# Footnote > Footnote is a design and engineering practice in Melbourne and Cairns that builds custom software, automations and supervised AI agents inside Australian businesses with admin or sales staff. Every AI output is a draft a person approves, everything runs in accounts the client owns, and month one is free if the job is not running by day 30. Footnote sells outcomes, not tools: hours back for the team, work that keeps running, and systems the business owns. Every claim on https://footnote.systems carries a numbered footnote that opens its proof. ## Facts - Name: Footnote (https://footnote.systems) - Registered business name: Footnote Systems, ABN 65 809 392 374. Not connected to any other business called Footnote. - Based: Melbourne and Cairns, Australia. Works with businesses across Australia. - For: directors and owners of businesses with admin or sales staff. Not for sole operators. - Industries: real estate agencies, freight and logistics, marine and industrial, engineering, professional services. - Builds: custom software, business automation and supervised AI agents. - Background: sixteen years of software inside large Australian businesses, including a big four bank and a national media company. - Projects shown: 7. 1 is a client's system, 5 are Footnote's own products, 1 is a free demo. Each is labelled below. - Contact: hello@footnote.design, or the form at https://footnote.systems/contact. Replies within one business day. - Cost: It is a monthly fee, and each month covers one job. We quote the fee after the demo, once we both know the job. Month one is invoiced only once that job is running with your team. No dollar figure is published. ## Claims and their proof - Marsh Property, a real estate agency in Cairns, swapped four subscriptions for one system the agency owns. - Hosting and AI run in accounts in your name from the first day. If you stop, nothing has to be moved. - Month one is invoiced only once the job is running with your team. Not running by day 30, you pay nothing for that month, keep what was built, and can stop that day. - Every AI output lands as a draft. Nothing reaches a customer until a person on your team approves it. - Before any talk of money, we build one small working thing from your public information: your enquiry form, your job ads, your services. It costs you nothing. ## How it starts 1. Demo: We build one small working thing from your public information. It costs you nothing. 2. Month one: You name the job that never gets done. We write down in one sentence what running looks like, then build it with your team. 3. Running: It runs next to the systems you already have, in accounts you own. Your staff log in with their own names. 4. Next month: A month of real use decides the next job. Not running by day 30, month one is free and you can stop that day. ## Work - [ListingMate](https://footnote.systems/work/listingmate) (Our own product, 2026): Every listing becomes a social campaign the agency approves. Before: Every listing meant another round of posts someone had to write, design, schedule and publish. What it does: Turns each listing into posts in the agency's brand and queues them for a person to approve. One click schedules them on Instagram and Facebook. Now: Posting is consistent, on brand, and no longer anyone's job. - [Marsh Property](https://footnote.systems/work/marsh-property) (Client system, 2026): One system the agency owns, in place of four subscriptions. Before: Four rented tools: a CRM, an SMS prospecting tool, a call campaign service and a social scheduler. Four logins, four invoices, and the data split across all of them. What it does: Contacts, the daily call list, SMS, social and listings on one screen. The software drafts each SMS and post, and a person approves it before it is sent. Now: The agency owns the system its business runs on. A new field or report is a change, not a support ticket. - [Enquiry triage](https://footnote.systems/work/enquiry-triage) (Free demo, 2026): Every enquiry sorted by urgency, with what the quote still needs. Before: Messages, emails and job applications arrive in different places, and the details a quote needs are often missing. What it does: Every enquiry lands in one list, sorted by urgency, with what it still needs called out. Now: Nobody reads the whole inbox before picking up the phone. - [Keel](https://footnote.systems/work/keel) (Our own product, 2026): A whole business run by supervised agents, on one live screen. Before: The inbox, the pipeline and the calendar each need someone watching them. What it does: Agents run the overnight research, score new ideas against a rubric and draft the next step. Every action is logged. Now: The morning starts with decisions waiting for a person, not a backlog. - [Obligor](https://footnote.systems/work/obligor) (Our own product, 2026): Reads company filings to separate real demand from money going in a circle. Before: Thousands of pages of company filings, far too many for a person to read. What it does: Reads what companies filed with the SEC and shows where money moves in a circle: a supplier investing in a customer who then buys from the supplier. Now: Arithmetic on public filings with its working shown, so a person can check every figure. - [Stash](https://footnote.systems/work/stash) (Our own product, 2026): Turns a pile of saved posts into things you can act on. Before: Everyone