Proposal for Ben Sheridan and Dan Thompson, KSCH Group · 29 September 2026

The same build.
One month. Less money.

We'll build everything in the Phase 1 plan you already have: digital dockets and payroll recon into Xero, new-hire onboarding, and the skills and ticket register. One month, $20,000. After that, if you want us to keep going, it's $12,000 a month and we build as much as we can.

01 · The comparison

Same starting point. Different model.

You already have a fixed Phase 1 quote from Blue Seas AI. Here's the same build, side by side.

Phase 1 build
Blue Seas AI$22,500 to $26,500 + GST
Aether AI Labs$20,000 + GST
Time to build it
Blue Seas AIAbout 90 days
Aether AI LabsOne month
Running it afterwards
Blue Seas AI$3,000 a month, covering hosting and support
Aether AI LabsHosting at cost on your own accounts, usually a few hundred a month. Support comes with the retainer
The next phases
Blue Seas AIEach one quoted separately
Aether AI Labs$12,000 a month if you want us to keep going
If it can't be built
Blue Seas AIThe monthly pauses until it works
Aether AI LabsYou don't pay and your 50% comes back
Month one
$20,000 + GST

50% upfront, 50% when it's built.

After that, if you want us to keep going
$12,000 + GST / month

We keep building as much as we can each month. Stop any time with 30 days' notice.

02 · Month one

What we build in month one

The same three pieces in your Phase 1 plan, connected to each other and to Xero.

1

Digital dockets + payroll recon

Dockets filled in on a phone on site, checked against the roster, then pushed into Xero as draft pay entries for the office to approve. Anything odd, like a 12-hour-plus shift or a wrong job code, gets flagged before it reaches payroll. KSCH and QTCH kept separate.

2

New-hire onboarding

One tidy intake for tax, super, bank and licence details. It reads the tickets, flags anything missing the same day, and sets up the Xero employee card ready to approve. No re-typing.

3

Skills matrix + ticket guardian

Every ticket, VOC and licence in one place, with expiry alerts at 90, 30 and 7 days. You can see at a glance who's good to go to site.

If there's time left in the month

Phone clock-in with location

The one from our call. Crew clock in on their phone when they get to site, the location confirms they're there, and the time drops straight onto the day's docket. No more chasing who was where. We'll stage it out and get it started. It's option 2 on the docket screen in the demo below.

Also included
  • Built and tested on your real dockets
  • A short guide and a walkthrough session for the office
  • Zayn on email or text for any questions while we build
03 · See it working

Click through it yourself, on the desk or the phone

A working demo of the month-one build: Dan's 2pm roster by text, both ways of doing dockets, Monday's reconciliation done for you, the pay run into Xero, onboarding and the ticket register. The phone shows what the crew see. It runs on sample data for now. Once we have access to your OneDrive, it runs on yours.

On the phone. The crew's side, plus every screen.
04 · How the 30 days work

Four weeks, and you see it every week

We build, and each week we jump on a quick Google Meet with Dan to show where it's at and steer it. Nothing gets switched over until you've seen it work on your own data, and pay stays exactly as it is until our draft matches yours.

1
Day 1

Kick-off

  • ·You sign and we send the invoice for the first 50%
  • ·Dan shares the OneDrive and Xero access, a few real dockets and the employment pack
  • ·We set up every account in KSCH's name
Google MeetKick-off with Dan: pay week, KSCH and QTCH rules, approval limits, and which crews pilot it
2
Week 1

Your data in

  • ·Your crew, sites, cranes and tickets loaded in, so the demo runs on your real business
  • ·The ticket register goes live first, and expiry reminders start straight away
Google MeetCheck it looks right with Dan, and fix anything that doesn't
3
Week 2

Dockets

  • ·Crew leader dockets live on two or three pilot sites
  • ·Every docket matched to the roster and timesheets, with your flags and rules
Google MeetGo through the first real week of dockets with Dan
4
Week 3

Pay and onboarding

  • ·Xero connected in draft mode, and the pay run drafts itself
  • ·Jisha runs pay the usual way as well, so the two can be compared side by side
  • ·New-starter onboarding switched on
Google MeetWith Dan and Jisha: does our draft match the real pay run?
5
Week 4

Live

  • ·Anything the side-by-side run turned up gets fixed
  • ·Rolled out to more crews, with a short guide and a walkthrough for the office
  • ·If there's time: roster texts and phone clock-in on a pilot crew
Google MeetFinal one: sign-off, the second 50%, and you decide whether we keep going

Plus Zayn on email or text any time in between.

05 · Where AI fits

What AI does, and what it doesn't

On its own
  • Reads the dockets from site
  • Checks each one against the roster
  • Flags odd hours or wrong job codes
  • Reads ticket dates off a photo or PDF
  • Sends the 90, 30 and 7-day expiry reminders
Drafts, a person checks
  • Pay entries in Xero, ready to approve
  • New starters' tax, super, bank and licence setup
  • The list of what's missing or doesn't add up
Your people decide
  • Approving and running payroll
  • Who goes to site
  • Whether a ticket is good enough
  • Anything that gets signed
06 · After month one

What the retainer builds next

The rest of the plan you already have, in the same order. No quoting each phase separately. We work down the list and fit in as much as we can each month. You can change the order or stop whenever you like.

Finance

Invoices drafted from the dockets, a variations register that chases what's owed, and POs matched to invoices with approval over your limits.

Sales

Quotes drafted from one brief, Excel costing and Word quote together, plus follow-up alerts so nothing goes stale.

Fleet

One register of every crane and piece of gear, service reminders, and an early warning when a crane is coming down with no next job.

Ops and safety

The yard program built from the up and down dates, the 2pm roster texted to the crew, and site-specific SWMS drafted from your templates for Liam to sign.

The dashboard

Your whole operation on one screen, on your phone on site or the desk in the office. It fills in as each piece above goes live.

07 · Ownership and guarantee

It's yours, and it's on us

You own all of it

Every account is set up in KSCH's name and on KSCH's card: hosting, database, AI credits and texts. You see every bill, paid straight to the providers at cost, usually a few hundred dollars a month. Everything we build is yours. If you ever stop working with us, it keeps running and nothing moves.

If we can't build it, you don't pay

50% upfront, 50% when month one is built. If we can't build it, you don't pay for it and your 50% comes back. Simple as that.

08 · Next steps

Getting started

Step 1

Sign below. We send the invoice for the first 50%.

Step 2

Dan gives us access to OneDrive and Xero, plus a few real dockets and the employment pack. We start building that week.

Step 3

We show Dan where it's at every week. A month later it's live, then you decide whether we keep going.

In short
  • Month one: $20,000 + GST. 50% upfront, 50% when it's built.
  • If we can't build it, you don't pay and your 50% comes back.
  • After that, optional: $12,000 + GST a month. Stop any time with 30 days' notice.
  • Hosting, database, AI and texts are billed to KSCH directly, at cost.
  • Everything we build belongs to KSCH.
KSCH Group
Signature
Aether AI Labs
Full name
Matthew Laycock
Title / Role
Founder, Aether AI Labs
Signature
Matthew Laycock
Date
29 September 2026

Questions? Call Matt on 0434 390 625 or email matt@useaetherai.com