Back office · Workflow Automation
One trigger. Five tools updated. Nobody retyping anything.
AI workflow automation is software that runs the multi-step process someone does by hand every morning, in the background, across your existing tools, with every step logged. Compass AI Group builds it for Canadian owner-operators with 5 to 50 staff: bookkeeping, dispatch, intake, reporting and dashboards, in code you own, scoped after a free Bearings call.
About one in six Bearings Reports says: do nothing yet.
S.01One run
One RFP comes in. A proposal is on its way out.
The same shape works for an invoice, an intake form or a job booking. The logic in the middle is what we build for you.
- 08:02TriggerA request for proposal lands in the shared inbox: a municipal bridge inspection, 38 pages.
- 08:02GatherThe RFP is read for scope and dates, three similar past projects are pulled from the project records, and the lead inspector’s availability is checked.
- 08:03DecideIt matches the work the firm bids on and no conflicts turn up, so the rules say: draft the proposal and route it to the lead engineer.
- 08:04ActOpportunity created in the CRM, proposal draft saved to the shared drive, a two-hour review blocked on the calendar, the partners’ channel notified.
- 08:04LogEvery step written to the audit log, and a reminder set for two days before the RFP closes. Nobody retyped anything.
S.02What you get
Four phases on every run.
Every workflow follows the same four phases. We build it inside your business, on your tools and your rules; the person who scopes it builds it and stays until it runs.
- 01
Catches the trigger
A form submission, an inbound email, a webhook, a scheduled time. The workflow listens on whatever signal matters.
- 02
Gathers context
Pulls related records from your CRM, looks up the customer in QuickBooks, checks calendar availability, fetches order history. It reads the situation before acting.
- 03
Decides and acts
If it is a new customer, do A. If it is a key account, route to B. If a payment fails, retry, then alert whoever is on call. Your rules, your branches, no rigid template.
- 04
Writes the result back
Updates the CRM, sends the email, posts to Slack, creates the ticket, syncs the spreadsheet. One trigger, every downstream system updated, the audit trail complete.
Price and start
Scoped in Charting after your Bearings call: fixed scope, fixed price, fixed timeline in writing, before any work starts.
After the build, a Managed Compass plan keeps it running and watched.Foundation $500Operator $1,200Operator+ $2,500CAD a month
It starts the way every engagement does: Bearings, Charting, Heading, True North (diagnose, scope, build, run). See the Method
S.03Common examples
Your operations lead is not paid to copy and paste between apps.
Add up the hours spent each week forwarding emails, updating two systems that should sync, retyping invoices and chasing hand-offs. The workflow does that in the background while they do the work you hired them for.
Bookkeeping
Receipts to reconciled books
Receipts photographed or forwarded, read, matched to the bank feed, categorized, GST/HST tagged and posted to QuickBooks. The monthly close becomes a review, not days of cleanup.
Dispatch
Order to installer without a phone call
An installation booked in the online store creates the job, picks the installer by territory and capacity, sends the work order and updates inventory. Every installer partner, one program.
Dashboards
One screen instead of three
A dispatch board, a client portal or a KPI dashboard, built on the same data the workflow already moves, so the spreadsheet, the inbox and the group chat stop being the system. Roles, approvals and exports included.
S.04Under the hood
Production orchestration. Code you own.
The specific tools depend on your existing systems. These hold on every build, and you see the exact stack before scope is signed. No proprietary lock-in.
- Orchestration
- trigger.dev: durable execution, retries, schedules and queues
- Reasoning
- Claude, the current model, only on the steps that need judgement
- Records
- Supabase, hosted in Canada (ca-central-1)
- Integrations
- Native API and webhook handlers for the tools you already use
- Observability
- A step-by-step trace of every run, and a live dashboard
- Reliability
- Retry queues, and an alert when a run cannot finish
S.05Best for
Best for a team that moves the same data by hand every day.
A good fit
- Someone on your team spends their morning moving the same data between three systems.
- Bookkeeping, dispatch or reporting is late because it depends on one person remembering.
- You have outgrown Zapier and the spreadsheet that runs the business.
Not yet
- Nobody agrees how the process runs today. Automating it would only make the confusion faster; we map it first in Bearings.
- It happens once a month and takes ten minutes. The build would not pay for itself.
- The tools you rely on have no API and no export. We tell you that on the call, not after the build.
Sometimes the answer is a better process, not AI at all.
S.06Questions
Workflow questions, answered plainly.
What is AI workflow automation?
AI workflow automation is software that runs a multi-step business process in the background. It catches a trigger such as a form or an email, gathers context from your existing tools, decides using your rules, and writes the result back with every step logged. An AI model, Claude, is used only on the steps that need judgement.
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 workflows that branch on context, handle exceptions, retry on failure, and call any API with whatever logic the process actually needs. Zapier is plumbing. We build the logic that decides what flows through.
Which tools can the workflow connect to?
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 workflow 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 each run, and change 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. The logic is code you own, so you can hand it to any developer to extend. No proprietary lock-in.
How do you keep workflow 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 proven infrastructure. The only custom code is the business logic that makes it yours.
Can you automate our bookkeeping?
Yes. Bank feeds in, categorized transactions out: receipt reading, GST/HST tracking, reconciliation, and a faster monthly close, posting to QuickBooks Online, Xero, FreshBooks, or Wave with an audit trail on every decision. It does not replace your accountant; it removes their cleanup work.
Can you build a dashboard or admin portal?
Yes. When a workflow needs a screen, we build it: a client portal, a dispatch board, a KPI dashboard, an internal admin tool with roles and approvals. It is scoped as part of the workflow, not as a separate product.
S.08Next step
Plot your course.
A free 30-minute Bearings call. You and the Compass team, talking about your business. An honest read on what to fix first, and whether AI belongs in it.
Or reach the Compass team directly: batwal@compassaigroup.com, 416-409-2112