I go through your whole business and fix the work that eats your team's week.
Invoice PDFs keyed in by hand. The same client typed into two systems. Paperwork chased by email. The weekly report rebuilt from scratch. I sit with you and your team, rank all of it by hours and risk, and build the fixes on your actual files, one workflow at a time.
- Open every invoice PDF, one at a time
- Retype each invoice number and amount into Excel
- Format the headers, then total it by hand to cut one check
- Drop the week's PDFs in
- The same spreadsheet comes out, same layout and headers
- Duplicates, credits and odd pages flagged with a note
- Total checked against the one your staff expect
An illustration of one weekly workflow, not a client's actual files or numbers.
Good people, spending their week moving information around.
It's rarely one big problem. It's a lot of small, careful, manual steps that land on good, paid people every week. Most of it doesn't need their judgment, but all of it needs their attention.
Retyping what already exists
Invoices, statements and forms arrive as PDFs. Someone opens each one and types the numbers into a spreadsheet by hand, carefully, because one typo shows up later.
Copying between systems
The same client, file or job gets entered in two or three places that don't talk to each other. When they drift apart, someone has to go find out why.
Chasing and rebuilding
Emailing for the missing form, again. Pulling the same numbers into the same report every Monday. The follow-ups live in one person's head, so when they're out, things slip, and you hear about it from a client.
The kind of work I take on
These are examples of the kind of work I take on. Apart from the invoice build below, they aren't past projects. Every business runs a little differently, so we start with how yours actually works.
PDFs and paperwork into spreadsheets
- Vendor invoices pulled into the summary sheet your team already builds by hand
- Remittance and EOB PDFs turned into a clean list for posting, with mismatches flagged
- New claim details pulled from the first email into your setup sheet
- Names from new-matter intake forms gathered into a list for the conflict check
Getting two systems to agree
- Bank and card exports matched to the books, with only the leftovers sent to a person
- Rent roll checked against what was actually collected each month
- Job costs from the field compared against the budget in the office
- Client or policy records compared across two systems, with the differences listed
Checks before money moves
- Duplicate invoice checks before the payment run
- Carrier invoices checked against the rate that was quoted
- Bills compared against contract or fee schedule rates, with differences flagged for a person
- Pay applications from subs logged, with totals checked against the contract
Chasing paperwork
- One running list of which clients still owe documents, with reminder emails drafted for staff to send
- Certificates of insurance tracked by expiration date for every sub and vendor
- Lease renewals and inspection dates surfaced before they come due
- Missing signatures flagged before a file moves forward
The report you rebuild every week
- Open claims by age and adjuster, ready before the Monday meeting
- Aging receivables by payer, without anyone rebuilding the pivot table
- A weekly load and lane summary for the owner, built from the exports you already pull
- Matter or project status on one page instead of a stack of spreadsheets
Four steps, starting with a 15-minute call.
- 1
A free 15-minute call
You tell me where the hours seem to go. I ask questions. By the end, we'll both know whether a closer look makes sense.
- 2
I sit with you and your team
I walk through how the work actually gets done, with you and the people doing it. I map every repetitive workflow and rank them by hours and risk, so we start where it matters most.
- 3
I build the first fix on your real files
Not a demo on sample data. I build it on your actual documents and run it side by side with the old way until you and your team trust it.
- 4
Then we keep going, workflow by workflow
I stay on as a fractional advisor, a set number of days a month. Not a full-time hire, not an agency. The same person who learned your business, every time.
Things I've built, not things I promise.
From a stack of invoice PDFs to the exact spreadsheet their staff already use.
Every week, a back-office team opened each vendor invoice PDF and typed the invoice number and dollar amount into an Excel summary by hand, then totaled it to cut one check. The owner asked for a tool, and I had a working version in days. It reads the PDFs, pulls each invoice number and amount, and produces their spreadsheet in the exact format their staff already use, down to the bold and underlined headers.
When it isn't sure about something (a duplicate, a credit, a page that isn't an invoice), it flags it with a note and leaves it out of the total instead of guessing. Staff enter the total they expect, and it checks against that.
Before the owner saw it, I tested it against a real week of their invoices and hundreds of deliberately tricky test files. It runs side by side with the old manual process before anyone relies on it.
Outer Realm Comics
I built them a custom online storefront with their real inventory and checkout, their own site on their own domain, and a motion comic of one of their series. It's a different kind of business than yours. I include it because they were willing to put their name on the result.
