East River Agents

Re-engineer the work. Then let agents run it.

Your whole back office, mapped in four weeks.

Monthly client report

Sample audit · fictional agency

    1. Export spend and results from each platformPlain code
    2. Paste into the client workbookDelete
    3. Fix broken formulas from last monthDelete
    4. Ask the media buyer what changedAgent
    5. Write the commentaryHuman
    6. Export the PDFPlain code
    7. Email the owner for approvalAgent
    8. Wait for approvalDelete
    9. Re-export after editsDelete
    10. Send to the client and file the PDFPlain code
    11. Answer the client's questionsHuman
steps on paper
4
steps on paper
steps in practice
11
steps in practice
handoffs
5
handoffs
days start to finish
6.5
days start to finish
hours of hands-on work
2.4
hours of hands-on work

Where the time goes

Most of the month goes to waiting between people.

Making each step faster barely moves the total. The time comes back when the handoffs go away.

The sample agency's back-office hours, by kind of workSample audit · fictional agency
  • 34%Pulling and re-keying numbers
  • 22%Chasing approvals and payments
  • 14%Formatting and filing
  • 18%Reviewing results and deciding what to say
  • 12%Talking to clients

The 70% is pulling and re-keying numbers, chasing approvals and payments, and formatting and filing. The 30% that stays with people is reviewing results, deciding what to say, and talking to clients.

The sort

We fix the process first, then put agents on what's left.

The sample report had eleven steps. Four got deleted, three went to plain code, two went to an agent, and two stayed with people.

Delete

4

Rework gets deleted.

  • 02Paste into the client workbook
  • 03Fix broken formulas from last month
  • 08Wait for approval
  • 09Re-export after edits

Plain code

3

Steps with clear rules go to plain code.

  • 01Export spend and results from each platform
  • 06Export the PDF
  • 10Send to the client and file the PDF

Agent

2

Judgment calls with history behind them go to an agent.

  • 04Ask the media buyer what changed
  • 07Email the owner for approval

Human

2

Anything that sends money, signs, or commits you to a customer keeps a person on it.

  • 05Write the commentary
  • 11Answer the client's questions

How it works

Four weeks to map it. About two weeks to build each workflow.

We map the whole operation first, find where the waiting is, and build in the order the numbers say.

  1. About 4 weeks

    The audit

    Four weeks across your whole back office. We interview the people who run it and read the systems it runs through. You get a map of how the work runs today next to how it will run, baselined numbers, and the opportunity map. The opportunity map ranks every fix by the hours and dollars it gives back, rates how complex each one is, and groups the workflows into zones you can buy.

    See a sample audit
  2. After the audit

    The pitch

    We walk you through the map: where the month goes, and what each fix is worth against what it costs. You pick the zone to start with, and it comes with a quote.

    See a sample opportunity map
  3. About 2 weeks per workflow

    The build

    One workflow at a time inside the zone you pick, in the map's order, about two weeks each. A department with six or seven key workflows takes about 14 to 16 weeks. Every step is sorted into delete, plain code, agent, or human. Agents live inside your CRM, your books, your inbox, and your scheduling tool, with approvals in Slack or email. Nobody learns a new app.

    See a sample deployment
  4. 3 months, included

    The run

    Three months of monthly readouts against the baseline, included, starting when the last workflow in the zone goes live. Each workflow is measured against its own baseline from the day it goes live. Then you decide: keep us on to run it, or start the next zone.

Where the agents go to work

Owner-led and mid-market businesses, in the functions that eat the week.

Finance back office
Invoicing, collections, reconciliation, and month-end. Statements arrive on a feed, rules do the matching, and a person works a queue of exceptions with the evidence attached.
Sales and lead follow-up
Replying to new leads in minutes, qualification, a clean CRM, and the pipeline report that used to take a Friday afternoon.
Client delivery and reporting
Onboarding, recurring client reports assembled from the source systems, and approvals that stop living in email threads.
Member and customer operations
Scheduling, renewals, failed-payment recovery, and support triage, with the hard cases routed to a human.

Built into the tools you already pay for

We work inside the systems your team opens every morning. If a tool has an API or an export, an agent can work in it. We will never ask you to migrate.

