systems &
tools.
every tool we use has earned its place.
five tools.
one ecosystem.
Zeal runs on a deliberately lean stack. Most of these tools connect to each other — that’s the point.
The Portal is our staff-facing front door. Microsoft 365 handles communication and scheduling. Monday.com is where projects are tracked and conversations recorded. CurrentRMS is the commercial truth — opportunities, equipment, crew. Dropbox is where files live. Each one has a job. Each one stays in its lane.
Departments have their own specialist systems beneath this layer. Those live in the relevant playbook. AI — primarily Claude — extends what a small team can do across the whole picture.
earned its place.
Every tool integrates with the others, and has someone at Zeal who owns its standards. “Can an existing tool do this?” before “what new tool do we need?”
stays in its lane.
Files in Dropbox. Projects in Monday. Commercial truth in CurrentRMS. Comms in Teams. If it’s not in the right system, it isn’t being managed.
the stack,
top to bottom.
Read top-down. The Portal sits at the surface; the AI layer wraps everything; specialist tools sit beneath. Lines aren’t rigid — most of these systems talk to each other where it earns its place.
zeal portal.
Where this OS lives. Where company-wide tools surface — Studio Bookings, Label Maker, project dashboards. Where Monday projects, CurrentRMS opportunities and Dropbox folders all show up in one place.
microsoft 365.
Outlook, Teams, calendar, OneDrive. Business Premium. We don’t use Slack. Teams is for company-wide and ad-hoc — not per-project channels.
your day, surfaced.
Calendar and email data flow into the portal home where it earns its place — but Dropbox is where most files actually live.
monday.com.
Items are projects. Sub-items are tasks. Conversations live here — not Teams, not email, not DMs.
currentRMS.
Opportunities, equipment, crew. The financial shape of every project. zeal.current-rms.com.
dropbox.
Business Advanced. Client > Year > Project. Four root folders: Projects, Team, Finance, People.
claude.
Chat · Projects · Cowork · Code. Thinking partner across writing, building, and increasingly agentic work.
chatgpt.
Retained for image work where Claude doesn’t yet have an equivalent. That’s the whole brief.
finance stack.
Capital · Dext · Xero · ApprovalMax · Float
warehouse & IT.
Equipment, maintenance, infrastructure
publishing.
Platforms, analytics, content tools
cad & paperwork.
Design, drafting, technical docs
design suite.
Visualisation & design tools
tools that
earn their place.
The cross-cutting layer everyone at Zeal touches. Each one has a Head who owns its standards, and a clear job that doesn’t overlap with the others.
zeal portal.
Where Zeal lives internally.
What it’s for — the staff-facing home. Where this OS is published, where company-wide tools live (Studio Bookings, Label Maker, dashboards, and a growing list), and where information from every other system gets surfaced in one place — Monday projects, CurrentRMS opportunities, Dropbox project folders.
How it stays current — Steve owns the architecture, with Claude Code building features against agreed plans and Claude Design owning the visual treatment. OS docs are published versions of canonical Word docs in Dropbox — when an OS doc updates, the change flows from Word to portal via a deliberate publishing step, not automatically.
- Owner
- Steveportal architecture · publishing
- Detail
- /os/systems/portal/ →sub-page coming
microsoft 365.
Email, calendar, Teams. The glue.
What it’s for — Outlook handles email, Teams handles general company communication (we don’t use Slack), the calendar is where meetings and availability live, OneDrive sits in the background for some Microsoft-native file work. The portal can read calendar and email data where useful — for instance, surfacing your day on the portal home — but Dropbox is where most files actually live.
What it isn’t — we don’t have per-project Teams channels. Project conversations happen in Monday.com. Teams is for company-wide and ad-hoc.
- Owner
- OperationsIT & infrastructure
- Detail
- PB-04 · Operations →
monday.com.
Project control. The conversation home.
What it’s for — projects are tracked here. Items are projects with status, owners, and key fields. Sub-items are tasks. Project conversations happen in Monday.com so they’re recorded and visible — not in Teams, not in email, not in DMs.
The principle — if it’s not in Monday.com, it’s not being managed. Monday is also our My Work surface — what’s on each person’s plate, when it’s due, who needs what. Source of truth for “what’s happening across Zeal right now.”
- Owner
- ProjectsWoody · Projects Director
- Detail
- PB-01 · Projects →/os/systems/monday/ coming
currentRMS.
The commercial truth. Always.
What it’s for — the commercial reality of every project — the opportunity, the kit list, the crew bookings, the financial shape. When the portal or Monday show commercial information, CurrentRMS is the source it’s pulling from.
Why it matters — CurrentRMS is the system that turns “we’re doing this project” into “here’s what it costs, here’s what we need, here’s who’s on it.”
- Owner
- Projects · Operationscommercial · equipment usage
- Detail
- PB-01 · PB-04 →/os/systems/currentrms/ coming
dropbox.
Files. Source of truth.
What it’s for — where Zeal’s files live — projects, OS, brand assets, finance documents. Projects follow a Client > Year > Project structure with a standard template (_ClientFolder and _CrewFolder for portal-linked client and crew folders, plus numbered subfolders 01–06).
The four root folders — Projects · Team · Finance · People. If you’re looking for a file, this is where it is. The portal links into Dropbox folders where useful — but Dropbox itself is the file system.
- Owner
- Operationsfolder structure · access control
- Detail
- PB-04 · Operations →
a tool. like any other.
AI is a thinking partner — not a replacement for craft, judgement, or voice. The final shape, the final decision, and the final voice are still ours.
shaped by a person.
Anything that goes out under our name has been shaped by a person, not generated by a machine. Authentic human voice is non-negotiable — especially client-facing.
where it earns its place.
Synthesis, structure, drafting, research, automation of repetitive work. We use AI tools because they make us better — not because they’re trendy.
make yourself redundant.
You’ll have a job for life. Let AI take the parts of your work that drain you, and free yourself for the bit you actually love. Resisting AI to protect your job is the surest way to make your job harder, not safer.
Claude · the surfaces we use
chat.
Iterative thinking, drafting, exploring ideas. The everyday surface.
projects.
Ongoing work that benefits from persistent context — like Zeal HQ, where this OS is being shaped.
cowork.
Agentic, outcome-oriented tasks. Including scheduled, recurring work that runs on its own.
code.
Repo-based development on the portal and other code projects. Steve owns plans; Claude builds.
the line that matters: AI extends what a small team can do — it doesn’t replace what makes us, us.
A fuller treatment lives at /os/systems/ai/ — prompting, when to use which surface, principles for AI-assisted work, and worked examples. Sub-page coming.
beyond the
core five.
Each department has its own specialist tools beneath the cross-cutting layer. If you’re looking for guidance on a tool that isn’t on this page, the relevant playbook is the place to start.
a lean stack. by design. not by accident.
Every tool we use has earned its place, integrates with the others, and has someone at Zeal who owns its standards. When a new need surfaces, the first question is “can an existing tool do this?” before “what new tool do we need?” That’s the discipline. It compounds.