Audit first. AI only where it earns its place.

Your business is leaking time and money. We find where, and we patch it.

Patch is an operational efficiency consultancy for founder-led Nigerian businesses that have outgrown their manual systems. One audit shows you what is broken, what it costs you in naira, and what to fix first.

Book a free intro callSee how the audit works

30 minutes. Free. You leave knowing whether a full audit is worth your time.

A translucent rose quartz cube with a hairline crack, sealed by a small plum metal patch plate
Is this your business?

You did not build a bad business. You built one that runs on you.

Founder-led and family-run companies grow past their manual systems long before anyone notices. The work still gets done. It just gets done through workarounds, WhatsApp threads, and your personal attention. Each one is a leak.

Every decision waits for you

Payments, discounts, reorders, hires. If you are travelling, the business is travelling with you.

The numbers live in three places

A ledger, a spreadsheet, and someone’s head. None of them agree at month end.

Good people doing clerical work

Your best manager spends Friday re-typing invoices into a template instead of managing.

You have staff for problems, not processes

Every time something breaks, the answer has been another salary. It has stopped working.

Overhead view of a busy business owner's desk covered in paper ledgers, receipts and a phone full of notifications

The system works. It just needs you in the room for it to work.

What a leak actually costs

Inefficiency is not a feeling. It has a naira figure.

Every leak we find is priced: the hours it eats, what those hours cost, the sales it delays, the stock it loses. You do not get a slide that says “streamline operations.” You get a line item.

Illustrative figures from a mid-sized distribution business. Your ledger will look different. It will not be smaller than you expect.

Patch audit · Leak ledgerExcerpt
  • 01Owner as approval bottleneck₦1,900,000
  • 02Manual invoice re-entry (x3 systems)₦780,000
  • 03Stock reconciled weekly, not daily₦640,000
  • 04Chasing receivables by hand₦410,000
Estimated monthly leakageFour of eleven leaks shown
₦0
How the audit works

Five stages. Each one produces something you can hold.

No discovery workshops that go nowhere. Every stage ends with an artifact, and the audit is designed to stand on its own, whether or not you ever hire us to fix anything.

  1. Free · 30 minutesStage 01

    Intro call

    We talk about how the business actually runs today, where it hurts, and whether an audit is even the right move. If it is not, we say so.

    Intro call30 min

    Is the audit worth it for us?

    FreeNo deckHonest answer
    • Go / no-go on the audit
    • A first guess at the biggest leak
  2. Lean DOWNTIME frameworkStage 02

    Structured interview

    A guided conversation with you and the people who do the work. We walk through the eight kinds of operational waste so nothing hides behind “that is just how we do it.”

    InterviewDOWNTIME
    • DDefects
    • OOverproduction
    • WWaiting
    • NNon-used talent
    • TTransport
    • IInventory
    • MMotion
    • EExtra processing
    • Process map of how work really flows
    • Named suspects for every leak
  3. Evidence, not opinionStage 03

    Data pull

    We request a short, specific list: sales records, payroll, stock counts, bank statements, the group chats where decisions get made. Then we check the interview against the numbers.

    Data pull3 / 5 received
    • Sales ledger (12 mo)
    • Payroll summary
    • Stock count sheets
    • Bank statements
    • Approvals chat export
    • Data-pull checklist
    • Confirmed vs. suspected leaks
  4. The part nobody else doesStage 04

    Leak pricing

    Each inefficiency gets a naira figure: hours × loaded cost, delayed cash, lost stock, missed sales. Now you can rank leaks by what they cost, not by who complains loudest.

    Leak pricingFormula

    hours_lost × loaded_rate

    + cash_delayed × cost_of_capital

    + stock_lost + sales_missed

    Leak #01 / month₦1,900,000

    • Priced leak ledger
    • Ranked by monthly cost
  5. Yours to keepStage 05

    Report + 30/60-day roadmap

    A plain-language report: what is leaking, what it costs, and what to fix in the next 30 and 60 days. Some fixes are a process change. Some are software. Some are a hard conversation.

    Report30 / 60 days

    Days 1–30

    Delegate payment approvals under a set threshold

    Days 31–60

    Single source of truth for stock; daily count routine

    • Written findings
    • 30/60-day roadmap you can run yourself
Why audit-first

Most agencies open with “we do AI.” We open with: AI might not be your answer.

A company that sells one tool will find that every problem needs that tool. Patch does not walk in with a product. We walk in with a diagnostic, and the audit decides what the fix is. Sometimes it is automation. Sometimes it is a spreadsheet and a Monday meeting.

That honesty is the point. It also means the audit is worth paying for on its own, because it is not a sales funnel for something else.

Five objects in a row: a notebook, a wrench, a spreadsheet tile, a gear and a microchip, with the notebook gently highlighted
01
A process changeApproval thresholds, a daily stock count, a written handover.
02
A role redesignThe right person owning the right decision, with a clear limit.
03
An off-the-shelf toolAccounting or inventory software you already pay for, set up properly.
04
A custom automationThe invoice that re-types itself into three systems.
05
AI, where it earns its placeReading documents, drafting replies, spotting anomalies in the numbers.
Where Patch sits

Not an AI shop. Not a strategy deck. The bit in between.

CriteriaPatchAI / automation agencyGeneral consultant
Starts with a diagnostic, not a product
Prices every inefficiency in naira
Will recommend a non-software fix
Can build the fix, not just describe it
Understands how Nigerian SMEs actually run
Deliverable stands alone without buying more
Typical engagement length2–3 weeksOpen-ended3–6 months
What happens after

Diagnosis is where we start. It does not have to be where we stop.

Once the roadmap is in your hands, you have a choice. Run it yourself, hand it to your team, or ask us to carry the fixes through. Because the audit already mapped the work, delivery starts on day one instead of with another round of discovery.

The founder behind Patch comes from software engineering, with a background in security and networking. When the fix is technical, it gets built properly. When it is not, it does not get turned into software for the sake of it.

01

Audit

Where everyone starts

Findings, priced leaks, 30/60-day roadmap. Complete on its own. You can take it to your own team or another vendor.

02

Delivery

Optional

We implement what the roadmap recommends: the process change, the tool set-up, the automation, or the AI workflow. Scoped from the audit, so there is no re-discovery.

03

Retainer

Optional

Ongoing support after delivery. We keep the fixes running as the business changes, and re-audit when it grows past them again.

Questions founders ask

Before you book.

Straight answers. If yours is not here, ask it on the call.

Thirty minutes. You will know if you have a leak worth finding.

No pitch deck, no pressure. Bring one thing that keeps landing back on your desk, and we will tell you honestly whether an audit would change it.

Book a free intro callOpens Calendly in a new tab. Lagos time (WAT).