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Software that takes the dull work off your desk.

LanceTek builds custom software, careful AI automation and self-hosted systems for small UK businesses. One engineer, fixed quotes in pounds, and code you own outright.

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Booking projects from January 2027 Replies within one working day You own the code and data
Fig. 01  Invoice flowIllustrative
Your server · self-hosted Matched Needs a look Approved Supplier inboxinvoices as PDFs Agent: read, checkfinds the PO Audit logevery step Matches the POamount, VAT, supplier Something's offprice or qty differs A person decidesapprove or reject Accountsdraft bill + the PDF Nothing is posted without a match or a yes.

Three kinds of work, done properly.

Most projects mix all three: a small piece of software, some automation around it, and somewhere sensible to run it. Prices below are ranges, not hooks; the written quote is what counts.

Custom software

Internal tools, customer portals and the spreadsheet that has quietly become your business system, rebuilt as a small, well-made web app.

£4k–£18k per project

Agentic-AI automation

AI agents that read, sort and draft the repetitive work (invoices, enquiries, reports) with a person signing off anything that matters.

Pilots from £2.5k

DevOps & self-hosting

Servers, backups, deployments and remote access set up so they run quietly, with a written runbook you could hand to anyone.

Setup £1.5k–£6k

What you actually get to look at.

Not mood boards. You see working screens from the second week, and every change is deployed, tested and backed up the same boring way.

Fig. 02  An approval queue screenSample UI
invoices.internal / queue

Waiting for you

3 of 27 today
Packaging supplier · £1,284.00INV-0419 · PO 2231Qty 1,200 billed, PO says 1,000. Unit price matches.ApproveReject
Courier account · £318.40Weekly statement · no PONo purchase order found. Last 6 weeks averaged £290.ApproveReject
Equipment hire · £96.00INV-7782 · PO 2240VAT shown as 0%. Supplier is VAT registered.ApproveReject
Illustrative sample, not a client system. The agent explains every flag in one plain sentence, so the decision takes seconds.
Fig. 03  What runs on every changeSample log
# one command, the same every time
$ make deploy service=invoice-agent
  build    image 2026.11.04 ........ ok
  test     unit + replayed emails .. ok
  migrate  add_query_reason ........ ok
  deploy   rolling restart ......... ok
  health   /healthz ................ 200

# nightly, at 02:30
$ restic backup /srv --tag nightly
  snapshot encrypted, sent off-site  ok
$ restic check --read-data-subset 5%
  no errors found                    ok
Illustrative. Backups are only real once a restore has been tested, so that is part of the handover.

Four steps, no surprises.

You will always know what is being built this week, what it costs, and what happens if you want to stop.

  1. 1

    A short call

    Thirty minutes on how the work is done today and where it hurts. No charge, no slides.

    Week 0 · free
  2. 2

    A written scope

    A plain-English document: what will be built, what won't, a fixed price and a date. Free for a clear job; a fuzzy one starts with a paid scope.

    Within 5 working days
  3. 3

    Weekly slices

    Something working to try every week, a short note on progress, and a call when you want one.

    2–10 weeks, typically
  4. 4

    Handover & care

    Code, passwords, a runbook and a tested restore, all yours. Ongoing care is optional and monthly.

    Cancel any month

The tools I use, and why.

Short write-ups of the software behind client projects, written for the person paying for it rather than the person typing it.

n8n or custom code? Where I draw the line on automations

Visual workflow tools are brilliant until the third exception. How I decide, and what it means for your running costs.

AI

Local models with Ollama: when they are good enough for client data

Keeping documents on your own hardware is appealing. Here is where a local model holds up and where it does not.

AI

Why your app runs on Docker Compose, not Kubernetes

The boring choice keeps your bill and your dependency on me small. When that stops being true, I will say so.

Infrastructure

All Journal entries

Tell me what eats your week.

A few lines is enough: what the job is, how it is done today, and roughly when you would like it sorted. You will get a straight answer on whether I am the right person for it.

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