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Tool reviews for small business owners

Each entry looks at one tool I use for clients: what it does, what it costs to run, and when I would not recommend it. These first 6 entries are sample summaries.

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Journal · n8n · 7 min read
Using n8n for office automation
n8n is a workflow tool you can run on your own server. It connects Gmail, Xero, Google Sheets and a few hundred other services without a monthly fee per task.
It suits jobs with clear steps: an invoice arrives, it is read, a draft is made. Where the rules get tangled, I still write Python.
What it costs you: a small server and an hour a month of updates, or the care plan.
2. Running costs
The software is free to run yourself. The server it sits on is the cost: an office mini PC or a small virtual machine in a UK data centre.
Updates come out often. I apply them in a set window and test the busiest workflows afterwards.
3. Where it falls short
Long chains of conditions are hard to read in a diagram, and harder to test. Those go into Python, with n8n calling the script.

3 entries on automation and hosting

  1. n8n · 7 min

    Using n8n for office automation

    n8n runs on your own server and connects Gmail, Xero and most of what a small office uses. Good for workflows with clear steps; for tangled rules I still write Python.

  2. Proxmox · 9 min

    Hosting client apps on Proxmox

    One small server can run a client's apps, database and backups as separate machines. What it costs, what it needs from you, and when a cloud account is the better answer.

  3. Tailscale · 5 min

    Reaching office servers with Tailscale

    Staff and support reach the office server from anywhere with no port open on the router. Free for small teams; the trade-off is one more account to look after.

3 entries on AI and monitoring

  1. Ollama · 8 min

    Running a language model in the office

    Ollama runs open models on your own hardware, so documents never leave the building. Slower than the big hosted models, which is often fine for sorting and summarising.

  2. Claude · 6 min

    Using Claude to read invoices and email

    Where a hosted model earns its cost: messy PDFs and long email threads. How a person stays in charge of the result, and what data it is allowed to see.

  3. Grafana · 6 min

    Watching small servers with Grafana

    Disk, backups and uptime on one screen, with alerts before your staff notice a problem. What is worth watching on a small server, and what to ignore.

  • n8n
  • Proxmox
  • Tailscale
  • Ollama
  • Claude
  • Grafana
  • PostgreSQL
  • Docker
  • Python
  • TypeScript
  • Xero
  • Gmail