Summit and Shark

Imagine having to pay $30-50k a year to get data from software you're already paying for.

The Problem

Perk Planning faced two separate bottlenecks that were eating up over an hour per client in their reporting process:

Challenge 1: Holdings Report Formatting

• Manual formatting of holdings reports from financial planning software data
• Time-consuming copy-paste and restructuring for each client presentation
• Inconsistent formatting across different reports

Challenge 2: PDF Data Extraction

• Financial planning software had poor reporting capabilities out of the box
• No proper sync with Google Sheets for custom analysis
• Enterprise data access solution quoted at $30-50k annually
• Manual data entry from PDF reports was tedious and error-prone

The Solution

Build two custom automation solutions to eliminate both pain points and create a seamless client reporting workflow - all without expensive enterprise software.

Action

Phase 1: Holdings Report Automation

• Created custom Google Sheets formulas and scripts for automated report formatting
• Built data validation and transformation logic
• Established consistent, professional report templates
• Simple workflow: paste raw data → automated formatting creates final report

Phase 2: PDF Data Extraction

• Built AI application that identifies and extracts key fields from PDF reports
• Created automated pipeline to send extracted data directly to Google Sheets
• Avoided the $30-50k enterprise solution entirely

Result

$30-50k

Annual savings vs enterprise solution

1+ Hour

Saved per client across both workflows

• Avoided $30-50k annual enterprise solution costs
• Saved 1+ hour per client across both workflows
• Automation of holdings report formatting and PDF data extraction
• Data flows seamlessly into Google Sheets in exact format needed

What Perk Planning Says

"Working with Michael has been a game-changer for Perk Planning. He has helped us streamline our systems using programming and AI. His work has reduced manual data entry and organization time by over an hour per client — a huge efficiency gain for our team. Michael is incredibly responsive, quick to solve any issues, and consistently delivers high-quality work. It has been an excellent experience from the start, and we highly recommend him to any business looking to improve their operations."

Zach H.

Partner at Perk Planning

Technical Approach

Key Technologies:

• Google Sheets API
• Apps Script
• LLM-powered PDF Extraction
• Python
• Workflow Orchestration

Perk Planning Automation Suite