I met with the business owner to go over the tools he was already using. This helped me understand the challenges and explore any built-in solutions to avoid tool sprawl.

• Airtable was the clear (and free) solution to this problem. He needed a base to coordinate both incoming and outgoing transactions, which could also generate financial summaries.

• While automations could link his payment sites to Airtable, we agreed that financial information was too sensitive to give automations access to, so an alternative upload solution would need to be found.

• I built a simple Airtable base that included budgets, income, and expenses. Each had columns for receipts and other attachments, which allowed for receipt upload from the user’s or other device.

• It included quarterly and annual reporting, an estimated tax payment calendar with due dates, and a library of important documents for the business.

• The base included several automated emails:

  • quarterly profit and loss statements

  • reminders to upload the necessary income and expense data from the financial sites

  • estimated tax payment calculation and due date reminder emails.

The business owner used the system for one month and returned with feedback, including excess information that didn’t need to be in summary emails and different ways he’d like to interact with the data, which helped me to build specific views.

This client preferred that all documentation be stored within the Airtable base. So I created a base guide, and completed the information guides for each column, table, and view with directions for its use. I also included descriptions and notes for each automation.