A virtual back office for UK micro-businesses. The hours that go on the inbox, the unpaid invoices and the week ahead — that's the work I take.
What that covers
Inbox Starter is the first three, set up on your Gmail or Outlook and running for 30 days. Then Back Office, Back Office+, or switch off. Suggested replies are part of Back Office, not Inbox Starter.
What arrives
On Back Office, a reply is already written, in your voice, sitting in your own Drafts folder before you have opened it. You check it, and you send it.
The October pack was due Wednesday. Any update? I need it before Friday’s board call.
Re: October pack · draft, not sentHi Tom, sorry for the wait. You’ll have the October pack by [confirm date]. [Reason for the delay, if you want to give one.] [Anything he should know before Friday’s board call.]
Constructed, not a client’s, but this time it is exactly what the software writes. Everything outside the brackets came from Tom’s own email. Everything inside them is something only you know, and it will never guess those in your name: not the date, not the reason, and never whether the numbers are fine. Filling three brackets takes seconds. The email around them was the part that took the time.
The guarantee
Replies are drafted, never sent. Calendar invitations go only when you press the button. Invoice reminders are drafts too by default; if you'd rather they went out automatically, you switch that on and approve the wording first. That isn't a promise about how I work — it's built into the software I use.
Drafts appear in your own Drafts folder as mail arrives, so you may see one before I have. I review every one within one business day; my review improves them, and you decide what gets sent.
On Microsoft 365, sending permission is only requested if you switch on automatic invoice reminders. Until then, the consent screen does not include sending. If you later switch that on, you'll be asked to reconnect so Microsoft can grant it. Google's nearest equivalent is broader and does allow sending, so there the guarantee rests on the software alone. I'd rather tell you which is which than let you assume they're the same.
Who this is for
Mostly Microsoft 365. Google Workspace is fine too.
The arithmetic
You know your own hourly rate. Take the hours a week you lose to the inbox, the write-ups and the receipts, and multiply them out. That is the figure worth weighing the fee against — not what an assistant costs, but what the hours cost.
Both of those are your numbers, not mine. And I'm not going to tell you how many hours you'll get back — I don't know yet, and anyone quoting you a figure before they've seen your inbox is guessing.
Do the sum with your own figuresFive questions, an ordinary day of it shown in full, and nothing stored or sent.
What it costs
| Founding | Standard | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Inbox Starter | Email triage, the invoice chaser and a Monday round-up, set up on your Gmail or Outlook. Then Back Office, Back Office+, or switch off with no further charge. | £150setup + month | £250setup + month |
| Back Office | Everything in Inbox Starter, plus invoice and receipt extraction, meeting notes, calendar conflict checks and suggested replies. | £75a month | £99a month |
| Back Office+ | Everything in Back Office, plus up to 6 on-request jobs a month (travel planning, research briefs or batched social media posts). One job = one clear deliverable, about 20–30 minutes — not an ongoing project. Extra requests £15 each; anything bigger needs a separate yes before it starts. | £125a month | £175a month |
Founding is the first column, and it stays at that figure for 12 months. Standard is the price once the five places are gone. Inbox Starter is not a monthly fee: it is setup and the first 30 days.
What counts as an on-request job
Each of the six monthly jobs is one deliverable you can use straight away — a draft itinerary, a one-page research brief, or a small batch of social posts. The aim is about 20–30 minutes of work. Open-ended or multi-day work is outside the allowance. Extras are £15 each, and anything larger only goes ahead after we agree in writing.
£150, founding
That's Inbox Starter: setup and the first month, not a monthly fee. Triage, the invoice chaser and a Monday round-up, on your Gmail or Outlook. There are five founding places, and the founding price stays locked for 12 months. A 50% deposit secures one.
At the end of the month you move to Back Office or Back Office+, or you switch off with no further charge. Week one will be rough — tell me what's wrong and it gets fixed. By week three you should have stopped noticing it.
hswancampbell1@gmail.com