01 / About Tinkerbird
Practical AI for
everyday work
We help businesses put AI to work on the jobs that take up too much time, from capturing paper records to checking invoices and following up on meetings.
Tinkerbird is Akoma’s AI and digital practice. We start with the way your team works and test practical tools on your own records, before taking on a wider build.
We use these tools in our own business too, for research, project records, meeting follow-up and producing websites and proposals. That practical experience is what we bring to Devland.
Explore the Devland proposalClient work and exploration
AI across different businesses
Bakery
We’re trialling daily reports and next-day bake planning from production and stock records, with missing or conflicting figures flagged for review.
Transport company
We’re developing an invoicing proposal to reduce manual preparation and reconciliation, starting with a sample of completed work.
Family-run safari camp
We’ve built website previews bringing accommodation, activities and enquiry routes together for the family to review.
Foreign-exchange business
We’re exploring sales research, prospect management and automation around the business’s chosen customer relationship management system.
Devland / Purchase to payment
Supplier deals and recons
The deals your buyers agree with supplier reps live in the order book and in people’s heads, not in React. Invoices arrive on paper and are typed in line by line, and Muhammed checks every recon pack himself. Claims get missed.
- 60 to 65suppliers, split between the buyers
- 15 minutesroughly, for Muhammed to check an ordinary recon pack
- 7 to 10 daysfor a Clover pack, with several deals running
- Decemberspent going through suppliers one by one to plan the year
Figures as you gave them on 26 October. Tally claims rarely appear on the invoice and have to be raised separately, and last year’s Kellogg’s birthday claim is only being signed now. As you put it, “If we don’t pick up those errors, we’re losing money.”
02 / Purchase to payment
Today and proposed, by stage
- 01
Deal
Buyers and supplier reps
Today
- Terms agreed with the rep in person
- Special terms written in the order book
- Deal sheet scanned and filed, never loaded into React
Proposed
Terms and special instructions are loaded into React from the deal sheet or a meeting recording, then approved by the buyer.
- 02
Receiving
Gate and store staff
Today
- Goods counted against the invoice
- Invoice stamped as received
- Paperwork stapled into a batch and carried to admin
Proposed
Count and stamp as today, then scan or photograph the invoice and any return note.
- 03
Capture
Admin office
Today
- Invoice typed into React line by line
- Returns typed in
- Store paperwork captured again at head office
Proposed
The scan is read and captured into React. Unclear lines wait for a person.
- 04
Claims
Admin office
Today
- Prices checked against the order book
- Tally claims raised separately
- Golf day, birthday and billboard money tracked by hand
Proposed
Price, tally and allowance claims are drafted from the deal and the invoice, including allowances such as R50,000 a truckload.
- 05
Recon
Admin and Muhammed
Today
- Recon pack built by hand at month end
- Muhammed checks every document and deal sheet
- Muhammed approves the payment
Proposed
A recon batch is ready every week or two. Muhammed checks the flagged items and approves.
- 06
Payment and reporting
Accounts and buyers
Today
- Invoices ticked off and payments split into requisitions
- Each supplier’s year pieced together in December
Proposed
Payments carry on as today. A monthly report per supplier builds the year’s tallies, discounts and ad hoc money, and shows any claim not collected.
Some of this may already be in React. Its supplier module calculates rebates and claims, and its receiving app can raise claims for discrepancies at the gate. Getting scans and deal terms into React automatically needs React’s help. We check both with you and React first, and only build what React can’t already do.
Approvals: the physical count, every approval and all supplier conversations stay with your team. Nothing is paid or sent to a supplier by us. Supplier meetings are recorded only with the supplier’s agreement.
03 / First step
Recon pack rebuild
You’re sending us one complete recon pack from a past month. We rebuild it from the source documents and the deal terms, then compare our version with the pack your team finished.
Inputs
The pack’s invoices, returns, deal sheet and order, the price and tally claims and the payment document.
Aadil, or a colleague he nominates, walks us through the pack so we follow the way your team builds it.
Outputs
You get our rebuilt pack and claims list, with every difference from yours and the reason for it, any claim we find that wasn’t raised, and the time our work took next to your team’s estimate.
After a short session with whoever looks after React for you, we also write a note on what the later stages would need from React.
Time: we confirm this once we’ve looked through the pack.
Fee: to be agreed before work starts, including VAT. No commitment to a later build or ongoing service.
One pack shows the method and whether claims are slipping through. It doesn’t prove every supplier.
Starting point
Missed claims and Muhammed’s time on every pack were the problems you raised most, and one finished pack tests both on your own records. Scanning at receiving is the bigger change, but it depends on how React accepts documents. The pack tells us which claims and documents matter before anything changes at the gate.
04 / Roadmap
Purchase to payment and finance
Your aim is to digitise in stages, towards a live view across the business. After the first step, each stage has its own scope, price and approval. We price the later stages once we’ve seen the pack and your React setup.
- 01
Deals on record
Terms and special instructions are loaded into React when they’re agreed, and approved by the buyer.
- 02
Scanning at receiving
After the count, the invoice and return notes are scanned and captured. Stores follow once it works at head office.
- 03
Claims and recon batches
Claims are drafted from deal against invoice, and a recon batch is ready every week or two for Muhammed to approve.
- 04
Supplier trading report
A monthly report per supplier that builds the year: tallies, discounts and ad hoc money such as golf days and birthdays, with missing claims flagged. It replaces December’s manual review.
- 05
Finance
Creditors, then debtors, once the purchase records are reliable. This builds towards the live view of the business you asked for.
05 / Next step
Pack review session
Once we’ve been through the recon pack, we walk Muhammed and Aadil through what we found and agree the fee and timing for the first step.
Zubair arranges the date. Before then, we’d like a short call with whoever looks after React for you.
Other requests
Meeting minutes. We turn recordings into short minutes with clear actions. View the sample from 22 October.
Export invoices. Invoices could be made from the proformas that arrive by email, if React accepts an import.
Promotion artwork. Your marketing team asked for weekly and monthly promotions in every format, made from the buyers’ voice notes in the WhatsApp group.
Each is a separate piece of work, scoped and priced on its own.
Supporting detail
Rebuild review and limits
Every document in the pack ends as a supported match or a named exception. Amounts, dates, references, prices, tallies, allowances and rebates agree with the source, or the difference is explained. Unclear scans and missing deal terms stay open rather than guessed. Aadil, or his nominee, checks our version against the team’s finished pack, and no saving is claimed before it is measured.
Rebates that depend on volumes or dates stay flagged until the condition is evidenced. Partial payments, credit notes, VAT, pack sizes and price dates follow the rules your team gives us.
The first step includes no payments, React entries, supplier messages or claims sent on your behalf, and no change at receiving. It works from the scanned pack and needs no React login.
Data handling
We agree in writing the shared folder, who can see it, which tools process it and how long we keep it. Send only what the pack needs. No live-system passwords are required. Any recording of a supplier meeting needs that supplier’s agreement.
Proposal basis
Prepared from our meetings on 22 and 26 October and Zubair’s notes. React, Excel exports and Aadil’s role as head of accounts are confirmed. Figures are as you gave them; who gives final sign-off is still to be confirmed. No Devland volume, saving or implementation commitment is assumed.