Your company brain.
Built with you, owned by you.

use cases

Project margins, protected while the work is under way.

Every piece of promised work, on one current record - scope creep caught in the inbox, overruns caught on the clock, and both raised while the fee can still change, not at the month-end write-off.

“The write-off surprises us at month end. Scope creeps in the inbox, never in the system.”

§ 01 Is this you?

Is this you?

  • A client asks for one more thing by email, and it gets done without anyone changing the fee.
  • Hours drift past plan, and nobody looks at the timesheet until it is time to bill.
  • The write-off arrives as a surprise at month end, on a project that looked healthy.
  • Work goes to a client while a quality concern raised weeks ago is still open.
  • Finished milestones wait for the month-end billing run with everything else.

If two or more of these sound familiar, this is the use case to start with.

§ 02 Before and after

Before and after

today with a company brain
A client asks for more The request is buried in an email thread and done as a favour. It is read against the agreed scope, and the owner has a scope-change note and the fee variance while it can still be raised.
Hours run past plan Nobody notices until the bill is prepared, when the only choice left is a write-off. The drift is set against the scope and the fee as it happens, so the conversation comes before the overrun.
A deliverable is ready to send It goes out, whatever was raised about it in the correspondence. It is checked against open quality concerns first, and held for review if one was never closed.
A milestone completes It is gathered up at month end with everything else. The bill is drafted the same day, held for a person to sign.
§ 03 What you would see

Illustrative: the shape of what you would receive, not a client's record.

What you would see

scope change note

Client email: a request beyond the agreed scope

what it saw
A request in a client email for work the engagement letter does not cover, on a project where hours are already past plan.
why it matters
Unbilled work on a project already over plan. Left alone, it ends as a write-off at month end.
recommends
Raise a scope change with the client now, with the fee variance attached.
how sure
Sure the work is outside scope. The size of the variance is an estimate from similar work.
sources
The engagement letter, the email thread and the time records, each linked.

recommend drafted for the project lead to put to the client

send hold

Deliverable ready, quality concern still open

what it saw
A report ready to go to the client, and a quality concern raised in the correspondence three weeks ago that was never closed.
recommends
Hold the send and insert a review before it leaves.
reviewer
The quality reviewer named on the project.
how sure
Sure the concern is still open. Whether it still applies needs a person to judge.
sources
The deliverable, the correspondence and the quality log, each linked.

recommend send held, review requested

draft bill

Milestone complete: the second stage, accepted today

what changed
The client accepted the second stage of the work today.
billing terms
The engagement bills each stage on acceptance.
what it holds
The bill, the acceptance and the time recorded against the stage, each linked.
how sure
Sure the stage is complete and billable.

draft drafted the same day, held for the project lead's signature

Every output says what it saw, why it matters, what it recommends and how sure it is, and links each fact to its source.

§ 04 How it works

How it works

  1. 01 it notices Client emails, time recorded, milestones, deliverables and quality concerns, where they already arrive.
  2. 02 it connects Each one to the project it belongs to, and each project to its scope, its fee, its plan and its client.
  3. 03 it judges Whether a request falls outside scope, whether the hours are drifting, and whether a deliverable is ready to leave.
  4. 04 it checks Every action against your rules: who signs a scope change, and what must be reviewed before it reaches a client.
  5. 05 it acts Within the permission you have granted: it notes, recommends, drafts scope changes and bills, or acts where you allow it.

It reads from your project, practice or matter systems, your time records and your email. It does not replace them, and nothing is migrated.

§ 05 What it runs on

The parts of a company brain project margins relies on, in the framework's own terms.

What it runs on

01The record
Every project's scope, fee, plan, time recorded and client correspondence, in one record.
02Finding the answer
Each question answered with its sources, or a plain "I can't answer that well".
03The company manual
What each engagement covers, and who may agree a change of scope or fee.
04The way in for AI tools
How your people ask it from the AI assistant they already use, on the same permissions as everyone else.
05Connectors
Your project, time-recording and practice systems, and the inboxes where clients ask for more.
06Who may see and do what
Who may see fees, margins and client correspondence, checked before every answer.
07Agents and actions
Drafting a scope change or a bill, or holding a send, only through actions agreed in advance.
08Where people use it
Where the project lead puts a scope change to the client or signs a bill.
09Testing it on your own questions
Tested against your own past projects before it is trusted with live ones.
the company brain keeping it trustworthy, under all of it your systems documents email, calendar business systems your ai tools your people namedsources checked,then kept checkedfirst read in your terms a question,and its answer approvals acting, througha second door 05 connectors 01 the record 06 who may see and do what 02 finding the answer 03 the company manual 04 the way in for ai tools 08 where people use it 07 agents and actions 09 testing on your questions 10 keeping it running 11 keeping every brain current 12 before anythingis built
The twelve parts of a company brain, with the ones project margins runs on drawn in red. Read left to right: what comes in, what it knows, and who and what uses it.

what this shows about a company brain

It works through the AI tools you already use

Your people reach it from the assistant they already have, on the same permissions. They might ask:

“Which of our live projects have had requests outside the engagement letter this month?”

It compounds

Its project record tells cash collection the moment a milestone completes, and gives customer retention the delivery history behind every relationship.

It is yours

The record, the rules and the permissions it builds belong to you, not to a vendor: handed over to your team or run for you. The same company brain runs every use case you add.

§ 06 You stay in control

You stay in control

  1. observeIt reads silently and measures its own accuracy against what really happened.
  2. recommendIt puts the case and a proposed action to a named owner.
  3. draftIt prepares the action, and holds it for a person to sign.
  4. actIt acts within the bounds you set, and logs everything it does.

Each permission is granted or withheld, taken back as easily as it was given, and expires unless someone renews it. Everything starts at observe, and a permission is granted on the measured record, never on a promise. Every action is checked against your rules before anything goes out.

Client-facing updates and fee changes wait for a named person's signature wherever your engagement terms or your policy demand one.

§ 07 Where it starts

Where it starts

first scope
One practice group or one type of project: the work where overruns cost you most.
how it proves itself
It runs at observe against your own past projects first, so you see what it would have caught, and when, before it is allowed to do anything.
what it connects to
The project, time-recording and practice systems you already run, and the inboxes where clients ask for more. Connectors are built for you, as part of the work. How it connects.
what you own
You own the result: the project record, the rules, the permissions and the way it runs, handed over to your team or run for you.
§ 08 Questions

Questions

Does it replace our project management or time-recording system?
No. It reads from them, and from the email where scope really changes. Your systems stay as they are; the company brain connects what was promised to what is being done.
Will it stop us doing small favours for good clients?
No. A request outside scope is raised with the project lead, who decides whether to bill it, absorb it or turn it down. The difference is that the choice is made knowingly, while it can still be made.
Who can see what?
Only what each person is allowed to see. Fees, margins and client correspondence are visible to the roles you choose, permissions are checked before every answer, and every question is recorded.
Will it contact a client on its own?
No. Scope changes, fee changes and anything a client receives wait for a named person to sign them, and you can keep it that way for good.
Is this available today?
It is built for each company that runs it, on that company's own brain, not installed off a shelf. The question audit comes first and shows what it would and would not do for you before anything is built.
§ 09 Start

Start

try this on your own record

Take three past projects: one delivered on plan, one that crept in the inbox until it was written down, and one whose overrun surprised you at month end. What did your own systems know about the drift, and when?

Questions like this are what the question audit answers: about two hundred real questions from your business, each answered in writing, so you know what project margins on a company brain would and would not do for you before anything is built. It is a small fixed fee, credited against the build or the service if you go ahead.

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