The back office · Melbourne
Admin automation in Melbourne, so the back office runs without you.
You make the work. I connect the tools behind it — the shop, the orders, the invoices, the shipping — so they talk to each other and the admin stops eating your evenings. One person, one-time, no monthly retainer.
I'm Eric, and The Quiet Engine is a one-person studio in Preston, in Melbourne's inner north. Most makers I work with are brilliant at the thing they make and quietly drowning in the part that comes after: retyping the same order into three tabs, chasing invoices they hate sending, printing shipping labels on a Sunday.
The back office is the work I do behind the site. I map what actually weighs on you, then wire the tools you already use — Shopify, Notion, Xero, Australia Post — so a paid order updates your records, drafts the invoice and generates the label without you touching anything. No new software to learn, no jargon, no APIs in your face.
It is set up once and then it runs itself — this is not a service you rent by the month. When the build is done you own every account and every connection, there is a fixed quote in writing after a 20-minute call, and if you never email me again the engine keeps running.
What the back office covers
Order flow
A paid Shopify order moves itself into your records and out the door: your database updates, the packing details are ready, and the Australia Post label is generated instead of copied by hand.
Invoicing and bookkeeping
Sales flow into Xero so the invoice you dread sending is drafted for you and the numbers are ready at tax time, without a spreadsheet you maintain at midnight.
One place for everything
A Notion workspace that holds your orders, clients and stock in one view, updated automatically, instead of the truth living in your head and four different tabs.
Shipping and labels
Address, weight and postage handled from the order itself, so packing day is packing, not data entry.
Email capture and newsletter
New customers land on your list on their own, so the newsletter you keep meaning to start has an audience when you finally write it.
Quiet fixes
The small leaks that cost you: contact-form spam stopped, broken bio links caught, the little manual steps you repeat every week removed one by one.
When it is worth wiring up
- You enter the same order into your shop, your records and your shipping by hand, every time.
- You forget to invoice, or you put it off, because you dislike doing it.
- You spend part of every weekend on admin that has nothing to do with your craft.
- You sell through Instagram DMs and the follow-up lives entirely in your head.
- You would rather make the work than learn another tool.
Recent back-office work
Order automation, sales optimisation, SEO and general business organisation for a Melbourne fashion label — the admin behind the shop wired to run on its own.
A real project, shown with permission. I keep the client list short on purpose.
What it costs
Starting prices, one-time, scope-based. Final fixed quote after a short call. No monthly retainer. Full pricing.
Common questions
What can you actually automate?
The repetitive admin around selling: moving a paid order into your records, drafting invoices in Xero, generating Australia Post labels, keeping orders and stock in one Notion view, adding new customers to your email list, and stopping the small leaks like contact-form spam. If you do it by hand every week and it follows a rule, it can usually run itself.
Is this a monthly service?
No. It is built once and then it runs on its own, and you own every account and connection. There is no retainer and no monthly fee to me. If you want a hand later that is a new, one-time job, not a subscription you are locked into.
I am not technical. Do I have to learn anything?
No. That is the point. I map what weighs on you in plain words, set it up behind the scenes, and hand you something that just works. You keep using the tools you already know.
What tools do you use?
The ones you probably already have or should: Shopify for the shop, Notion for your records, Xero for the books, Australia Post for shipping, and Make to connect them. Nothing exotic, nothing you have to babysit.
Do I need Shopify for this to be worth it?
Usually it helps, because most of the admin worth removing sits around orders. But if you sell another way, tell me how it works now and I will tell you honestly whether there is enough to automate to be worth it.
What if something breaks later?
I honour what I build. If a connection I set up stops working, I fix it. Tools change occasionally, and I would rather you call me than fight it yourself.
Tell me what is weighing on you.
Tell me the one admin task you dread most and how you handle it now. I will give you a straight read on whether it can run itself, and a fixed quote in writing. No pressure, no jargon.
Get in touch