“Josh is a technical master of his trade, easy to work with and super efficient.”
Aaron, Outer Realm Comics
Alfred: software I built and run myself
I built my own software platform, Alfred, by myself. It has generated and deployed more than 7,800 websites, runs a phone receptionist that answers 24/7 plus missed-call text-back, and handles bookings, online orders and payments for live businesses. I run it with production monitoring, error alerts, offsite backups and my own security audits. The person who built it is the person who keeps it running.
See Alfred ↗Other ways to handle this
Each of these can be the right call. Here's how they tend to compare for this kind of work.
| Keep doing it by hand | An agency or large firm | Off-the-shelf software | Working with me | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Who learns how the work gets done | The people doing it, and it stays in their heads | Often a sales team, then a separate project team | The product sets the process, and your team adjusts | I do, sitting with you and your team |
| Built on your real files | Your real files, retyped by hand | Depends on the scope and the contract | Built for many businesses, not yours in particular | Yes, starting with the first build |
| Fits how your staff already work | Yes, because it's how they already work | Depends on the project team | Your staff often change to fit it | Built around the formats they already use |
| Proven before you rely on it | You're already relying on it | Depends on the firm and the contract | A trial, often on sample data | Runs side by side with the old way until you trust it |
| What you're signing up for | The same hours, week after week | Project contracts and change orders | Often per-seat subscriptions | A set number of days a month |
| Who you talk to | Your own team, when they have a minute | Often an account manager | A support line | Me, by call, text or email |
I'm Josh. I'm the one doing the work.
I'm from Syracuse, New York, the oldest of five. I played college football, then spent years in the casino industry, where the job was reading people and taking care of them under pressure. I still work that way: listen to the people doing the work before I touch anything.
I taught myself to build software. Then I built my own platform, Alfred, by myself, and I still run it for live businesses. So I know what it takes to keep something working long after the build is done.
I'm based in Charlotte, North Carolina. I work in person around Charlotte and remotely anywhere. If someone you trust pointed you here, the easiest next step is a free 15-minute call.
Built for people who read the fine print.
We agree where your files live
We agree on what the work needs to keep and where it lives before I build anything. On the invoice build, the PDFs are read on their own computer and never uploaded, and only the invoice number, amount and status are saved.
It flags instead of guessing
On the invoice tool, a duplicate, a credit or a page that isn't an invoice gets a note and stays out of the total until a person decides. That's how I want a tool to behave when it isn't sure. A wrong number that looks right is worse than a blank.
Tested before the owner sees it
Before the owner ever saw the invoice tool, it had been run against a real week of their invoices and hundreds of deliberately tricky test files. I'd rather find the problems myself than have your team find them.
Side by side until you trust it
The old way keeps running next to the new one until your team has watched the fix work on real files. Nobody gives up the manual process on my say-so.
What owners usually ask first
Who is this for, and where?
Established businesses where good people spend real time on paperwork, such as insurance services, claims administration, medical billing, law firms, property management, freight and logistics, construction and accounting. I'm based in Charlotte, work in person around Charlotte, and work remotely anywhere.
What happens on the free 15-minute call?
You tell me where the hours seem to go, and I ask questions. By the end we'll both know whether a closer look makes sense. If I'm not the right fit, I'll tell you.
Is this about replacing my staff?
No. It's about taking the retyping and chasing off good people's plates so they can spend their time on the work that needs their judgment. Your team is who tells me where the time goes.
Do we have to change the software we use?
Not to start. I build around the systems, files and formats your team already uses. The invoice tool, for example, produces the exact spreadsheet the staff were already building by hand.
What happens when the tool gets something wrong?
It can happen, so I build for it. The invoice tool, for example, flags anything it isn't sure about with a note and leaves the decision to a person instead of guessing. That's also why it runs side by side with the old way first: the point is to catch problems there, before anyone relies on it.
How do you handle sensitive documents?
Specifically, not with a slogan. Before I build, we go through what the workflow actually needs to keep, where it lives, and who can see it. Then I build to that, so you know what's stored and where before your team relies on it.
Why is the invoice client anonymous?
I keep that client private, and I'd keep your business private the same way. Outer Realm Comics said I could name them.
How is this priced?
It depends on what's on the list. Ongoing work is a set number of days a month. Before any paid work starts, you'll know exactly what it covers and what it costs. The 15-minute call is free.
Tell me where the hours go.
If there's something worth fixing, I'll tell you. If there isn't, I'll tell you that too.