Know the ROI math before you commit to a build.
A 90-minute call and a 5–7 day written analysis. You get a ranked opportunity list, the cost-of-the-problem math, and a fixed build quote — before spending a dollar on implementation.
No commitment to build after the audit. The $1,500 covers the analysis and report only.
Vertical audits (restaurant, VA replacement) are $2,500 and go deeper. See the difference.
What happens in the 90 minutes and the 5–7 days after
Two phases. First the call, then the async work. You don't need to prepare anything — describe your operations as they exist today.
Phase 1 — The 90-Minute Call
Phase 2 — The 5–7 Day Async Work
What the report contains
Seven sections. Each one exists for a reason. The report is a decision document — not a sales pitch, not a teaser for a follow-up call.
Executive Summary
The short version — opportunity count, top recommendation, and the one piece of math you'll share with your business partner. The payback period on the top finding, in months, against a named build price.
Current-State Systems Map
Every tool you're using, what it costs, and the gap it's creating. Every manual process — who does it, how long it takes, how often. Integration gaps where data moves by hand between systems. The volume signals that drive the ROI math.
Opportunity Table
Each automatable workflow scored on Impact (value unlocked), Effort (build complexity), and Priority (Impact ÷ Effort). Difficulty ratings grounded in the Automation Atlas — 490 processes scored by build complexity. You see exactly why one workflow gets built before another.
ROI Math
For each recommended workflow: hours saved per week, loaded cost of that time, annual run cost of the automation, net annual value, build price, and payback period in months. Conservative assumptions. Comparable data cited where it exists. Estimates flagged as estimates.
Recommended Roadmap
Now, Next, and Later — with the reasoning behind the sequencing. What to build first and why. What prerequisite has to be true before the next build makes sense. What came up in discovery but doesn't belong in automation yet.
Recommended Stack
The specific tools for your situation: n8n or Make for orchestration, Baserow or Airtable for data, Metabase for dashboards, Vapi/Twilio for voice if applicable. Each tool runs on your own account. Monthly cost estimate for each component after the build.
Build Quote
Fixed prices for each recommended path — Option 1 (top priority only) and Option 2 (combined build where scope overlaps). Payment terms. Timeline. The specific line items of what's included. This is the quote you act on if you want to proceed.
Methodology Appendix
How the discovery was conducted, what assumptions were made, what was not accessed or reviewed. Every scored estimate is explained. A fictional worked example (clearly labeled) shows what a complete report looks like so you can calibrate expectations before reading your own.
Nothing in this report obligates you to hire us. The analysis stands on its own. You can take the report, the ROI math, and the recommended stack to any developer or agency in the world. We'd rather lose the build than have you sign a contract without understanding what you're buying.
Who this audit is for — and who it's not for
Honest about the cases where the audit delivers clear value and the ones where it probably doesn't.
- San Diego small business with 1–50 employees and at least one repeating manual process eating 3+ hours a week
- Restaurant owner missing calls during service and not sure whether a voice AI makes financial sense
- Business currently paying $480–$1,120/month or more for VA or offshore task workers
- Medical or dental practice paying for Weave, NexHealth, or OpenDental but manually moving data between them
- Owner or operator who wants to see the math before committing to a build
- Business that has been burned by a vendor lock-in and wants to own what gets built
- Company where the founder or GM is the buyer — not a procurement committee
- Looking for a free discovery call — we don't do unpaid audits. The audit fee filters out inquiries that aren't serious.
- Larger enterprise with an IT department, procurement process, or SOC 2 requirements — we don't have the compliance infrastructure for that work yet
- Business where automation would require access to HIPAA-covered clinical records — hard stop, no exceptions
- Expecting a build quote without doing an audit first — we don't quote builds without one
- Looking for the cheapest option — the audit is $1,500 because it's a serious engagement, not a sales call
- Business with fewer than 3 repeated manual processes — the ROI math probably won't close at our build prices
- Needs a result in under 2 weeks total — audit + build takes 4–6 weeks minimum
If you're unsure whether you fit, send one sentence about what you're trying to fix: ethan@baxter.solutions. I'll tell you directly if the audit makes sense before you pay for it.
