Questions
The things people ask before they call.
Are you accountants?
No. Deuteronomy Consulting Ltd is not a firm of accountants. We don’t prepare statutory accounts, carry out audits, act as your agent with HM Revenue & Customs, or advise on tax. We build and run the systems underneath all of that — and we say so at the first meeting rather than the fourth.
What exactly can’t you do?
We can’t prepare or file your VAT returns, prepare statutory accounts, or tell you how a transaction should be treated. If we notice something in your records that looks inconsistent, we’ll tell you what we’ve seen and recommend you put it to a qualified adviser — but we won’t tell you the answer, and we won’t estimate what getting it wrong might cost.
I already have an accountant. Is this a problem?
The opposite. Most of our clients have one, and accountants generally like us, because the records arriving on their desk are clean, reconciled and on time. We’re not competing for that work — we’ll actively hand things to them, and if you don’t have an accountant we’ll introduce you to one.
What is Ordine?
Our software. It takes one day sheet from a crew and turns it into both the payslip and the job cost, prices jobs on the crew that will do them, handles subcontractor deductions on the line, and posts the summarised result to Xero, QuickBooks or Sage. It has run every week since April 2025 and is now moving from Google Sheets and Apps Script into an app with its own logins. The product page explains what runs today and what the app adds.
Do I have to use Ordine to work with you?
No. The service side — the 90-Day Review, rebuilds, ongoing operation — runs on whatever systems suit your business. Ordine is what we reach for when the problem is pricing jobs and paying crews, because that is what it was built for.
What is Ordine Seer?
The forecasting and budgeting part of Ordine, available on its own: a 13-week cash flow from your bank balance, your commitments and rules you set, and a 12-month budget against actuals from Xero or a CSV. It shows the arithmetic of your own figures — it never proposes a number and it isn’t advice. Early access from £75 a month; included if you run Ordine. More on the Seer page.
What actually happens in the first ninety days?
We take over the bookkeeping — clean, reconciled, on schedule. While we’re in there, we keep a running log of anything that looks wrong. At week ten you get a written review: where money leaves without a control in front of it, where the same figure gets typed twice, what could be automated and what it would take. Then a meeting, and a fixed-price plan if there’s one worth doing.
Why bookkeeping first? I want the systems work.
Because three months inside your transactions tells us more than any amount of interviewing. Every consultant who’s quoted you for a systems review has done it from the outside, based on what you told them was broken. We do it from the inside, based on what actually happens. You also get clean books out of it either way.
What does it cost?
The 90-day review is from £950 a month. A rebuild is typically £3,500 to £7,000 depending on which modules you need, fixed price and scoped from the review. Ongoing support runs from £150 a month. Ordine is £150 a month at the early-access price, with set-up from £1,200; the list price will be higher. Standalone tool builds start at £1,200. All fixed, all agreed in writing before anything starts.
How long does a rebuild take?
Two to four weeks of concentrated work for most engagements, depending on how many modules you take and how quickly we can get access and answers. We scope it from the review, so you know the number and the timeline before you commit to either.
What happens to my data if we stop working together?
You keep it. Your accounting system was always yours. Anything held in Ordine exports in full, in a readable format, before the licence ends. We license you the tooling and we can switch that off — we will never hold your records as leverage, and it’s written into our engagement letter and the Ordine licence.
Do you only work with construction firms?
The finance operations work — subcontractor billing, job costing, retentions, applications for payment — is where we’re strongest, and that’s mostly construction, civils and utilities. Ordine has presets for M&E trades, fleet-heavy operators and project-based agencies. Standalone tooling we build for any sector. A reporting problem looks much the same wherever it shows up.
We’re quite small. Are we too small?
Probably not. We do fixed-scope starter engagements from £750 that tackle one thing rather than everything — the single worst part of your month, fixed. It’s a sensible way to find out whether we’re any good before committing to more.
How do we start?
One conversation, thirty minutes, no charge. Tell us what isn’t working. If we can help, we’ll say how and what it would cost. If we can’t, we’ll say that instead — and usually point you at whoever can.
Ordine
Does it replace Xero?
No. Xero, QuickBooks or Sage remains your statutory book of record and your accountant works there as normal. Ordine holds the operational detail those systems were never built for — the day sheet, the crew split, the approval, the deduction on the line — and posts the summarised result across.
Is it ready now?
Yes — it has been running since April 2025 and is on its seventh version: day sheets, approvals, crew pay, job cost and points all run on it every week, on Google Sheets and Apps Script. What is coming is the app version of the same logic, with your own login and crews on their phones. Early access is for that. Nothing you rely on switches over until the app has matched your current process for two full pay periods.
What happens to our data if we leave?
You export it — everything, in a readable format — and the licence ends. Your accounting software is untouched because it was always yours. We do not hold records as leverage and the licence says so.
Your data and the keys
Ordine holds your operational ledger — the jobs, the day sheets, the subcontractor lines, the approvals, the payment runs. That is the detail nobody else captures, and it is where the value sits.
Your accounting software stays the statutory book of record. Ordine posts to it, or gives you a file your accountant can post themselves.
You can export everything, at any time, in a format your accountant can read. If you stop paying, the software stops. Your records don’t. We will never hold them as leverage, and it is written into the licence.
Built so your team runs it.
Ordine totals, prices and presents your own figures. It does not decide how a transaction should be treated in your accounts — those decisions stay with you and your accountant, upstream, in your accounting system. Payroll and deduction figures are prepared from your records for you to submit; we do not act as your agent with HMRC.
That line is what keeps Ordine software, and it is also what makes it worth having: a system your business operates is a system that survives a change of bookkeeper.
Something not answered here? Ask us directly — we’d rather tell you we’re not the right fit than take a job we can’t do well.