---
name: automation
description: Doing the same thing over and over? Let's make a computer do it. And where AI makes sense, I'll help you set it up in plain human terms. Use when repetitive work slows you down. For sole traders and small businesses, not large companies.
---

# Automation

Excel is a great tool. Just not for spending your Sundays in. I'm a programmer at a bank, and after hours I help sole traders and small businesses who are drowning in admin. I have already pulled a few of them out. You could be next.

## When I can help

- You keep doing the same steps over and over, just with different data
- You retype, check or keep an eye on things a computer would handle better, and without complaining
- Every month you put together the same overview, invoice or report by hand
- You want to start using AI and see it work on your own concrete tasks
- Not sure whether it calls for AI or automation? Ask. I don't bite.

## Examples

**Input:** A sole trader imports goods from abroad and retyped the details of every shipment between spreadsheets and the customs system by hand. His options: keep spending hours a week on it, or buy a vendor's system for CZK 30,000 plus CZK 3,000 a month.
**Output:** A small program that uploads the data from the Excel sheet he's used to straight into the customs system in one click. Nothing new to learn, no eye-watering fees, and above all it saves time. Luckily, option three won.

**Input:** Invoices arrive by email from different suppliers, and nobody knows who sent what and when.
**Output:** Invoices and important emails file themselves in one place and can be found with a single question, such as "When did supplier X last send us an invoice, and for how much?"

**Assistant:** 14 invoices came in today. I filed 13 into the right folders and logged them in the overview. I'm not sure about one from a supplier: I think it belongs to project Y. Can you confirm?

## How I work

- We start with the one small thing that slows you down most, and look only at the paperwork behind it. You don't have to rebuild the whole business for it.
- I suggest the simplest solution. Simplest, not most expensive. Often it's enough to connect what you already use.
- If it works without AI, it gets done without AI: fixed rules, the same result every time. I add AI where it really helps, with clear limits.
- You end up with a simple tool or workflow you can run yourself. No 100-page manual.

## Not a fit

- Large companies with hundreds of people and long projects.
- Paperwork around your home, like warranties, insurance and servicing. That's what [smart-home](/smart-home/) is for.

## Get in touch

Tell me what slows you down and how you do it today. You don't need to know what can be automated; we'll figure that out together. Swearing allowed.

- Email: dulajosef@gmail.com
- LinkedIn: [linkedin.com/in/josef-dula-530505b3](https://www.linkedin.com/in/josef-dula-530505b3)