Business process automation examples, organized by the calendar they fire on.
Every top SERP article sorts BPA examples by department. HR, Finance, Sales, Customer Service. A solo consultant does not have departments. They have
This page lists 23 automations a consulting business actually runs, grouped by when they fire. Each one is a single schedule: line in a markdown ritual file Clone reads.
What the top results all do.
Run the search. Open the first 5 articles. Every one of them is a taxonomy sorted by department. A typical list looks like this:
The department-sorted view assumes a company with departments. A 40-person company with an HR team, a Finance team, and a Sales team. In solo consulting, all of those departments are one person: you. The department axis does not produce a useful to-do list. What produces a useful to-do list is the calendar. Monday demands Monday's automation; Friday demands Friday's. April 15 demands a different one from October 3.
The one line that turns an automation into a calendar entry.
Clone stores rituals as markdown files under ~/.clone/memory/rituals/. Every file can declare a cadence with a single field: schedule:. Change the value on that line and the whole automation reshapes around the new cadence. No visual builder, no re-auth, no migration. Below is a real invoicing ritual, with the schedule field at the top.
anchor fact
A single schedule: line is the whole cadence. Grep across ~/.clone/memory/rituals/*.md and you get your operating calendar for the year, one row per automation.
The whole year, five cadences.
Plus seven event-triggered rituals (SOW signed, discovery call ended, milestone accepted, engagement closing, referral window, ghosted prospect, AR over 30 days). That is 0 automations in a solo consulting operating calendar.
The orbit of one consulting business
Five cadences revolve around Clone. Every automation belongs to exactly one of them.
Weekly rituals (4)
The week is the primary unit of a consulting business. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday each carry one ritual. Wednesday is deliberately empty (reserved for undisturbed execution on client work).
Monday 08:00 invoice drafts
schedule: monday 08:00memory/rituals/invoicing.md
Read Timely hours since last Monday, open whichever invoicing app is in apps_this_month for each client, save invoice drafts, post the links to chat for review.
Tuesday deep-work shield
schedule: tuesday 09:00memory/rituals/deep-work.md
Set Slack to Do Not Disturb until 12:00, auto-reply on non-retainer email with a link to Calendly, surface only retainer blockers from HubSpot in chat.
Thursday scope-creep sweep
schedule: thursday 14:00memory/rituals/scope-creep.md
Scan the week's client emails for asks not in the SOW, draft a change-order note per client ('Great idea. Outside scope. Want me to write it up?'), queue as Gmail drafts.
Friday 16:00 status roll-up
schedule: friday 16:00memory/rituals/status.md
For every HubSpot deal marked Active, summarize the week into shipped, next, decisions needed, draft one Gmail per contact_email on the deal, save as draft.
What a typical consulting week looks like, running on Clone
- 1
Monday
08:00 invoice drafts fire. 8 engagement invoices staged before breakfast.
- 2
Tuesday
09:00 deep-work shield. No notifications until noon.
- 3
Wednesday
Trigger-based only. No scheduled rituals. Reserved for client execution.
- 4
Thursday
14:00 scope-creep sweep. Change-order drafts queued.
- 5
Friday
16:00 status roll-up. One email per active deal, staged.
Monthly rituals (4)
These fire on specific day-of-month anchors. Day 1 is for the clean slate (bookkeeping). Day 3 for pipeline review. Day 28 for retainer recaps so the client receives it before month-end. Overdue-invoice chase runs on an AR-age trigger rather than a fixed day.
First-of-month bookkeeping pass
schedule: monthly day_1 09:00memory/rituals/books.md
Open QuickBooks or Xero, categorize the last month of bank transactions against the project tags in the rates map, flag any line item over $500 with no memo.
Net+7, Net+14, Net+21 invoice chase
schedule: monthly overdue_invoicesmemory/rituals/ar-chase.md
Pull every invoice marked sent but unpaid, bucket by 7/14/21 days old, draft one Gmail per bucket in the right tone (reminder, firmer reminder, let us hop on a call).
Pipeline hygiene review
schedule: monthly day_3 10:00memory/rituals/pipeline.md
Walk every HubSpot deal in the pipeline, flag any deal with no activity in 14 days, draft a re-engagement note for each, update close-date on anything that slipped.
Monthly retainer recap
schedule: monthly day_28 15:00memory/rituals/retainer-recap.md
For each retainer client, compile the month's Loom links, runbooks, and HubSpot notes into a PDF, draft the monthly retainer email that attaches it.
Quarterly rituals (4)
Aligned to the IRS estimated-tax schedule: April 15, June 15, September 15, January 15. Quarterly is also when you review rates, health-check past clients, and log skill hours. Four dates per quarter, one ritual per date.
