The operating system that runs Apphive itself

The problem

A one-person consultancy carries the admin load of a whole back office: pipeline, invoicing, bookkeeping, statutory deadlines, client comms. Off-the-shelf tools each solve a slice, none talk to each other, and every one of them expects you to enjoy accounting.

The requirement was blunt: run the entire company from one system, in plain English, with the owner mostly reviewing and approving rather than typing.

The approach

Four Cloudflare services share one D1 database: an RPC backend (the brain), a SvelteKit admin app, a client-facing portal with pay links and a no-login intake form, and an MCP server so the business can be operated from an AI assistant in conversation.

Accounting is double-entry underneath but cash-basis and jargon-free on the surface: drop a bank statement in, transactions auto-classify against learned rules, and the month comes back as a plain-English story plus financials and a tax estimate. A compliance engine derives every SARS and CIPC obligation from the company's own facts and sends tiered reminders as deadlines approach. Every mutation writes an audit row in the same database batch.

The outcome

This is not a demo — it invoices real clients, reconciles real bank statements, and watches real filing deadlines. Monthly accounts take one statement drop. Nothing client-facing goes out without owner approval.