The invoice reminders went out late again. The owner did them on Sunday night, between the kids' bedtime and the return that was already overdue. On Monday, someone in the partners' meeting says the firm should "look at AI," and everyone in the room pictures the same thing: a consultant, a discovery phase, a statement of work with a number nobody wants to say out loud.
That picture is why most owner-led firms never start. It is also the wrong picture for a first agent. The first one is not a platform. It is one job, written down, done on the tools the firm already runs. How we scope and price that job is on the First Agent Sprint page.
Why owners expect a big number
The expectation is not irrational. It comes from how software has been sold to firms for a long time.
A "transformation" project starts with every system in the building. The CRM, the accounting file, the document vault, the calendar, the phones. Each connection is a line item. Each line item needs a meeting. By the time anyone agrees on scope, the project is large because the scope is everything, and the fee follows the scope.
The other picture is the do-it-yourself seat. A login, a credit meter, a library of templates, and a weekend of the owner's time to wire it up. That one costs little to buy and a lot to finish, because the setup is still the owner's job. If you wanted a login and a credit meter, you would already have one.
Neither picture fits the problem most firms actually have. The problem is not "the whole company." It is the after-hours inquiry, the unpaid invoice, the post that did not go out on Tuesday. One job that still lands on the owner.
One job is the scope
A first agent has a small, checkable job description. It watches for one trigger, does the steps the owner already does by hand, logs what it did, and hands anything unusual to a person.
For a two-partner CPA firm, that might be the unpaid-invoice follow-up: read which invoices in QuickBooks are past the firm's own threshold, send the reminder the firm already approved, log the replies, and leave the owner a short cash note in the morning. For a small law practice in the suburbs north of Dallas, it might be the first reply to the 8 p.m. intake form: ask the two questions the firm always asks, offer the consult link if the answers clear the bar, and park everything else for a person. (Both firms are composites, not clients.)
That is the whole project. It does not need the tax software, the matter file, or a new system the owner has to check. It runs on the tools the firm already pays for, such as QuickBooks, HubSpot, Google Workspace, Square, or Squarespace. We do not rip anything out.
When the scope is one job, the price can be set before the work starts. When the price cannot be set before the work starts, the scope is still too big.
What it costs, in plain numbers
Here is how a first engagement is priced.
First Agent Audit: free. 45 minutes with me, then a written brief within one business day. The brief covers the workflow, your tools, the risks, and a recommended sprint, or a clear no.
First Agent Sprint: starts at $7,500, fixed fee. One workflow agent, built and tested on your existing tools. The sprint delivers a workflow map (the trigger, the decisions, and the path for exceptions that need a person), a working agent, an owner playbook, and a Day 28 review of the numbers.
Care plans: start at $750/month. For firms that keep the agent, a care plan keeps it current as your tools and workload change. It covers monitoring, updates when your tools change, small adjustments, and a periodic review.
You own the agent. It is built for your firm, on your tools, and it belongs to you. You own the agent's configuration, prompts, written playbook, and data, and everything runs on accounts in your firm's name. If you end the care plan, the agent stays yours and keeps running. You just stop getting monitoring, tuning, and fixes from us.
A fixed fee is not a discount. It is a constraint we put on ourselves. If we cannot describe the job well enough to price it, we have not understood it well enough to build it.
Where the fee goes
The fee pays for the work the owner would otherwise do alone, or never do.
Mapping the job. Most of the value is in writing down what the owner already decides without thinking about it: which invoices get a reminder, which inquiries get a consult link, which ones should never get a template.
Writing the guardrails. Every agent ships with an owner playbook with three lists: what it can read, what it can send, and what it must never touch. You approve it before the agent runs on its own. How that works is in What the Agent Is Allowed to Touch.
Building and testing on your tools. Drate builds the agent. I run the engagement. Two partners in Dallas, no hand-offs.
Measuring it. At the Day 28 review we look at four numbers together: hours returned, response time, error rate, and how many of your minutes the agent still needs. You keep it, we tune it, or you stop it.
What would make it cost more
Some requests are not first projects, and pricing them as if they were would be dishonest.
"Replace my team." "Run the whole company." "Build a platform." Those wait until the first agent is earning its keep.
A job that only works if the agent can open the client file is also not the first job. Wider access is harder to explain to a client, harder to unwind, and usually a sign that two jobs have been folded into one.
And a firm that needs six systems connected before anything ships is better served by someone else. We say so in the brief. If an agent is not the answer yet, the brief says that too.
The real cost is the job staying where it is
The number most owners never write down is the one already being paid. The Sunday-night reminders. The 7:14 p.m. form that sat until morning while another firm answered. The draft that did not ship because the person who writes it was also the person chasing invoices.
A first agent does not have to fix the firm. It has to take one job off the owner, on the tools already in place, for a price agreed before the work starts. How the sprint runs, including the few short approval check-ins it needs from you, is on the First Agent Sprint page.
Questions owners ask
How much does a first AI agent cost for a small firm? With Berry Buckley, the First Agent Audit is free. A First Agent Sprint starts at $7,500, fixed fee, for one workflow agent on your existing tools. Care plans start at $750/month.
Why is the sprint a fixed fee instead of hourly? Because the scope is one job. If the job can be described clearly, it can be priced before the work starts. If it cannot, the audit brief will say the scope is too big.
Do we have to buy new software? No. The agent runs on the tools you already pay for, such as QuickBooks, HubSpot, Google Workspace, Square, or Squarespace.
Who owns the agent when the sprint is over? You do. The configuration, prompts, written playbook, and data are yours, on accounts in your firm's name. If you end the care plan, the agent keeps running; you just stop getting monitoring, tuning, and fixes.
How much of my time does the sprint take? A few short approval check-ins. You approve the workflow map and the owner playbook; we do the building and testing.
What if the audit says an agent is not a fit? You keep the written brief. There is no pressure to buy a sprint that does not fit.
If this is the job still landing on you, start with a free 45-minute First Agent Audit with me. You will get a written brief within one business day: the workflow, your tools, the risks, and a recommended sprint, or a clear no.
Book a First Agent Audit · How the sprint works: /first-agent · Where firms usually start: /agents
Sources: no outside research is cited in this article. All prices and commitments are Berry Buckley's own published terms.