Estimated tax envelope
schedule: quarterly [apr 15, jun 15, sep 15, jan 15]memory/rituals/tax-estimated.md
Sum last quarter's revenue in QuickBooks, set aside 27% into the tax-reserve sub-account, draft the Form 1040-ES voucher, remind to pay EFTPS by the 15th.
Rate-review flagger
schedule: quarterly day_1memory/rituals/rate-review.md
If booked-hours-per-week averaged above 25 for the quarter, draft a rate-increase note for new-client proposals, bump the default rate in rituals/invoicing.md by 10 to 20 percent.
Past-client health check
schedule: quarterly day_5memory/rituals/health-check.md
Pull every closed engagement from the last 12 months, draft a one-line 'how is everything running' email per client, log response rate for referral tracking.
Skill-development ledger
schedule: quarterly day_10memory/rituals/skills.md
Scan calendar for course hours, conference days, and certifications completed, draft a learning summary for the year-end review, flag gaps against the niche.
Annual rituals (4)
Year-end and tax-season anchors. Schedule C prep, insurance renewal, board-wide rate bump, business review. These are the ones most consultants run ad-hoc from memory and then forget to run. Clone scheduling removes the memory dependency.
Schedule C (or 1120-S) prep
schedule: annually [feb 15]memory/rituals/tax-filing.md
Export the full-year P&L from QuickBooks, categorize anything uncategorized, draft the CPA handoff email with the 12 attachments, queue a Calendly for the filing call.
E&O insurance renewal
schedule: annually [60_days_before_renewal]memory/rituals/insurance.md
Pull last year's E&O policy, get 3 quotes via email drafts to the named brokers, diff coverage vs. last year, draft the renewal decision memo.
Board-rate bump across proposal templates
schedule: annually [jan 2]memory/rituals/rate-bump.md
Open every proposal template, raise rates 10 to 15 percent, update rituals/invoicing.md rates map, draft a year-end note to retainer clients explaining the adjustment.
Year-end business review
schedule: annually [dec 28]memory/rituals/year-end.md
Compile revenue, profit margin, client satisfaction NPS from closeout emails, and personal-satisfaction score from time logs, draft the next-year strategy memo.
Event-triggered rituals (7)
Not every automation belongs on a clock. These seven fire when a specific event shows up: PandaDoc signature, discovery call ended, milestone accepted, engagement closing, the 14-day referral window after closeout, a prospect who has gone 14 days without replying, or an invoice crossing the 30-day unpaid line.
SOW signed in PandaDoc
trigger: pandadoc_signed (SOW)memory/rituals/kickoff.md
Clone a Drive template folder, draft the onboarding email with 6 specific credential asks, queue a Calendly kickoff invite, staged for review.
Discovery call ended
trigger: after_discovery_callmemory/rituals/follow-ups.md
Read the Drive notes, extract prospect's exact pain quote verbatim, draft Gmail follow-up leading with that sentence, attach the one-pager.
Milestone accepted
trigger: milestone_signoffmemory/rituals/milestone.md
Trigger the next invoice from rituals/invoicing.md, draft the 'next phase kickoff' note, update the SOW tracker row, log estimated hours vs. actual.
Engagement closing
trigger: engagement_closingmemory/rituals/closeout.md
Compile deliverables into a final Drive folder, draft final invoice in the client's current app, draft closeout email, testimonial request, Calendly wrap call.
Referral request window
trigger: 14_days_after_closeoutmemory/rituals/referral.md
If client replied 'great work' in the closeout thread, draft a specific referral ask naming two client profiles that would benefit, staged for review.
Prospect ghosted
trigger: no_reply_14dmemory/rituals/ghosted.md
For any prospect with no reply in 14 days after proposal send, draft the soft-close note ('Not sure if timing is right, happy to reconnect later'), queue as draft.
Unpaid over Net+30
trigger: ar_over_30dmemory/rituals/ar-escalate.md
For any invoice unpaid 30+ days, draft a phone-call script, draft a firm email, log in the collection sub-tab of the HubSpot deal, escalate on day 45.
What happens when the schedule fires.
Each ritual moves through the same six stages. The schedule line kicks it off, the Planner reads the matching file, the Computer Agent opens whatever app is on screen, the output is always a staged draft, and the last gate is a human.
one ritual, six stages
schedule line
monday 08:00 in the ritual markdown file
clone planner
reads the matching ritual file, unpacks actions
computer agent
opens whichever app is mapped in apps_this_month
app screen
QuickBooks, Sheets, Clio, Airtable — whatever is there
gmail draft
invoices saved as drafts, link posted to chat
human approval
type 'send them all' in chat to fire
Zoomed in: Monday 08:00 from the operator's chair.
