STRATEGY, DATA & PRACTICAL AI · FINANCE-LED BUSINESSES

Behind every better decision,
there is clearer work.

Unwrapped helps owner-led businesses improve reporting, make sense of their data, and decide where AI earns its place. Start with a focused audit: five priority workflows, a measured plan, and the assumptions in view.

Read the audit briefExplore your model →
FIXED-SCOPE AUDIT
$7,500
DELIVERY WINDOW¹
5 business days
WORKING OUTPUTS
5 deliverables
¹ FROM KICKOFF WITH AGREED INPUTS READY · TWO SCHEDULED CALL HOURS, PLUS INPUT PREPARATION · IMPLEMENTATION SCOPED SEPARATELY
THE INSTRUMENT

Five deliverables. Five days. $7,500, fixed.

A ranked, costed plan for one business unit and its five priority workflows. A kickoff, asynchronous analysis and a readout. Two scheduled call hours, plus your team’s input preparation and factual review.

01
AI Tool Stack Audit
Tools supporting the agreed workflows, reviewed for overlap, gaps, ownership and useful changes.
02
Process Leverage Map
Your top five workflows, ranked by friction, effort, and dollar return. The document your team prioritizes against.
03
90-Day Roadmap
Sequenced priorities, owners, estimated effort and acceptance checks. Timing depends on access, complexity and capacity.
04
Two Agentic Designs
Trigger logic, proposed tools, human handoffs and exception handling. Designs for review; production build and testing are separate.
05
Working ROI Model
Your process costs, stated assumptions, sensitivity grid. Arithmetic your CFO can interrogate.
AFTER
Either path works
Execute independently — the audit is built for it. Or implement together from $5,500/month, with half the audit fee credited once to the first retainer month if you start within 30 days. Starter and Core retainers have a three-month minimum.
PAYMENT: 50% AT START, 50% AT DELIVERY · MUTUAL NDA BEFORE KICKOFF, INCLUDING AI-PROCESSING RESTRICTIONS ON YOUR DATA · THE 5-DAY CLOCK STARTS AT KICKOFF WITH AGREED INPUTS READY
THE PRACTICE · FOUR CAPABILITY LANES

A working library. Applied to your operation.

Existing design patterns provide a starting point. Each engagement still requires discovery, an agreed scope, and validation against your systems. The audit establishes the right priorities.

THE PRACTICE PAGES →M&AData & AnalyticsForecastingChange Management
DESIGN NAMES ARE PUBLIC; THE METHODS ARE NOT. RETURN BANDS AND CHECKPOINT ARCHITECTURE ARRIVE WITH THE AUDIT — OR IN THE DILIGENCE READ, IF YOU'RE MID-DEAL.
THE INSTRUMENT PANEL
SAMPLE MODEL — YOUR NUMBERS COMPUTE IN THE AUDIT

The analytics arrive looking like this.

Not dashboards for their own sake — numbered exhibits, each answering one question a CFO actually asks, each tracing to a model cell. Below: the sample company's month, decomposed.

FIG. 1Where the month goes
Hours per month across the top five workflows — before automation.
Reporting pack22h
Reconciliation15h
AR follow-ups10h
Board & lender prep8h
Expense triage6h
FIG. 2The same five, ranked by dollars
Illustrative annual capacity value: hours × $75 × 12 × 65%.
Reporting pack$12,870/yr
Reconciliation$8,775/yr
AR follow-ups$5,850/yr
Board & lender prep$4,680/yr
Expense triage$3,510/yr
FIG. 3The arithmetic, assembled
Each workflow stacks into the year. The total is capacity value, before implementation costs.
+13K
+9K
+6K
+5K
+4K
$35,685
FIG. 4How a scorecard can look
Illustrative baseline and target pairs. These are not client results.
CLOSE
9 → 4
DAYS
REPORTING PACK
15h → 45m
PER CYCLE
FORECAST ROUNDS
3 → 1
PER CYCLE
ILLUSTRATIVE EXHIBITS, NOT CLIENT RESULTS · FIGS. 1–3: 61 MONTHLY HOURS × $75/HOUR × 12 × 65% RECOVERY = $35,685 ANNUAL CAPACITY VALUE · FIG. 4: EXAMPLE TARGETS ONLY · CAPACITY VALUE EXCLUDES IMPLEMENTATION COSTS AND IS NOT CASH SAVINGS
YOUR MODEL · ASSUMPTIONS IN VIEW

What would recovered time make possible?

Start with a workflow you know. Estimate its recoverable capacity, then add documented expense changes to explore a separate cash case.

Capacity assumptions

The 65% starting value is an illustrative assumption. Include review, exceptions, and maintenance in your estimate.

Add a cash scenario

Use expense reductions you can act on. Do not enter the capacity value above as cash savings.

Zero is a starting input, not a cost estimate.

Modeled capacity value / year
$14,040
Recovered hours / month
15.6

Time available for other work. This value does not mean payroll expense falls or cash is saved.

Monthly net cash change
$0
Upfront audit + implementation
$7,500
Simple cash payback
No positive cash payback
First-year net cash, after upfront cost
-$7,500

Cash model assumes constant monthly savings and costs from month one. It excludes tax, financing, ramp time, and the time value of money.

How to read this model →
CAPACITY = MONTHLY HOURS × RECOVERY SHARE × HOURLY COST × 12 · CASH PAYBACK = ($7,500 AUDIT + BUILD COST) ÷ POSITIVE MONTHLY NET CASH · ESTIMATES, NOT GUARANTEED RESULTS
FIELD NOTES · HOW THE WORK IS APPROACHED

The method, in the open.

Practical notes on reliable reporting, honest business cases, and useful AI. Each is a method you can inspect before a conversation.

METHOD NOTE · 01

A reporting pack is only as good as its definitions.

Five checks before you automate the monthly story.

Read the note METHOD NOTE · 02

An hour recovered is a choice. Cash saved is a transaction.

How to read an automation business case without counting the same benefit twice.

Read the note METHOD NOTE · 03

Put the human review where a mistake would matter.

A practical starting point for designing useful AI workflows.

Read the note
THE OPERATOR

Senior judgment.
Direct involvement.

My background spans strategy consulting, finance, and data and analytics. I manage a Data and Analytics practice and work directly on the analysis, systems and decisions behind business performance.

Intelligence Unleashed LLC is my parent company, with seven portfolio brands at different stages of development. That work provides a practical place to test ideas. Internal work, illustrative models and verified client results are identified separately.

Paul Mattson Founder · Unwrapped

HOW THE ENGAGEMENT RUNS

  • Direct work with Paul from discovery to readout
  • Agreed scope and written acceptance criteria
  • Assumptions, exceptions and sources in view
  • Specialist involvement agreed before it begins
Discuss your workflow →
PAUL MATTSON · LANCASTER, SC / CHARLOTTE REGION · REMOTE ENGAGEMENTS

THE LETTER · FIELD NOTES BY PAUL MATTSON

One useful finding.
The assumptions included.

Reporting, data and the practical work of making a business run better. Signed, dated and written to be used.