The Client

About AG Impact

AG Impact is a UK professional services firm with a team that operates across multiple client engagements simultaneously. Like many organisations in their sector, they had built their operations on a combination of manual processes, spreadsheets, and email-based workflows — systems that worked when the business was smaller, but had become a significant drag on productivity and a source of operational risk as they grew.

When AG Impact approached Cordapse, they were not looking to replace their existing Microsoft 365 licence with something new. They were already paying for a suite of powerful tools they simply were not using. The opportunity was sitting inside their existing subscription — it just needed to be unlocked.

The Challenge

Manual processes at the cost of time, accuracy and risk

AG Impact's operational challenges were not unusual for a growing professional services firm — but they were significant. Across four key areas, manual processes were consuming time that should have been spent on client work, and introducing risk that was difficult to manage or even see.

⏱️
Internal time management was a manual burden
Recording, approving, and reporting on staff time across multiple client engagements was done through spreadsheets and email chains. Collating data for reporting took hours each week, and the risk of errors — misallocated time, missing approvals — was high.
⚠️
Operational risk was invisible and unmanaged
With no automated controls or audit trail, key operational processes depended entirely on individuals remembering to do the right thing at the right time. Deadlines were missed. Approvals were skipped. The risk was real but hard to quantify — until something went wrong.
📄
Contract documents were slow and inconsistent
Creating client contract documentation involved manually assembling information from multiple sources, reformatting templates, and chasing approvals by email. The process was slow, prone to inconsistency, and dependent on individual knowledge of where documents lived.
💷
Billing and invoicing preparation consumed significant resource
Preparing financial billing and invoicing each month required manually pulling data from several sources, reconciling it, and formatting it for finance. The process was time-consuming, error-prone, and delayed the billing cycle — with a direct impact on cash flow.

"We were spending a disproportionate amount of our team's time on internal admin that should have been automated. Cordapse helped us see that the tools to fix it were already inside our Microsoft 365 subscription."

— AG Impact
Our Approach

How Cordapse designed and delivered the solution

Rather than proposing a complex, expensive technology change, Cordapse started with a discovery phase to understand exactly where time was being lost and where risk was accumulating. The diagnosis was clear: AG Impact had all the tools they needed. What was missing was the configuration, the automation, and the visibility.

The solution combined two Microsoft 365 capabilities: Power Automate to eliminate the manual steps in key operational workflows, and Power BI to give leadership the real-time visibility they needed to manage performance and risk.

Phase 1
Discovery & process mapping
We spent time with the AG Impact team mapping their key operational workflows end to end — identifying every manual step, every handoff, and every point where data had to be re-entered or reformatted. This gave us a clear picture of where automation would have the greatest impact.
Phase 2
Power Automate workflow design
We designed and built a suite of Power Automate workflows covering time management approvals, contract document generation, and billing data consolidation. Each workflow was designed to eliminate manual steps, enforce approvals automatically, and create an audit trail — without requiring any change to the tools the team already used day to day.
Phase 3
Power BI dashboard build
We built a leadership dashboard in Power BI that pulled data from the automated workflows in real time — giving management instant visibility of time allocation across client engagements, contract status, billing pipeline, and operational risk indicators. For the first time, the leadership team could see the health of the business at a glance without asking anyone to compile a report.
Phase 4
Adoption & handover
We ran hands-on training sessions with the AG Impact team — not just showing them how to use the new tools, but helping them understand why the workflows were designed the way they were. We also documented every workflow and dashboard for long-term maintainability, and provided a structured handover so the team could own and evolve the solution without ongoing dependency on Cordapse.
The Solutions

What we built — and why it worked

The solution was built entirely within AG Impact's existing Microsoft 365 environment. No new software licences. No third-party tools. Just the right configuration of tools they were already paying for.

⚡
Automated time management workflows
Power Automate workflows replaced the spreadsheet-and-email time recording process with a structured, automated system — capturing submissions, routing approvals, sending reminders, and consolidating data for reporting automatically. What previously took hours each week now runs without manual intervention.
📋
Automated contract document generation
A Power Automate workflow generates client contract documentation directly from structured data — pulling the right information, populating the right template, and routing the document for approval and signature. The manual assembly and reformatting process was eliminated entirely.
💷
Automated billing data consolidation
The monthly billing preparation process was transformed from a manual data-gathering exercise into an automated consolidation workflow — pulling approved time data, applying the correct rates, and producing a billing-ready output for the finance team. The process that used to take a day now takes minutes.
📊
Real-time operational dashboard
A Power BI dashboard gives the AG Impact leadership team live visibility across time allocation, contract status, billing pipeline, and operational risk indicators — all in one place, updated automatically, and accessible on any device. The weekly management reporting meeting now starts with facts, not with a scramble to find the data.
The Results

What changed for AG Impact

The results were measurable, significant, and felt across the whole organisation — not just in the teams directly involved in the automated processes.

40%
Reduction in internal time management overhead
Time that was previously spent recording, chasing, and collating time data is now handled automatically — freeing the team to focus on client work.
60%
Reduction in operational risk
Automated workflows enforce approvals and create audit trails, removing the dependence on individuals remembering the right steps at the right time.
30%
Faster contract document creation
Contract documents that previously required manual assembly and formatting are now generated automatically — consistently, accurately, and in a fraction of the time.
60%
Faster billing & invoicing preparation
The monthly billing cycle has been transformed — from a day-long manual exercise to an automated process that produces billing-ready output in minutes.

"The impact has been felt across the whole business. We have got time back, we have got visibility we did not have before, and we have got confidence that the right things are happening without someone having to manually check."

— AG Impact

Beyond the headline numbers, the shift in how the leadership team operates has been equally significant. The Power BI dashboard has changed the nature of their weekly management discussions — moving from "what are the numbers?" to "what do we do about them?" That shift, from data-gathering to decision-making, is where the real long-term value lies.

What This Means for You

Could your organisation achieve similar results?

AG Impact's story is not unique. We work with professional services organisations across the UK who are carrying the same operational weight — manual processes, invisible risk, and reporting that takes longer than it should. In most cases, the tools to fix it are already in their Microsoft 365 subscription.

The question is not whether the technology can do it. Power Automate and Power BI are mature, proven platforms. The question is whether you have the right design, the right implementation, and the right adoption support to make them work for your specific operation.

  • If your team spends significant time each week on manual data gathering, consolidation, or report preparation — that time can almost certainly be automated.
  • If your operational processes depend on individuals remembering to do the right thing — automated workflows can enforce that consistency without adding friction.
  • If your leadership team does not have real-time visibility of the metrics that matter — a well-built Power BI dashboard can change that in weeks, not months.
  • And if you are already paying for Microsoft 365 — the tools to do all of this are likely already in your subscription.
Free consultation

Think your organisation could achieve similar results?

Book a free, no-obligation consultation with the Cordapse team. We will help you identify where Power Automate and Power BI could have the greatest impact in your organisation — and give you a clear, practical picture of what it would take to get there.

Book a free consultation →