Business Process Mapper + API/Automation Engineer (n8n, QuickBooks, Gmail/Drive)

ABOUT US We're a lean, family-run B2B steel-supply business in Houston. We source steel from mills, distributors, and fabricators, add our margin, and deliver to construction and mechanical-contractor customers. We still do plenty of straightforward sourcing-and-resale of standard material (stock lengths, 20-footers, and the like), but where we're really headed is working the material itself — cutting, threading, fabrication, and other value-added processing. That higher-value, hands-on work is what we want to specialize in, and freeing the team from manual paperwork is how we get there. Twelve years in, running at roughly a seven-figure pace on a two-desk operation that's still held together by email and a physical stack of paper. Every quote, purchase order, delivery ticket, and invoice is built by hand today. Here's the unusual part: we are NOT starting from zero. We've already built an automation layer underneath the business — n8n orchestration in the cloud, an AI agent with live QuickBooks + Gmail + Google Drive access, automatic email labeling, an email-to-database ingestion pipeline, and AI document extraction off PDFs. The infrastructure works. The problem is adoption — the team still lives in email and paper because the systems haven't yet been shaped into something faster and easier than their current habits. Usability, not capability, is our constraint. WHAT WE NEED One person who can do two things that usually take two people: 1) Sit with us, interview us, and document how the business actually runs — current-state process maps, SOPs, bottleneck analysis, and a current-state to future-state view. We recently lost a key team member who owned several steps in our order flow, so a number of handoffs need to be re-mapped against the current team. We've already gathered a lot of internal context on how the business runs — you'd build on what we hand you, not start from a blank page. 2) Use credentialed access to our QuickBooks and Gmail to analyze our real data — and verify, harden, and extend the integration layer that carries it. The data analysis is central, not a side task: getting into the live QuickBooks (invoices, bills, estimates) and our Gmail history is what gives the clarity to map our processes accurately — real volumes, real order flows, and where things actually break. Along the way you'll confirm our Google Drive, Gmail, and QuickBooks Online connections are sound, fix what's brittle, and extend coverage where the map shows it's worth it. n8n experience is strongly preferred because that's where our orchestration lives. This is a BUILD-ON-TOP engagement, not greenfield. The reward for the right person is a business that genuinely wants to adopt what gets built — we just need someone to close the gap between "it works" and "it's actually used." SCOPE & MILESTONES (fixed-scope, milestone-based — not hourly) We'll refine these with you before kickoff. MILESTONE 1 — Process Discovery & Documentation - Working sessions / interviews with the owner and operations lead to map the full order lifecycle (quote request, vendor shopping, customer quote, order confirmation, vendor PO, pickup/delivery/delivery-ticket, vendor bill, customer invoice, payment). - Build on the internal context and current-state operations overview we'll share with you — don't restart from scratch. - Deliverables: current-state process maps (visual), step-level SOPs for each stage, a bottleneck analysis ranked by time/risk, and a current-state to future-state gap view. Documentation delivered as clean Markdown so it lives in our existing workspace. MILESTONE 2 — Data Access, API Audit & Integration Hardening - Use the credentialed access to pull and analyze real QuickBooks and Gmail data — this is NOT just a security pass; the data is the raw material that makes the M1 process map accurate (real volumes, real order flows, real exceptions). - Audit the existing n8n workflows and the QuickBooks / Gmail / Google Drive connections for reliability, auth health, error handling, and failure modes. - Document what each integration does today, what's brittle, and what's missing. - Fix the high-value defects surfaced (auth/token drift, silent failures, data-quality bugs in ingestion). - Deliverables: an integration audit document (per-connection: purpose, status, risks), a prioritized fix list, and the fixes themselves for the agreed-upon high-value items. MILESTONE 3 — Prioritized Automation Roadmap - Combine the process map (M1) with the data + integration reality (M2) into a ranked automation opportunity matrix — big wins and quick wins, each scored on impact vs. effort, sequenced. - Anchor every recommendation in the documented bottlenecks, not generic best practice. - Deliverables: a prioritized roadmap document with clear "build this next, here's why, here's the rough effort" sequencing. We're open to splitting, merging, or re-sequencing these. If you think the data/API work should come before the full process map, make the case in your proposal. REQUIRED SKILLS - Business-process documentation / business analysis — you can interview non-technical operators, extract how work actually happens, and turn it into clean process maps and SOPs. - n8n — hands-on experience building and debugging workflows. - API integration — real experience with third-party APIs, OAuth flows, webhooks, and auth/token management. - Gmail API / Google Workspace, and Google Drive API. - QuickBooks Online API — querying and writing invoices, bills, estimates, items. - Data analysis — comfortable pulling and making sense of real financial and email data to inform decisions. - MCP / AI-agent tooling — familiarity with Model Context Protocol or comparable AI-agent/tool-calling setups. - Comfort handling sensitive financial data — discretion and care are non-negotiable. - Clear written communication — deliverables are documents that must be readable by non-engineers. NICE-TO-HAVES - Steel, construction, manufacturing, or B2B distribution / wholesale domain experience. - Experience improving adoption of already-built tools (change management for small teams). - AI document-extraction / OCR pipeline experience. - Airtable. - Experience documenting in Markdown and working inside structured documentation systems. CONFIDENTIALITY & DATA SENSITIVITY (please read before applying) This engagement touches LIVE business data — our QuickBooks accounting, Gmail, and Google Drive. - An NDA is required before any access is granted. - For the internal process mapping, you'll need to ask about — and document — specific vendors and customers. That's expected and fine; real names can live in the internal deliverables. - The hard rule is about documents that leave the building. On any customer-facing or vendor-facing document (purchase orders, certifications, anything shared externally), certain source relationships must stay confidential. That boundary is margin protection, not a preference — it's non-negotiable, and any process you help design has to preserve it. - You'll be working with real financial records. Care, discretion, and good data hygiene are part of the job. ENGAGEMENT DETAILS - Type: Fixed-scope project, milestone-based (not hourly). - Budget: $1,000–$4,000 for the full project, paid by milestone (split agreed at kickoff). - Start: This week — we're ready to move now. First session within days of selection. - Access: Direct API credentials to QuickBooks, Gmail, Google Drive, and n8n, granted after a signed NDA. - Working style: remote, with periodic working/interview sessions with the owner and operations lead. - This is a defined project to start. We're a growing operation actively building out our automation, so there's strong potential for continued work with the right person — but we're hiring for this scope first. PLEASE ANSWER IN YOUR PROPOSAL (VIDEO IS PREFERRED) 1) Audit experience: A big part of this role is auditing an automation/integration setup we've already built — finding what's brittle, what's missing, and what to fix. Tell us about a time you audited a client's existing system or integrations: what did you assess, what did you find, and what did the deliverable look like? If you can share a sample (redacted), even better. 2) Process discovery: You'll have live access to our QuickBooks and Gmail plus interviews with our team. How would you use the data alongside the interviews to map how the business actually runs? Share one hidden step or exception you've uncovered on past work. 3) Adoption: We have working automation our team isn't using — because it's not yet easier than their old habits. How would you figure out why, and how do you close that gap? 4) Confidentiality: This role touches live financial and email data. How have you handled sensitive client data and confidentiality boundaries on past engagements? 5) (Optional) Domain: Any experience with steel, construction, manufacturing, or B2B distribution?