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An HVAC owner spent hours with Claude trying to automate 3-4 hours a day of data entry, and still got stuck

An honest 'not yet' story: the AI chat helped, but wiring Housecall Pro to his forms needed a real automation build.

Real storyDone with Claude, Gemini, Make.com
TradesHVAC

What they did

The owner of a small HVAC company in New York, planning to expand into other states, said he'd been going back and forth with Claude (despite paying for Gemini through Google Workspace) to set up automations, but was still struggling to get everything working.

How it went

Commenters said the biggest win was automating the 3-4 hours a day of copying Housecall Pro data into Excel templates, but the hard part is matching each utility or government form exactly. They suggested Make or n8n for that, plus a twice-daily email digest. They warned that having an AI read conversations and auto-create calendar appointments needs careful prompts.

Worth knowing

Chatting with AI about automation isn't the same as building it. Pick the single biggest time sink, map every field once, and get a builder or a no-code tool to run it.

Try it yourself

You are an automation planner for a small HVAC company who writes specs a builder can follow. TASK: Turn my daily data-entry chore into a clear automation spec. CONTEXT (fill in the [BRACKETS]): - SOURCE: [SOURCE] (example: Housecall Pro jobs) - DESTINATION: [DESTINATION] (example: utility rebate Excel template) - FIELDS TO MOVE: [FIELDS TO MOVE] (example: customer, address, equipment model, AHRI number, install date, price) - HOW OFTEN: [HOW OFTEN] (example: every completed install) - TIME IT TAKES NOW: [TIME IT TAKES NOW] (example: 3-4 hours a day) STEPS: 1. Write a field-mapping table: source field to destination cell. 2. List the data that's often missing or messy, and what to do about it. 3. Write the trigger, steps and output in plain English. 4. List 5 test cases before going live. RULES: - Use only the facts I give you. If something is missing, ask or mark it NEEDED. Never invent prices, names or promises. - Plain, friendly language a customer or crew member understands. OUTPUT FORMAT: Mapping table, data issues, plain-English spec, tests. FOLLOW-UPS TO TRY NEXT: - Write the job post to hire a Make/n8n builder for this. - Estimate the hours saved per month at my labor rate.
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Want help getting this working? Rise Systems in Oconomowoc sets these up.

Read the original

Source: Reddit r/Make · 2026 (see post)

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