Technology - Automation and Integration Opportunities
Summary of automation opportunities ranked by impact and feasibility, plus the development workflow model for building systems.
Current State
Automation maturity: Zero (as of 24 March 2026)
Greenfield opportunity: Almost zero automation exists. All opportunities are new territory.
Priority 1: Highest Impact, Most Feasible
Invoicing and Payments
What: Automating performer/entertainer invoices and supplier bill payment
Current state: Manual invoicing from performers and suppliers. Money too tight for direct debit due to past supplier errors. Late payments frustrate performers and suppliers; some have cut off deliveries. Receipts often degrade or go lost.
Opportunity: Implement system where suppliers send invoices direct to Xero. Establish clear approval workflow preventing bottlenecks without manual double-handling. Incorporate scanned receipts to retain records.
Rationale: Invoicing and financial reporting are constant, important work. High pain point due to late payments, supplier friction, and lost documentation.
Email Triage System
What: Triage for customer enquiries arriving at meet@ email
Current state: Multiple staff respond to same enquiry; nobody responds to next one. CEO inbox has 25,000 unread emails. Meta DMs go to request folders where spam catches real emails. Results in customer frustration and lost bookings.
Opportunity: Implement automated triage or ticket system (e.g., shared inbox with assignment rules) so each enquiry is routed once and assigned clearly. Could include auto-response templates.
Rationale: Reduces duplicate responses, improves customer experience, prevents lost enquiries. Addresses CEO bottleneck and improves delegation.
Deputy to Xero Payroll Bridge
What: Automate transfer of rostering data from Deputy to Xero payroll
Current state: Rosters entered in Deputy, then manually transferred to Xero payroll. Complex due to six different bartender rates. Tom may have already built spreadsheet bridge.
Opportunity: Codify the spreadsheet bridge or use integration tool to automate weekly/fortnightly payroll transfer. Verify Tom’s work and document rate logic clearly.
Rationale: Eliminates double-handling, reduces human error on pay rates, frees Manager time for actual payroll decisions rather than data entry.
Priority 2: High Impact, Moderate Feasibility
Event and Function P&L Reporting
What: Automated P&L and cash flow reporting at event and weekly level
Current state: No event P&L, no weekly P&L, no cash forecasts. Xero P&L/Balance Sheet not trusted. TryBooking ticketing reports unexplored.
Opportunity: Query Square transaction data and Xero account codes to build automated weekly revenue by event type. Link to function inquiry data. Surface weekly cash position automatically.
Rationale: Directly addresses CEO bottleneck and strategy opacity. Better reporting enables delegation of financial decisions to VM and Event Leads. High strategic value for daily decision-support.
TryBooking Attendance Data Retention
What: Automate capture of TryBooking attendance data instead of printing and discarding
Current state: Print tickets, then throw away lists. Attendance data being lost.
Opportunity: Set up weekly automated export of TryBooking attendance data to structured log (CSV or database). Retain for analysis of event performance and customer patterns.
Rationale: Low lift, high value for business intelligence. Currently wasteful process.
Priority 3: Medium Impact, or Feasibility TBD
Function Inquiry Response System
What: Prepared response templates for function enquiries
Current state: Responding manually to each function inquiry
Opportunity: Develop 3–5 templated responses to common function enquiry types (size, timing, budget, dietary needs, etc.). Route enquiries to shared space for review.
Rationale: Saves time on repetitive responses. Works in tandem with email triage system.
Digital Assets Library and Reporting
What: Centralised digital assets library with automated scanning and email updates
Current state: Digital assets scattered. Google Drive scanned manually for recent activity to generate email updates.
Opportunity: Set up shared folder structure with version control, then automate weekly “what’s new” email summaries.
Rationale: Medium priority. Improves team coordination but not revenue-critical.
Do NOT Automate
External Graphic Design and Public Communications
Why: Arts enterprise with folksy, authentic brand. Keep human creativity, editorial judgment, and voice in all public-facing creative work. Automation would damage brand integrity.
Incident Reporting and Security
Why: Consistency in incident reporting (especially security) and maintaining live banned persons list must be supervised by humans. This is licensing compliance and duty-of-care matter, not for automation.
Licence and Regulatory Correspondence
Why: ASIC, ATO, and Liquor Licensing communications are legally sensitive and require human judgment. Document the process and identify backup person rather than automating.
Development Workflow: Cowork + Claude Code
Model: Cowork is the brain. Claude Code agents are the hands.
Parallel execution: Run two Claude Code agents simultaneously in separate terminals; they work on different tasks in parallel. Coordination flows through Cowork (chat interface) updating a shared CLAUDE.md file.
Key principles:
- Never let agents coordinate directly — all coordination flows through CLAUDE.md and through you relaying decisions from Cowork
- Never let idle terminals sit — start next task immediately when one finishes
- Never skip CLAUDE.md updates — stale context = wrong assumptions
- Never re-litigate decisions — once captured in CLAUDE.md, it’s settled unless reopened
- Handoff prompt first — when switching sessions, produce the prompt before housekeeping
Good parallel pairs (no file overlap):
- Schema + UI shell (different layers)
- API A + API B (different routes)
- Feature UI + different feature UI (different pages)
- Tests + docs (different concerns)
Bad pairs (will conflict):
- API + UI that consumes it (dependency)
- Two issues touching same files (merge conflicts)
- Shared utility + feature using that utility
Related Pages
- Automation Opportunities — concept page with strategic decisions
- Cowork-Claude Code Workflow — development methodology
- Tech Stack — technology platform decisions