Cost Recovery · for UK marketing agencies 5–50 people

You’re losing money on every job.

Every supplier cost caught, tagged to the right job and onto the client invoice before it goes out. Set up and run for you.

Book a free Discovery call Get my Cost Leak Score
Connecting the tools you already use
Gmail·Google Sheets·Google Calendar·HubSpot·Slack·Xero·Monday.com·Trello·QuickBooks·Outlook·Asana·ClickUp· Gmail·Google Sheets·Google Calendar·HubSpot·Slack·Xero·Monday.com·Trello·QuickBooks·Outlook·Asana·ClickUp·
The Problem

The costs are real. You just can’t see them in time.

You’re thinking
“Billable freelance, stock and production costs live in spreadsheets, separate from what we invoice.”
hover to flip
You want this
Every billable cost on the right campaign.
Freelancer, stock, production and media invoices read the moment they hit your inbox or accounts. Tagged to the client or campaign automatically where the match is clear. One tap where it isn’t.
You’re thinking
“Third-party invoices land after we’ve billed the retainer or project.”
hover to flip
You want this
The retainer invoice waits until every pass-through cost is in.
Before you bill, the Business Butler flags freelancers, production houses and media buys that usually land on this client but haven’t yet. Recover the cost on this invoice, not in the next quarter.
You’re thinking
“I can’t tell which client or campaign a cost belongs to without digging through emails.”
hover to flip
You want this
Every client and campaign carries its own ledger.
Every cost tagged to the client and campaign it belongs to, automatically where the match is clear. No more email archaeology to figure out which campaign absorbed the freelance day rate.
You’re thinking
“I only find out a client’s real profitability at year-end.”
hover to flip
You want this
You see per-client profitability live.
Every billable cost on the right client in one ledger. Recovered costs on the next retainer or project invoice. No more year-end surprise about which clients are losing you money.

“Every cost caught. Against the right job. Onto the client invoice.”

The Solution · Business Butler

The back-office
partner that pays
for itself.

Every supplier invoice automatically caught, tagged to the right job and recharged to your client. Done for you. No spreadsheets, no chasing.

Book a free Discovery call See how it works →
How it works

Five steps. Set up once. Then it just runs.

The Business Butler works through every cost in sequence: catch, tag, check, bill. It governs what goes automatic and what comes to you.

1
Catch it
Capture costs.
Supplier emails forwarded and bills auto-pulled from your accounting tool. Every cost logged the moment it lands.
2
Tag it
Allocate to the job.
Clear matches auto-allocate without you. Unclear ones become a one-tap confirm. Pick the project and move on.
3
Check it
Close without gaps.
Every cost on the job reviewed before you invoice. Missing suppliers flagged so you never close a job too early and lose revenue.
4
Bill it
Invoice drafted for you.
Recharge invoice drafted in your accounting tool with all costs and markup. You approve and send. Nothing leaves without your say-so.
Always
on
Watch it
Stay in control.
Small, clear costs flow automatically. Big or unclear items always route to you. Everything is audited. You set the rules.
Watch it runs across everything. Low-value, in-pattern costs flow automatically. High-value or unclear items always come to you for sign-off. Nothing goes to your client without your say-so.

See how this plays in other sectors: Events & Exhibitions·Telecoms / IT

Your Cost Leak Score

Find out what you’re absorbing.

Two minutes. Drag the sliders. See the estimated £ leaking out of your jobs every year.

Your numbers

Projects per month 30 projects
Typical project value £4,000
% of supplier costs not getting billed back 6%
Estimated £ leaking per year
£86,400
absorbed, not recovered
Moderate exposure
Book a Discovery call to recover it →

Recovered margin funds the service. The number above is what your business is likely absorbing per year. The Business Butler captures it before the invoice goes out.

Pricing

From inbox to invoice.

One Business Butler. Pick monthly or annual. Bespoke for higher volume or industry-specific work.

★ THE BUSINESS BUTLER
Business Butler
Takes costs from inbox to invoice.
One offering. End-to-end cost recovery. Configured to your business at Discovery.
£1,295 / month
Save £1,560 / yr on annual
+ from £600 setup
  • Costs from inbox to invoice:
  • → Capture: supplier invoices read the moment they hit your inbox or your accounts
  • → Allocate: tagged to the right job, automatic where the match is clear, one tap where it isn’t
  • → Check: every cost on the job visible before you bill, missing suppliers flagged
  • → Recharge: client invoice drafted in your accounting tool with the recoverable costs attached
“The Business Butler drafts. You sign off.”
Butler Bespoke
Larger teams, specific needs
High volume, multi-entity or industry-specific workflows that go beyond the standard offering.
POA · let’s talk
 
Scoped delivery timeline
  • → High or unlimited cost-document volume bands
  • → Multi-entity consolidation
  • → Custom integrations beyond accounting and the standard connector set
  • → Dedicated build, scoped timeline, named delivery owner

More questions? See the full FAQ or book a Discovery call.

