Automation·Mar 26, 2026·5 min read
What I automate first for every new client
Not the flashy stuff. The boring, repeated, every-single-time work that quietly eats the first month.
Automate the repeated, not the impressive
The instinct is to automate something clever. The payoff is in automating something boring that happens every single time. For a new engagement, that is the setup: the records, the pipeline, the folders, the first round of comms routing.
The first four
- Client and engagement records, so everything downstream has something to attach to.
- The delivery pipeline, with the stages the work actually moves through.
- Document templates for the deliverables I produce for everyone.
- Status and comms routing, so the client sees progress without asking.
Why this order
These four are what I rebuild for every client by hand if I let myself. Automating them turns onboarding from construction into instantiation. The clever automations can come later. The boring ones pay for themselves by the second client.