Automating a recurring planning cycle across 40 locations
A multi-location operator rebuilt its annual budget by hand every year. Finance copied last year's spreadsheets, pasted in accounting reports and re-typed inputs from payroll, marketing and facilities. Most of the season went to assembly, leaving only days for review before the budgets went to owners.
Results
What was built
A finished first draft for every location
Built from the company's own accounting reports in finance's format. Every line has an estimate, a note, and ties to the books to the dollar.
Company rules applied everywhere
Review decisions such as raises, bonuses and insurance increases are entered once. All 40 workbooks rebuild the same day.
Lines to check first are flagged
Large or uncertain items are highlighted, and the build checks for easy-to-miss gaps such as unbudgeted loan interest.
Simple input for field staff
One planning sheet with a price list, drop-downs and photo folders. Projects land in the right line and month without overwriting finance's edits.
Version control
Each release is dated, carries a change log, and includes a file list confirming nothing changed after it was sent.
How the AI system is put together
Large language model
Reads meeting recordings, turns decisions into rules, and writes the note on every line.
Automation
Rebuilds every workbook from the latest reports and runs the checks.
Database
Holds accounting history, prior budgets and price lists behind each estimate.
Where the same approach works
The pattern is not specific to budgets. It fits any recurring cycle where people rebuild the same files from system reports and collect inputs from several departments.
Multi-location businesses
- Property management
- Restaurants
- Dental and medical groups
- Clinics
- Auto dealerships
- Franchises
- Senior living
- Hospitality
Recurring cycles
- Annual budgets
- Capital and maintenance plans
- Insurance renewals
- Price updates
- Month-end reporting
- Site inspections
- Grant and compliance reports
Field-to-office handoffs
- Inspections
- Estimates
- Punch lists
- Any field information that finance or operations has to re-enter
Signs a company is a fit
- The same spreadsheets are rebuilt every month or year by copying from system exports
- Inputs arrive by email in different formats and get re-typed
- More time goes into assembling numbers than reviewing them
- Mistakes are found late, or only when someone happens to look
- A few key people hold the process in their heads
How the engagement runs
- Files stay in the formats the client already uses
- Staff keep working the way they are used to
- Review meetings are recorded, decisions become rules, files rebuilt the same day
- The client keeps everything at the end