AI operations for professional-services firms
Your firm runs on paperwork.
Intake forms, engagement letters, timesheets, reconciliations, status reports. Skilled people spend a large share of the week moving information from one document to another.
MatterworksBook a discovery callAdmin eats the hours you bill for judgement.
Every hour of routine admin is an hour not spent on the advice, the argument or the client. That is the cost, and it compounds across every fee earner.
We rebuild the routine work around AI.
We map the repetitive work, pick the two or three processes worth automating first, and build them inside the tools your firm already uses. No platform migration, no science project.
Your people do the work only they can do.
Fewer hours lost to admin, the same standards of care, and a team that spends its day on the work clients actually pay for.
Three ways to work together
Priced so a partner can decide in one meeting.
Every engagement starts with the audit. Most firms move into a build sprint; some keep us on afterwards. There is no retainer required to begin.
Workflow Audit
R18,500Fixed fee, two weeks, ex VAT
- Interviews with partners, fee earners and support staff
- A map of every repetitive process and the hours it consumes
- A ranked roadmap of what to automate first, with expected time saved
- A written brief you can hand to any vendor, including us
Build Sprint
from R65,000Six weeks, scoped after the audit, ex VAT
- Two or three automations built inside your existing tools
- Typical targets: client intake, first-draft documents, monthly reporting
- Review and sign-off rules so nothing goes out without a human
- Training for the people who will run it day to day
Embedded Partner
R24,000 / monthRolling, cancel with one month notice, ex VAT
- A monthly workflow review with the leadership team
- One new automation or improvement shipped each month
- Ongoing staff support and a shared playbook
- Priority response when something breaks
How an engagement runs.
01
We watch the work, not the org chart.
We sit with the people who do the admin and time it. The audit produces a list of processes ranked by hours lost, risk if it goes wrong, and how easy it is to change. That list, not a vendor pitch, decides what gets built.
02
We build inside what you already use.
Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, your practice management system, your document templates. Automations are wired into those, with a person approving anything that leaves the building. You keep your data and your standards of confidentiality.
Who this is built for.
- Engagement letters, first drafts of standard agreements, matter intake, and the weekly chase for timesheets.
Law firms - Client onboarding packs, reconciliation prep, management report narratives, and audit request tracking.
Accounting and advisory - Proposals, status reports, meeting notes into actions, and the monthly reporting deck nobody enjoys.
Agencies and consultancies - Large enough that admin has become a department, small enough that one well-built process changes the week.
Firms between 15 and 150 people
Run by one person who sits in the room with you.
Matterworks is led by Brandon Levendale, based in Johannesburg and working remotely with firms in South Africa and abroad. No offshore delivery team, no account managers. The person who audits your workflows is the person who builds them.
The approach comes from years of coaching high-performance athletes: measure what actually happens, change one thing at a time, and keep the standard high. Applied to a firm, that means small automations that hold up under real deadlines, not demos.
Brandon Levendale, founder
Discovery call
Tell us where the hours go.
Thirty minutes, no slides. We ask about the work your team does on repeat and tell you honestly whether an audit is worth it. Replies within one working day.
Questions partners ask first.
Do we need to change our software?
No. We build inside Microsoft 365, Google Workspace and the practice or project systems you already run. If a tool genuinely blocks progress we will say so in the audit, and the decision stays with you.
What about client confidentiality?
Client data stays in your environment. Where an AI model is used, we configure it so your documents are not used for training, and every automated output is reviewed by a named person before it goes to a client.
How much of the firm's time does the audit take?
Roughly six to eight hours of staff time across two weeks, spread over short interviews and one working session. We do the rest.
Can we run the roadmap ourselves after the audit?
Yes. The audit deliverable is written so your own IT team or another vendor can execute it. About half of firms choose to do exactly that.
Where are you based, and do you work outside South Africa?
Johannesburg. Most work is remote, with on-site days in Gauteng and the Western Cape by arrangement. Firms abroad are welcome; pricing in other currencies is agreed up front.