at midnight. Agent runs conflict check against the matter database, creates the matter file in Clio, generates the engagement letter draft, blocks calendar time for the lead lawyer, and emails the client a confirmation. By 8am the lawyer just reviews and sends.
New listing rollout
Property hits MLS. Agent writes the listing description, generates social posts for IG and FB, schedules them, drafts the email newsletter section, books the open house in calendar, and adds the property to the website. One listing posted everywhere in 15 minutes, not a day.
New member onboarding
Signup completes in Mindbody. Agent provisions their account, sends the welcome email with class recommendations based on their goals, books their intro session, adds them to the new-member email sequence, and notifies the front desk. The member feels like a VIP before they walk in.
Production orchestration. Code you own.
The specific tools depend on your existing systems and integration shape. The principles below hold on every build. No vendor lock-in. You see the exact stack before scope is signed.
Workflow questions, answered plainly.
How is this different from Zapier or Make.com?
Zapier connects two apps with a fixed if-this-then-that. Workflow Automation builds custom multi-step agents that branch on context, handle exceptions, retry intelligently, and call any API with whatever logic the process actually needs. Zapier is plumbing. We build the agent that decides what flows through.
Which tools can the agent integrate with?
Anything with an API (Application Programming Interface) or a webhook. Common integrations: Slack, Notion, Airtable, Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Salesforce, HubSpot, QuickBooks, Xero, Stripe, Shopify, Twilio, ClickUp, Linear, Jira, Asana, and any custom internal system. If your tool has docs, we can wire it.
What happens when the agent hits an error or edge case?
Every workflow has retry logic with exponential backoff, dead-letter queues for unrecoverable failures, and an escalation rule that routes the exception to a human with full context. Nothing fails silently. You get notified before your customer does.
Can I see what the agent is doing or modify the logic later?
Yes. Every workflow ships with a dashboard showing live runs, success rate, average duration, and a step-by-step trace of any individual execution. Logic is code we own together, so you can hand it to any developer to extend. No proprietary lock-in.
How do you keep agent runs reliable in production?
We build on trigger.dev for orchestration: durable execution, automatic retries, observability, scheduled jobs, and queue management. The workflow engine itself is battle-tested infrastructure. The only custom code is the business logic that makes it yours.
How much does a workflow automation build cost?
Workflow builds are priced on complexity, not step count. The bill depends on: how many tools the agent has to talk to (3 vs. 12), whether those tools have clean APIs or need custom adapters, the volume of runs per month, the depth of custom branching logic, and how much process discovery is required up front. Single-workflow pilots are the lightest entry. Real numbers come out of the free Bearings call once we have mapped the process.
Your operations manager is not paid to copy-paste between apps.
The average SMB ops lead spends 12-18 hours a week glue-coding their tools by hand: forwarding emails, updating two CRMs that should sync, retyping invoice data, chasing missed handoffs. The workflow agent does that work in the background while they do the work you actually hired them for.
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Course.
A free 30-minute Bearings call. Two operators talking about your business. No deck. No pitch. Just an honest read on whether AI is the right tool - and if so, where I'd start.