Documents — the pile, read and filed
The role that reads what arrives as a PDF and files it where it belongs, with the dates, totals, VAT and reference numbers pulled out and the ones that do not add up flagged.
It never files something it could not read. Those go in one pile with the reason attached, and that pile is a feature rather than an apology.
Monday to Friday,
in specifics rather than verbs.
Invented and generic on purpose — there are no clients yet, so nothing below describes a real business. What it does describe accurately is what the role would do and where it would stop.
Eleven documents arrived over the weekend: supplier invoices, two delivery notes, a contract. All are read, renamed and filed by supplier and month.
One invoice has line items that do not sum to its total. It is filed but flagged, with both numbers shown.
A scan is too poor to read. It goes in the unread pile with a note saying which field failed, not a guess.
A delivery note arrives with no matching invoice. Listed, because that is either a missing invoice or a supplier's mistake and both are worth knowing.
A contract renews in sixty days. Not filed silently — the date is surfaced, because a renewal nobody noticed is the most expensive kind of document.
The month's folder is in the shape your accountant asked for, with nothing left in an inbox.
What you actually do,
and how long each part takes.
"Easy onboarding" is not a claim anybody believes. This is the list, with a duration on every line, and the longest line is the fortnight where it does nothing.
A folder it can watch — a mail address it can read, a drive folder, or both.
One month of documents already filed the way you want them. It copies the pattern rather than inventing one.
Your accountant's naming rules, if they have any. Most do, and most have never been written down.
Two weeks of watching: it files into a shadow folder so you can compare.
It files into the real folder. Nothing is ever deleted, only moved.
Three ways this role fails,
and what happens then.
It will be wrong. The design assumption is not that it will not be — it is that when it is, the item stops, says so and waits, and that you find out from the system rather than from a customer.
It reads a total wrong.
Totals are cross-checked against the line items, so the common error catches itself. Where they disagree the document is flagged rather than filed quietly.
It files something under the wrong supplier.
Nothing is deleted and everything keeps a record of where it came from, so a misfile is a move rather than a search. The month's list is there to be skimmed for exactly this.
The scan is unreadable.
It stops. A guessed VAT number is worse than a blank one, and the unread pile is deliberately small enough to work through in a few minutes.
It never files something it could not read. Those go in one pile, each with the reason it stopped.
What this role does not touch.
A role that claims to take everything is a role nobody with a real business believes. Naming what stays with you is what makes the rest of the page worth reading.
Three questions
this one gets and the others do not.
Does it handle paper?
If you photograph it or scan it, yes. Phone photographs are fine — most of them read better than a bad fax. What it will not do is pretend to have read a photograph it could not.
Can it push into our accounting system?
Where that system has a way in, and it is quoted as part of the setup rather than assumed. Where it does not, it files to a folder in the shape your accountant asked for, which is what most small businesses actually need.
What about confidential contracts?
The same rule as everything else: it runs on your drive with credentials scoped to the folders you gave it, and nothing becomes training material. If a category of document may not be processed outside Switzerland at all, say so — that is a reason not to sell you this role rather than a footnote.
Watches the inbox so you can stop refreshing it.
Turns an enquiry into a priced offer, ready to send.
Issues them, chases the quiet ones, matches the payments.
Bookings, reminders, cancellations, and who did not turn up.
One message a week: what came in, what went out, what needs you.