Five actors, seven messages, seven minutes wall-clock. By 08:07 there are 8 invoice drafts posted to your chat for review.
monday 08:00 invoicing ritual
“Monday used to eat my morning. Now the drafts are waiting when I sit down. I review, adjust, send. It took 10 minutes to write the ritual file.”
Early Clone operator, solo consulting
Apps a typical week's rituals touch.
These are not integrations in the API sense. Clone's Computer Agent drives whichever of these is on screen. No API key required, nothing to migrate. When a client switches from QuickBooks to FreshBooks, one line in apps_this_month changes.
QuickBooks Desktop
Monday invoice drafts, year-end P&L
Google Sheets
Invoice templates, rate maps
Clio
Legal billing tab, matter invoicing
Timely
Source of billable hours for Monday
Gmail
Every output is a draft, never auto-sent
Google Drive
Client folders, one-pager attachments
Calendly
Kickoff invites, closeout wrap calls
HubSpot
Source of truth for active deals
PandaDoc
SOW signature trigger for kickoff
Airtable
Custom invoicing base per client
Mercury
Bank categorization, tax-reserve sub-account
FreshBooks
Fallback invoicing app, mapped per client
“The useful part is seeing my whole year in one folder. When I moved from October to November I changed three schedule lines and my business knew what to do differently.”
Bring one recurring moment. Leave with a schedule line.
Pick any recurring moment in your consulting calendar, Monday invoicing, Friday status, quarterly tax envelope, engagement closeout. On a 30-minute call we write the markdown ritual live, set the schedule line, and watch Clone draft the first real artifacts on your Mac.
Book a 30-minute callPick a calendar slot. We pick a ritual that fires in it.
Twenty minutes together. Tell us when your week breaks; we show the example ritual that plugs into that slot and runs before you get to it.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between a schedule and a trigger in Clone?
A schedule is a time. A trigger is an event. schedule: monday 08:00 fires every Monday. trigger: pandadoc_signed fires whenever PandaDoc reports a new SOW signature. You can combine them in one ritual (e.g. a weekly check that also fires on manual trigger). Both are one line in the markdown file.
Why not organize BPA examples by department like every other article?
Because a solo consultant does not have departments. The operator is also HR, Finance, Sales, and Customer Service. The thing that changes in your day is not which department you are in, but what time it is. Monday 08:00 demands one automation; Thursday 14:00 demands another. Calendar is the real axis.
Where do the 23 examples come from?
From the consulting business workflow our own team runs. Phase 4 of our internal doc lists the weekly rhythm (4 rituals). Phase 6 lists monthly (4), quarterly with tax dates Apr 15 / Jun 15 / Sep 15 / Jan 15 (4), and annual (4). Phase 3 and 5 list trigger-based (7). That adds to 23.
What happens if two rituals are scheduled for the same time?
Clone runs them in the order they are written in ~/.clone/memory/rituals/. If two rituals target the same file (e.g. both try to open QuickBooks), the Computer Agent serializes them so the first one finishes before the second starts. You see the order in the chat timeline.
How do I edit a schedule?
Open the markdown file in any text editor. Change one line. Save. The next run picks up the new cadence. No UI, no re-deploy, no re-auth. Git diff shows the one-line change. This is the whole point of storing automation configuration as markdown.
Can a ritual run without a schedule or trigger?
Yes. Rituals can be manual, invoked from chat with 'run rituals/xyz'. This is useful for one-off processes you have not fully trusted yet. Once the pattern is stable, add the schedule line and the ritual runs itself going forward.
Does Clone actually send the emails or invoices?
No. Every output is staged as a draft. Gmail drafts, QuickBooks invoice drafts, Calendly invites queued but not sent. A human approval step is required. The safety model is that Clone drafts, you fire.
What happens if I miss a scheduled run (laptop was closed)?
Clone catches up on the next run. Missed Monday invoices get drafted Tuesday morning when you open the laptop, with a note in chat that the run was 24 hours late. Nothing is lost. Triggers fire whenever the event shows up, regardless of when it happened.
How does Clone compare to Zapier or Make for these BPA examples?
Zapier and Make require configuring triggers and branches inside a vendor UI. Each example becomes a visual workflow you cannot grep, diff, or edit in a text editor. Clone takes plain English instructions and drives the app screen you already open; the schedule is a markdown line you edit directly.
Can I share these rituals across a small team?
Yes. ~/.clone/memory/rituals/ is just a folder of markdown files. Put it in a private git repo, clone it on each teammate's laptop. When you change acme from QuickBooks to FreshBooks, one git commit updates everyone. Clone reads whatever is on disk.
23 BPA examples, one calendar, a single ritual folder you can grep. $49/mo, 21-day trial.
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