Scaleforte
Business Operations Audit
Prepared for Daniel Cho, Scaleforte. 2026-05-12.
1. Executive summary
3
Sessions
5
Stages mapped
10
Pain points
8
Optimisations
$198,900
Opportunity value
65 hrs/wk
Recoverable time
9
Proposed changes
$184,000
Value unlocked
Across three sessions we mapped how Scaleforte delivers PPC and catalogue work today. The operation is strong but a large share of senior time goes to manual assembly: bid changes, reporting, research and listing drafting. We quantified ten sources of recoverable time worth $198,900 a year and roughly 65 hours a week. The blueprint recovers an estimated $184,000 a year, sequenced so the fastest payback ships first.
Opportunity by area
Pain points by area
2. Process map
Stage 1. Acquisition
From inbound lead to signed client.
- Lead intake. Inbound arrives by email, referral or the site form and lands in a shared inbox.
- Manual prospect audit (pain point). An analyst pulls the prospect's Amazon data by hand and builds an audit deck for the pitch.
- Proposal and scope. Daniel reviews the audit, sets scope and pricing, and sends the proposal.
Stage 2. Onboarding
Standing up a new Amazon client.
- Access and data collection (pain point). Ava chases advertising and Seller Central access and brand assets over email and Slack.
- Baseline and account setup. The team records a performance baseline and sets up tracking sheets per client.
- Kickoff. Daniel and Ava run the kickoff call and confirm goals.
Stage 3. PPC management
The weekly advertising delivery loop.
- Bid and budget adjustments (pain point). Analysts review every campaign and adjust bids and budgets account by account in the Ads console.
- Search term harvesting. Sam exports search term reports and mines new keywords and negatives by hand.
- Performance check and flags. Priya reviews ACOS and TACOS and decides which accounts need attention.
Stage 4. Catalogue optimization
Listing and content delivery.
- Keyword and competitor research (pain point). Marcus runs research per catalogue in Helium 10 and assembles it into a brief.
- Listing copy and A plus content (pain point). Marcus drafts titles, bullets and A plus content from a blank doc each time.
- Catalogue health checks. Someone manually scans for suppressed listings and buy box loss across clients.
Stage 5. Reporting and billing
Client reporting, retention and month end.
- Weekly client reports (pain point). Each analyst rebuilds a report per client by copying numbers into a slide template.
- Status updates and inbox triage (pain point). Ava keeps clients updated across email and Slack and chases internal answers.
- Spend reconciliation for invoicing (pain point). At month end ad spend is reconciled across accounts and passed to Xero.
3. Findings
Pain points
| ID | Title | Area | Severity |
|---|---|---|---|
| PP-001 | Bid and budget changes are fully manual across every account | PPC Management | HIGH |
| PP-002 | Weekly client reports are rebuilt by hand per client | Reporting & Billing | HIGH |
| PP-003 | Search term harvesting is manual pattern work | PPC Management | MEDIUM |
| PP-004 | Listing copy is written from scratch every time | Catalogue Optimization | HIGH |
| PP-005 | Catalogue research repeats the same steps per client | Catalogue Optimization | MEDIUM |
| PP-006 | Onboarding stalls waiting on access and assets | Onboarding | MEDIUM |
| PP-007 | Client status updates are ad hoc and time consuming | Reporting & Billing | MEDIUM |
| PP-008 | Spend reconciliation before invoicing is error prone | Reporting & Billing | MEDIUM |
| PP-009 | Catalogue health is monitored manually | Catalogue Optimization | MEDIUM |
| PP-010 | Every proposal is a from scratch audit | Acquisition | HIGH |
Optimisations
| ID | Title | Area | Severity |
|---|---|---|---|
| OPT-001 | Rules driven bid and budget assistant | PPC Management | HIGH |
| OPT-002 | One click client reporting | Reporting & Billing | HIGH |
| OPT-003 | Automated search term harvesting | PPC Management | MEDIUM |
| OPT-004 | Listing content generation scaffold | Catalogue Optimization | HIGH |
| OPT-005 | Reusable research workflow | Catalogue Optimization | MEDIUM |
| OPT-006 | Structured onboarding intake | Onboarding | MEDIUM |
| OPT-007 | Unified client workspace | Reporting & Billing | MEDIUM |
| OPT-008 | Catalogue health monitor | Catalogue Optimization | MEDIUM |
4. Opportunity analysis
Annual Cost = Weekly Hours x People Affected x Hourly Rate x 52
| ID | Opportunity | Area | Hrs/wk | People | Rate | Annual |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| W-001 | Manual bid and budget adjustments | PPC Management | 12 | 2 | $50 | $62,400 |
| W-002 | Building weekly client reports by hand | Reporting & Billing | 8 | 2 | $45 | $37,440 |
| W-003 | Search term harvesting and negatives | PPC Management | 6 | 1 | $45 | $14,040 |
| W-004 | Listing copy and A plus content from scratch | Catalogue Optimization | 9 | 1 | $40 | $18,720 |
| W-005 | Keyword and competitor research per catalogue | Catalogue Optimization | 5 | 1 | $40 | $10,400 |
| W-006 | Onboarding data collection and access chase | Onboarding | 4 | 1 | $42 | $8,736 |
| W-007 | Reconciling ad spend for invoicing | Reporting & Billing | 3.5 | 1 | $38 | $6,916 |
| W-008 | Client status updates and inbox triage | Reporting & Billing | 7 | 1 | $42 | $15,288 |
| W-009 | Catalogue health and suppression monitoring | Catalogue Optimization | 4.5 | 1 | $40 | $9,360 |
| W-010 | Manual prospect audits and proposal building | Acquisition | 6 | 1 | $50 | $15,600 |
| Total | 65 | $198,900 | ||||
5. Solutions
S-001 AI bid and budget copilot
$55,000/year, payback 5 mo
A copilot that reads live campaign data and proposes bid and budget moves for an analyst to approve in seconds instead of hours.
Solves PP-001, PP-003. Removes W-001, W-003.
S-002 Automated client reporting
$34,000/year, payback 3.5 mo
Generate the weekly client report straight from account data, branded and ready to send.
Solves PP-002. Removes W-002, W-007.
S-003 Listing content generation plugin
$22,000/year, payback 4 mo
Draft titles, bullets and A plus content from the research brief in the team's flow, ready to refine.
Solves PP-004. Removes W-004.
S-004 Keyword and competitor research assistant
$14,000/year, payback 4 mo
A repeatable assistant that runs the research routine and outputs a standard brief per catalogue.
Solves PP-005. Removes W-005.
S-005 Onboarding intake and access automation
$9,000/year, payback 6 mo
A guided intake that collects access and assets and tracks what is outstanding automatically.
Solves PP-006. Removes W-006.
S-006 Search term harvesting automation
$12,000/year, payback 4.5 mo
Scheduled mining of keywords and negatives with a short review queue.
Solves PP-003. Removes W-003.
S-007 Unified client workspace and status hub
$16,000/year, payback 9 mo
One place per client for status, deliverables and updates, replacing the scattered threads.
Solves PP-007, PP-008. Removes W-008.
S-008 Catalogue health monitor
$8,000/year, payback 5 mo
Automatic alerts on suppressed listings and buy box loss across clients.
Solves PP-009. Removes W-009.
S-009 Prospect audit and proposal builder
$14,000/year, payback 5 mo
Pull prospect data and assemble the audit and proposal draft in minutes instead of hours.
Solves PP-010. Removes W-010.
Next step is a working session to walk this through together and lock the first sprint.