FAQ · Fol. I · Common questions

Common questions.

the basics · the money · the process · the tech

The questions Orchestrix gets asked most often, answered properly. If yours isn’t here, ask it in the 15-minute triage. That’s exactly what the triage is for.

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FAQ · Fol. I · Fig. 1.00Nottingham · MMXXVI
Fol. II·The Basics
Fol. II · The Basics

Who and what.

Is this really just one person?
Yes. Orchestrix is one operator with a decade of experience untangling broken operations, based in Nottingham. The bureau framing is a tonal choice, not a headcount claim. There’s no account manager in the middle, no handoffs to a delivery team, and no junior doing the actual work. The same person runs the triage, scopes the audit, writes the code, and signs the invoice.
Where are you based?
Nottingham. Most work is done remotely: audit conversations over video, builds delivered digitally. On-site visits for the workflow audit are available within the UK. If your business is outside the UK and the engagement makes sense, that’s a conversation to have at the triage.
Do you work with care providers, care homes, domiciliary care, that sort of thing?
Yes. Care providers have the same shape of problem every regulated sector has: the rules generate manual work that someone in your team is doing by hand. What Orchestrix doesn’t do is interpret CQC standards, Schedule 3, DBS policy, or any other regulatory text on your behalf. Your registered manager or compliance lead remains the authority on the rule itself. The bureau builds the workflow that turns those rules into clean, automated daily work, so your team stops rekeying the same evidence into three systems. Same shape of fix as for an accountancy firm, a dental practice, or a manufacturer; different regulatory context.
What kinds of businesses do you actually work with?
Small UK businesses, typically £1–10m revenue, anywhere from 4 to 50 staff, any sector. The typical fit is a professional services firm, a specialist e-commerce brand, a recruitment agency, a surveyor practice, a design-and-build firm, a training provider, a care provider, or a manufacturer. The bureau is genuinely industry-agnostic, every sector has manual work that shouldn’t exist, and that’s the work. The pattern is consistent: the owner still knows every customer’s name and the operations run on a combination of spreadsheets, Dropbox, and institutional memory. Smaller and larger businesses are welcome at triage; the conversation will tell you whether Orchestrix is the right fit.
Why is the brand called “Orchestrix”?
Honestly? It’s a good-sounding word. It hints at orchestration (the process of making a lot of moving parts work together without anyone noticing the effort), and the “x” ending gives it a bit of edge. There’s no grand etymology. Alex liked it, checked it wasn’t taken, and that was that.
Fol. III·The Money
Fol. III · The Money

Pricing and billing.

How much does a project actually cost?
The triage is free. The operational audit starts from £2,500. Builds are fixed-fee and scoped after the audit: automation from £2,000, websites from £2,500, custom software from £1,000. Managed hosting retainers start from £150 per month. Every number is agreed before work starts. No ranges, no estimates, no “it depends” invoice surprises.
Do you charge by the hour?
No. Every engagement is fixed-fee. The number is agreed before the work starts and that’s what you pay. There are no timesheets, no “we billed 83 hours this month” emails, and no escalating invoices because the project ran over. The model is trust-based and focused on outcomes, not on the clock.
Is VAT included in your prices?
Prices shown on the site are exclusive of VAT. VAT status will be confirmed at triage and reflected on the formal quote once the trading entity is settled. If you’re VAT-registered yourself, it likely nets out; if you’re not, it’s worth asking at the triage so there are no surprises on the invoice.
Does the audit fee get credited against a future build?
Yes. If you proceed with a build from the audit’s punch list, the audit fee is credited in full against the build cost. The audit isn’t a sunk cost. It becomes the spec the build is built against. You’re not paying twice; you’re paying once for the whole process.
Fol. IV·The Process
Fol. IV · The Process

How it works.

Can I skip the audit and go straight to the build?
No. Every build starts with a workflow audit, and that rule exists to protect you. Without it, every build becomes a guess: the brief is based on how someone thinks the team works, not how it actually does. Scope explodes. The wrong thing ships. The audit maps the real situation first, so the build is built against that. The fee is credited in full if you proceed. You’re not paying extra, you’re paying in the right order.
What happens in the 15-minute triage?
A conversation, not a pitch. You describe the operational bottleneck that’s costing your team the most time or money, and Alex asks questions. The goal is to work out honestly whether Orchestrix is the right fit, and roughly half the time the honest answer is “no, and here’s who you should talk to instead”. There’s no commitment, no deck, no follow-up sales sequence.
How long does a typical engagement take, start to finish?
The triage is 15 minutes. The audit is typically a half-day to one day on-site or remote, plus five to seven working days for the written report, roughly two weeks from triage to delivered document. Builds vary: automation usually ships in two to six weeks, websites in two to six weeks, custom software in four to twelve weeks depending on complexity. These are honest ranges, not best-case estimates.
What if it all goes wrong and I hate the result?
Every build includes a 30-day bug-fix window: anything that doesn’t work as specified gets fixed at no charge. Beyond that, you own the code outright. Take it to another developer, maintain it in-house, or move onto a managed retainer with Orchestrix. There’s no lock-in and no dependency. The goal is to hand over something that works, not to create a reason to keep billing.
Fol. V·The Tech
Fol. V · The Tech

Stack and ownership.

What do you build things on?
Python or Node.js for automation and backend work, Next.js and React with TypeScript for websites and web apps, PostgreSQL for databases, and Docker for deployment. The stack is chosen during the audit, not before. The right tool depends on what you’re building and what your team can maintain afterwards. Nothing exotic for the sake of it.
Do I own the code and data?
Yes. Completely. Source code is handed over on delivery. No licence fees, no vendor lock-in, no “you must use Orchestrix to run this” dependency. You can maintain it yourself, hand it to your own developer, move it to another agency, or switch onto the managed retainer. It’s yours.
Can someone else maintain it after you’ve built it?
Yes, that’s the point. Every build ships with documentation written in plain English and a handover session to walk through how it works. If your in-house developer or another agency wants to take over, they can. The code isn’t written to create a dependency. It’s written to be understood.
What if I already have hosting, or want to keep my current setup?
That’s fine. The managed hosting retainer is optional, not a requirement. Not every build needs to run on Orchestrix-managed infrastructure. If you have existing hosting that works for your setup, the build can be deployed there instead. The retainer exists for clients who want the server patched, monitored, and backed up without having to think about it.

Got a question the bureau hasn’t answered?

Signed, the bureau

The 15-minute triage is the place to ask it. Describe the bottleneck, ask anything that isn’t covered above, and you’ll get a straight answer, including “not us, but here’s who you need” if that’s the honest answer.

Nottingham·MMXXVI·Open for enquiries
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