No free audits. That's a feature, not a limitation.
Every automation agency offers a free "strategy call." Ours costs $1,500. Here's why that's in your interest too.
Three audits. Pick the right one.
The standard audit works for most situations. The vertical audits go deeper when the problem is already identified.
- 90-minute discovery call (Zoom or in-person)
- 5–7 day async deep-dive
- Top 3–5 opportunities ranked by ROI
- Difficulty score per opportunity
- Named stack recommendation
- Fixed build quote included
- Review of your VA task list / job post
- Every task classified: automatable / human / hybrid
- 12-month TCO comparison
- 10–15 page report
- 90-minute report walkthrough call
- Build estimate included
- On-site preferred (SD local advantage)
- Call-volume and missed-call analysis
- POS integration map (Toast / Square / OpenTable)
- Voice AI call-flow design
- Staffing & workflow ROI breakdown
- Build estimate included
Book your audit.
See the math first.
Fill out the form — I'll reply within 1 business day to confirm the type of audit, answer any questions, and send a deposit invoice. The discovery call gets scheduled once the deposit clears.
- ethan@baxter.solutions
- San Diego, CA — on-site discovery available
- 1 business day reply · Discovery call within 5 days of deposit
Calendar booking coming soon. Email gets a same-business-day reply.
Book an Audit
Reply within 1 business day. Deposit invoice sent on confirmation.
Questions about the audit
Nothing formal. Come ready to describe your operations as they exist today — what software you use, who does what, what's eating the most time. If you can bring rough estimates on a few specific numbers (calls per week, invoices per month, VA hours per task), that helps the ROI math. But I'll prompt you for the specific data points during the call — you don't need to prepare a deck.
Yes. San Diego local — on-site discovery is available and preferred for restaurant audits. Walking through a restaurant during a slow period gives better data than a Zoom call. For the restaurant vertical audit specifically, on-site is the default. For other audit types, Zoom is standard but in-person is available if you prefer it.
Then that's what the report says. The audit is not a sales funnel — it's an honest analysis. If the ROI math doesn't close (the problem isn't big enough, or the workflow is genuinely too complex for the budget), I'll say that clearly in the report. The $1,500 is for the analysis, not for a recommendation to buy a build. That outcome is rarer than you'd expect — most businesses with 3+ repeating manual processes have at least one workflow worth building — but it happens and you deserve a straight answer when it does.
No. The audit is a separate engagement with a separate deliverable — a written report and build quote. The build is priced at $7,500 because that's the market-grounded floor for a credible BYOK build (AutomateNexus charges the same amount). Crediting the audit against the build would undermine the pricing logic that protects both parties. The audit is the mechanism that makes the fixed-price build possible — it's doing real work, and it's priced accordingly.
Yes. The report is yours — you paid for it. Share it with whoever needs to see the ROI math. That's exactly how it's designed to work: a written document you can hand to a skeptic, not a verbal pitch you have to reconstruct from notes.
The standard Operations Audit is horizontal — it maps across all your operations and surfaces the highest-ROI opportunities wherever they are. The vertical audits go deeper into one specific problem: the Offshore-Replacement Audit maps a VA task list task-by-task against automation difficulty and returns a 12-month cost comparison. The Restaurant Operations Audit maps your inbound call flow against your POS and designs the specific voice AI system for your location.
Use the vertical audits when you already know the problem is in one of those two areas. Use the standard audit when you're not sure where the highest-value opportunity is, or when you want a full operations picture before committing to a specific direction.
No. The reason is practical, not curt: a free intro call turns into a sales call, and a sales call produces no useful output for either of us. What I can do instead: answer a specific question about whether the audit fits your situation over email. Send one sentence about your problem to ethan@baxter.solutions — I'll reply with a direct answer about whether the audit makes sense before you pay.