AI & automation for small businesses

Your team's time is too valuable
for copy and paste.

I help small businesses eliminate inefficiencies, get more done with the team they have, and automate the repetitive work that eats the week: data entry, reports, invoices, follow-ups. Fixed prices, plain English, and no AI expertise required on your end.

Book a free 30-minute call See what I automate
Fixed-price quotes before any work starts
Your data stays confidential
Built for you, or done for you

Services

If someone on your team does it the same way every week, it can probably be automated.

Most small businesses don't need an "AI strategy." They need specific, tedious jobs to stop eating their people's time. Don't see your problem below? Bring it anyway. Figuring out the fix is part of the job.

Data entry, eliminated

Invoices, receipts, statements, and forms turned into clean spreadsheet rows, including scanned and handwritten ones.

  • PDF invoices and statements to Excel
  • Handwritten forms and timesheets
  • Photos of receipts and paperwork

Spreadsheet cleanup & consolidation

Messy, duplicated, or disconnected data merged into one source you can trust, with errors and gaps flagged automatically.

  • De-duplication and standardizing
  • Merging exports from multiple systems
  • Rebuilding the workbook nobody understands

Recurring reports, done in minutes

The weekly or month-end report your team dreads: data pulled, formatted, and assembled the same way every time.

  • Month-end reporting packages
  • Weekly sales and job summaries
  • Dashboards from data you already have

Quotes, invoices & documents

Proposals, quotes, invoices, and letters generated from your own data, each one tailored to its recipient.

  • Quotes drafted from past jobs and pricing
  • Invoices from time or job records
  • Contracts and forms pre-filled

Systems that don't talk to each other

Stop retyping information from one program into another. If it can come out of one system, it can go into the next automatically.

  • Exports reshaped for clean import
  • Web portals with no export button
  • Moving to new software without losing history

Billing & follow-up

The follow-through work that slips when everyone is busy, prepared automatically and waiting for your approval.

  • Overdue-invoice reminders drafted for you
  • Invoices matched against purchase orders
  • Vendor bills sorted for your bookkeeper

Answers from data you already have

Years of sales, job, and customer records turned into clear answers about where the business makes and loses money.

  • Profit by job, customer, or product
  • What customers say across your reviews
  • Sales and inventory trends

Custom tools built for one job

A small tool that does exactly the one thing your business needs, without hiring a software developer.

  • Quote and pricing calculators
  • Job and order trackers
  • Intake forms that feed your records

AI setup & team training

Get your team using AI tools productively and safely, with the know-how in people's heads captured in writing.

  • AI tools configured for your business
  • Hands-on team training
  • Written procedures and checklists

Three ways to work together

You don't have to become an AI expert.

Choose how hands-on you want to be. Many clients start with one and add another later.

Built for you

A tool your team runs

I build an automation that lives on your own computer, and your team runs it whenever they need it. Many of these tools work entirely on your machine, so your files never leave your office.

Done for you

Send the files, get back finished work

I process your recurring work each week or month and return the completed spreadsheet or report, checked and ready to use. Nothing to install and nothing to learn.

Set up & coach

Your team, using AI well

I set up AI tools around the way your business works and train your team to use them, so the skills stay in-house.

The process

A clear process with no surprises.

You'll know what you're getting, what it costs, and when it will be done before you commit to anything.

1

Discovery call

A free 30-minute conversation about where your team's time is going. If automation isn't the right fix, I'll tell you.

2

Fixed-price quote

A written scope: what gets built, what it costs, and the timeline. No hourly billing, no open-ended engagements.

3

Build & verify

I build it and test it against your real past work, checking the automated output against what your team produced by hand.

4

Handoff or ongoing service

You get written instructions and a walkthrough, or I keep running the work for you each month. Your choice.

Example project

Monthly statement processing, automated

An accounting consultant was manually keying data from a client's bank and investment statements into Excel every month.

Before

Three PDF statements from different institutions arrived each month. Every transaction and balance was retyped by hand into the client's workbook — slow, tedious work with a real risk of keying errors, done by someone whose time was better spent on actual accounting.

After

An automated process reads all three statements and fills the workbook in the consultant's existing format. The monthly task shrank from manual data entry to a quick review of the results, and it runs the same way every month.

Data & confidentiality

Your business data deserves care. Here's how I handle it.

Automation work means sensitive information. These are standing commitments on every project.

Minimum necessary data

I only work with the files a project actually requires, and wherever possible I build and test with sample or redacted data.

No training on your data

The AI tools I use are configured so that your information is not used to train AI models.

A human checks the output

Every automation is verified against known-correct results before handoff, and built so your team reviews results rather than trusting them blindly.

NDAs welcome

I'm glad to sign your confidentiality agreement before seeing any files. It's a normal first step.

Clean exit

When I process work for you, your files are deleted when the job is done or whenever you ask. You own everything I build for you.

Runs where your data lives

Where possible, tools run on your own computers and accounts, so your data doesn't need to move anywhere new.

Pricing

Fixed prices, sized for small businesses.

No hourly meter running. You approve a written quote before any work begins.

Automation Audit

$500

A focused review of how work moves through your business. You get a written, prioritized list of bottlenecks and what's worth automating, with a fixed quote for each item. Fully credited toward your first project.

Automation Project

from $1,500

One workflow, built, tested against your real data, documented, and handed over with training. Most projects are complete within two to four weeks.

Monthly Service

from $300/mo

Done-for-you processing of your recurring work, or ongoing care for the tools I've built: changes as your needs evolve, plus help with questions and small improvements.

For accounting & back-office firms

Keep your accountants on accounting.

Your clients are asking about AI, and the requests are landing on people who already have full plates. I work alongside fractional back-office and accounting firms as the specialist you can hand those requests to.

Talk about partnering
Ryan Dahlseid, founder of AutoMate Consulting

About

Hi, I'm Ryan, the person behind AutoMate.

I help small businesses get real, working value out of AI — not slide decks about it. I'm a problem-solver first: I like digging into how work actually gets done, finding where the time goes, and building the fix. I build with AI tools every day, and before consulting I spent years as an operations supervisor in a high-volume business, so I know what it's like when a small team is stretched thin and the paperwork never stops. I'm based in East Tennessee and work with clients remotely nationwide.

Questions

Common questions

Do we need to buy new software?

Usually not. Most projects work with what you already have — Excel, QuickBooks exports, Google Workspace, PDFs. If a tool subscription would help, I'll tell you the cost up front and you decide.

Do we have to use AI ourselves?

No. With done-for-you service, you send the files and get back finished work. With a built tool, your team runs it like any other program. If you do want your team using AI directly, I'll set it up and train them.

Do we need to be technical to use what you build?

No. Everything is built for the person who does the job today, and comes with written step-by-step instructions and a walkthrough.

What if the AI makes a mistake?

Good automation assumes mistakes are possible. I test every build against your real past results, add automatic checks (for example, confirming extracted totals match statement totals), and design the process so a person reviews the output.

What if we're not sure anything is worth automating?

That's what the free call is for. If I don't think a project will pay for itself, I'll say so.

Let's find the hours hiding in your business.

Book a free 30-minute call. No pitch, no obligation — just a conversation about where your team's time goes.

Email me to book a call

ryan@automateconsulting.co