  • QuickBooks
  • HubSpot
  • Salesforce
  • NetSuite
  • Google Workspace
  • Microsoft 365
  • Slack
  • Stripe
  • Calendly
  • Mindbody
  • Notion
  • Airtable

The engagement in progress

One engagement so far, shown as it stands. Results publish when its proof window ends.

  1. 01

    Marketing agency

    Marketing agency · Owner-led

    An owner-led marketing agency with a lot of clients who all want a steady stream of content. Most of that work runs through the owner, from gathering footage to posting it and reporting on each campaign. He runs the build from his own Claude account, and nothing goes out without his yes. Editing and captioning are live. He is connecting his clients' ad accounts to Claude, and posting comes next.

    Where it stands

    • Editing and captioningLive
    • Client project setupLive
    • Ad reportingIn progress
    • Posting and schedulingNext

Shipped in production at

Meta and Accenture

At Accenture, that included work for a Fortune 50 insurer and a global restaurant chain.

See where your month goes, and what it would cost to get it back

A thirty-minute call. Bring the process that takes the most hours.

Calendar not loading? Open the booking page.

Questions we get on the first call

If yours is not here, ask it on the call.

What happens on the first call?

You describe where your month goes and which process takes the most hours. We ask which systems it touches and who decides what. If it fits, we scope a four-week audit of your whole back office.

What does the audit cost and how long does it take?

The audit is a fixed $25,000 over about four weeks, half up front and half on delivery. You keep the maps, the baseline, and the build order whether or not you build with us.

What do we get at the end of the audit?

You get a map of how each process runs today next to how it will run, plus baselined numbers. The current map shows every place the work loops back and how often. You also get the opportunity map, which ranks every fix by hours and dollars with a complexity rating, groups the workflows into zones you can buy, and sets the build order. It shows the monthly cost of the agents next to what the work costs now. The zone you start with comes with a fixed quote.

What can the agents actually do?

The work that moves information between people and systems. Agents pull numbers from one tool and enter them in another, draft reports and follow-ups, chase approvals and payments, and triage inbound requests. Anything unusual goes to a person with the evidence attached, and anything that sends money or commits you to a customer stays with your people.

Will this work with the tools we already use?

Yes. The agents work inside the systems your team already opens every morning, such as QuickBooks, HubSpot, Google Workspace, and Slack. If a tool has an API or an export, an agent can work in it. Approvals arrive in Slack or email, so nobody learns a new app, and we will never ask you to migrate.

How much of our team's time does this take?

Most of it comes during the audit, when we interview the people who run each process and get read access to the systems. During the build we work with the person who owns each workflow, and we are on site for the first week. After that, your team's part is answering the approvals the agents send them.

How long until something is running?

The first agents are working in your systems about six weeks after we start, because the first workflow takes about two weeks to build once the audit is done. The rest of the zone follows the map's order at about two weeks each, so a department with six or seven key workflows takes about 14 to 16 weeks to build out. The three-month proof window starts when the last workflow in the zone goes live.

Why not build everything at once?

A workflow is the unit you can measure. The audit maps the whole operation so the order is right, and the build goes one workflow at a time so each one has its own baseline and its own number from the day it goes live.

Is this built for our workflows or off the shelf?

Built around yours. The audit maps how your work actually runs, including the exceptions, and the agents follow that map inside your own systems.

Who decides what the agents are allowed to do?

You do. Every step is sorted with you into delete, plain code, agent, or human. Anything that sends money, signs, or commits you to a customer keeps a person on it, and every action is logged.

What about our data?

It stays in your systems. We use the AI providers' business-tier APIs under written terms that say your data is not used to train their models, and we sign a data processing agreement.

How does pricing work after the audit?

The audit is a fixed $25,000. After it you choose a zone from the map: one department, a cluster of related workflows, or the whole map. We quote the zone from its measured value, so it pays for itself within its first year on the audit's numbers, and builds start at $50,000. You pay for the result: a workflow counts as done when it is live and its number has held for 30 days. A three-month proof window with monthly readouts is included and starts when the zone's last workflow goes live. After that you choose a monthly run fee per system or the next zone. We can add a capped one-time bonus tied to measured savings if you want us to share the risk.

Do we have to buy everything on the map?

No. You choose the zone. The map shows what each workflow is worth, and a zone is one department, a cluster of related workflows, or the whole map. Builds start at $50,000, so a zone has to be worth more than that to be worth building. Inside it we build one workflow at a time.