saves things on Instagram and never goes back to them. What it does: Pulls every save, watches the video, listens to the audio and reads the caption. Now: The pile becomes sorted action items and step by step tutorials. - [BirthCrew](https://footnote.systems/work/birthcrew) (Our own product, 2026): The birth partner walks in knowing the plan and their job. Before: Every book, class and app in pregnancy is aimed at her. The partner gets a due date and is told to be supportive. What it does: Shows the partner what is happening this week, what she has asked for in her plan, and what to do in the room. Now: In labour the screen drops to a timer, the person to ring, and 000. ## Questions people ask ### Where should we start? With the job your team loses the most hours to, not with a tool. Before anything else we build one small working thing from your public information, so you can see what a start looks like in your own business. ### How much does it cost? It is a monthly fee, and each month covers one job. We quote the fee after the demo, once we both know the job. Month one is invoiced only once that job is running with your team. ### Do we need to buy new software? Usually not. What we build runs next to the systems you already have. If software you already pay for would do the job, we will tell you in the first conversation. ### Who owns what gets built? You do. Hosting and AI run in accounts you own from the first day. If you stop, you keep everything that was built. ### What happens if we stop? You keep everything that was built. Hosting and AI run in accounts in your name from the first day, so nothing has to be moved. ### Will AI send things to our customers on its own? No. Every AI output lands as a draft, and nothing reaches a customer until a person on your team approves it. ### Is this AI automation or custom software? Both, depending on the job. Some jobs need a plain tool, like one list that every enquiry lands in. Some need AI to read, sort or draft. Either way, a person on your team approves anything that leaves the business. ### What kinds of businesses do you work with? Australian businesses with admin or sales staff: real estate agencies, freight and logistics, marine and industrial, engineering, and professional services. So far we have built a system for a real estate agency in Cairns and a demo for a marine business. It does not suit a one-person business. ### Is this instead of hiring another admin person? It can be. We take the repeat jobs that would otherwise need another pair of hands: retyping enquiries, chasing quotes, writing the weekly posts. Your staff keep the phone calls and the decisions. ### How long until something is running? The first job is built in month one, with your team. If it is not running by day 30, you pay nothing for that month and keep what was built. ### Do you work with businesses in Cairns and Far North Queensland? Yes. We are based in Melbourne and Cairns, and one of the systems we built runs a real estate agency in Cairns. ### Do you work outside Melbourne and Cairns? Yes. We are based in Melbourne and Cairns and work with businesses across Australia. Most of the work happens on video calls and in the systems themselves. ## Pages - [Home](https://footnote.systems/): what Footnote does and how it starts - [Work](https://footnote.systems/work): the 7 projects, each labelled client system, our own product or free demo - [Services](https://footnote.systems/services): Custom software, business automation, supervised AI agents and enquiry handling for Australian businesses. One job a month, quoted after a free demo. - [Cairns](https://footnote.systems/cairns): Footnote builds custom software and automation for Cairns and Far North Queensland businesses. One system we built runs a Cairns real estate agency today. - [Real estate agencies](https://footnote.systems/real-estate): Custom software for real estate agencies: contacts, the daily call list, SMS, listings and social posts in one system the agency owns. Running in Cairns today. - [Business automation](https://footnote.systems/business-automation): Footnote takes one repeat admin or sales job off your team each month and builds the software that does it. Month one is free if it is not running by day 30. - [Custom software](https://footnote.systems/custom-software): Custom software for businesses that cannot hire a software team: internal tools and CRMs that run in accounts you own. Built in Melbourne and Cairns. - [AI agents](https://footnote.systems/ai-agents): Supervised AI agents for Australian businesses. They read what comes in and draft the next step. A person on your team approves anything that leaves. - [Enquiry handling](https://footnote.systems/enquiry-handling): Every enquiry in one list, sorted by urgency, with a reply drafted for a person to approve. See it built from your own enquiry form, free. - [What changed when Marsh Property replaced four subscriptions](https://footnote.systems/articles/marsh-property-four-subscriptions): Marsh Property, a Cairns real estate agency, swapped a CRM, an SMS tool, a call campaign service and a social scheduler for one system it owns. - [About](https://footnote.systems/about): who it suits, and straight answers - [Contact](https://footnote.systems/contact): name the job - [Privacy](https://footnote.systems/privacy) - [Full text for AI assistants](https://footnote.systems/llms-full.txt)