Why Business Butler

Most businesses stitch this together by hand. No tool does it end-to-end.

What you get with the Business Butler, compared with the three things you might use instead.

 
Business Butler
By hand (spreadsheets)
A consultant
An automation agency
Catches costs across inbox + accountsSupplier invoices read the moment they arrive.
Automatic from inbox and your accounts
Whatever someone remembers to log
Not their job
If you scope and pay for it
Tagged to the right jobCost lands against the project that incurred it.
Automatic where clear, one tap where not
Manual lookup every time
Not their job
Rule-based only, fails on the messy ones
Flags missing suppliers before billingSuppliers who usually invoice but haven’t yet.
Yes, pre-billing alerts
You have to remember
No
Rarely · not their model
Drafts the client rechargeRecoverable costs onto the client invoice in your accounting tool.
Drafted in your accounting tool for sign-off
You type it out
No
If you scope it
Configured to your costsYour suppliers, markup rules, billing rhythm.
Yes, set up with you
Yes, but it’s you doing it
In a slide deck
Generic template, you adapt
You sign off, not themJudgement calls stay with you.
Every recharge to your eyes
You’re doing all of it
You sign off their slides
Whatever the rules say
Cost shapeWhat lands on the P&L.
Predictable £/month, funded by recovered margin
Hidden in salary time
Day rate × estimate
Upfront build + recurring

Deeper dive: Business Butler v AI consultancy · Business Butler v another hire

How we get you from chaos to calm

Three steps. No technical heavy lifting on your side.

01

The Discovery

A 45-minute call to find where money leaks out of your jobs. You leave with a findings report: the costs slipping through unbilled, what they total and where to start. Yours to keep.

Free · 45 minutes
02

Setup

We onboard your existing projects and connect your accounting tool once. Done together in the first week. From there, the Business Butler runs on your context.

~1 week · Bundled in setup fee
03

Business Butler

The Business Butler gets to work. Every supplier cost is caught (you forward it, or the Butler sniffs it straight from your inbox), tagged to the right job, checked and turned into a client invoice for your sign-off.

Monthly rolling · Cancel anytime · 10% off annual upfront
Why Business Butler

We understand cost-to-cash better than the tool that tries to do it.

A generalist can’t write this section. A specialist can. We’ve mapped where money leaks out of service businesses, what holds it back from reaching the client invoice and where the Business Butler joins the dots.

01 / Where it leaks

We know exactly where costs leak.

The gap between a cost being incurred and it landing on a client invoice. Multiple suppliers, late invoices, no single view. We’ve mapped it. Most tools haven’t.

Cost-to-cash leakage map
02 / Joining the dots

The Business Butler joins the dots across that process.

Capture → match to job → check before billing → recharge. One thread through tools that don’t talk to each other. Your inbox, your accounts, your project tool.

Capture to recharge thread
03 / Your costs, your rules

Configured to how your costs flow.

Your suppliers, your projects, your markup rules, your billing rhythm. Not a generic template. Setup is the bit we do together. From then on it runs on your context.

Configured to your suppliers and projects
04 / You sign off

Human review on every judgement call.

The routine flows automatically. The big-ticket and the unclear come to you. Every client recharge gets your eyes before it goes.

Sign-off on every recharge
Sy Linsley, Founder of Time Back
About

Hi, I’m Sy.

I spent 20+ years inside Accenture and Microsoft building AI for enterprises that had the budget for proper operational tooling. I started Time Back because most small businesses I know have the same problems but without the budget for the answer.

I help businesses who want to embrace AI and automation but don’t have the time or in-house capacity to do it themselves. Think of the Business Butler as the fractional back-office partner who picks up the grunt work you don’t have time for. Configured to how you work. No new tools for the team to learn. Nothing goes out under your name without your say-so.

If your evenings are full of admin or your team is buried in the back and forth instead of doing the work you hired them for, let’s talk.

Book a Discovery call
Your data, your control

The same data protection as every tool you already trust.

We’re the data processor. You’re the controller. The same relationship you have with Google, HubSpot, or Slack. We make it explicit and simple.

Isolated & secure

Each client’s data is completely separate. Access scoped to exactly what you share. Nothing more.

Data Processing Agreement

Every engagement includes a DPA. What data, why, how secured, what happens when it ends. Standard practice.

Deletion on termination

You end the engagement, your data is deleted within 30 days. No data retained. You walk away clean.

Human review always

Any output that touches a client communication is drafted by the Business Butler and reviewed by a person before sending. The Business Butler handles the routine. The judgement calls stay with you.

Let’s Talk

Book a free Discovery call.

45 minutes, no prep, no obligation. You leave with a written Findings Report within 48 hours.

Free · no card required
Findings Report yours to keep
No high-pressure sales pitch

We’ll respond within one working day.