Why this matters
Every small firm has a job that eats a morning every week or month: the invoice chase, the client report, the onboarding checklist. Everyone agrees it should be automated, but nobody has written down the real steps, and the exceptions are where automations break.
Screenpipe records your screen and audio on your own computer and makes that history searchable. Instead of interviewing people or guessing, you capture a few real runs, ask an AI for the step list with a timestamp on every step, check it, and only then decide what to automate.
Practice
Do every step yourself in a practice copy of the real tool. It checks your work, and “Do it for me” finishes any step you get stuck on.
What you’ll build
You help Priya Shah, office manager at Alder & Finch Bookkeeping, a made-up firm that chases about 24 overdue invoices by hand every month-end.
You set the privacy rules (an ignored window for online banking and AI PII removal), check the capture on the Timeline, search for "past due", ask the Home chat for the current process with timestamps, check one cited step, rank the steps with Screenpipe's own prioritization prompt, and save a manual discovery task to repeat next month.
What you need
- Nothing to start the practiceThe lesson is a practice copy built from Screenpipe's docs. Alder & Finch, its clients and invoices are made up.
- Screenpipe, to do it for realThe desktop app runs on macOS, Windows 10/11 and Linux. Screenpipe lists Free, Basic, Business and Enterprise plans; it is source-available under the Screenpipe Commercial License, and commercial use needs a paid license, so check the plans first.
- Agreement from the people being recordedScreenpipe's workflow discovery guide says to tell participants what is recorded and why, who can review it, how long it is kept and how to pause it, and never to use it for covert monitoring.
- An AI modelScreenpipe's chat can use its own cloud, your own API key, or a local model such as Ollama. With a cloud model, the selected context leaves your computer.
Concepts
Local by default, but not always
Screenpipe stores screen frames, audio, transcripts and the search index on your computer by default. Cloud transcription, cloud AI, sync and connected apps send data off the device when you turn them on.
For client data, keep transcription local, pick a local model, leave sync off, add the banking and payroll windows to the ignored list, and pause recording for sensitive work.
Check the source before you trust the answer
Search is keyword search, so short words that appear on screen work best. Before asking the AI anything, open the Timeline for the time window and make sure the work was captured.
Ask for a timestamp on every step, then open one or two of them. Treat "missing evidence" as a gap to fill, not an error to skip.
Automate the stable, reversible part
Good first candidates repeat often, have a clear result, are easy to check and can be undone. Judgment calls, disputes and payments stay with a person.
A suggested automation is a guess until you test it. Build the smallest version (drafts, not sends) in n8n, Make or Zapier and measure the review time.
Do it for real
Now repeat it in your own account. Tick each step as you go.
Quick check
3 questions to check you’ve got it.
1. What should you do before recording a coworker's work?
- Nothing, it stays on the computer
- Tell them what is recorded, why, who sees it, how long it is kept and how to pause it
- Record first and ask later
Show the answer
Tell them what is recorded, why, who sees it, how long it is kept and how to pause it. Screenpipe's own discovery guide says discovery must be transparent and never covert monitoring.
2. The AI gives you a confident step list. What next?
- Build the automation straight away
- Open a cited timestamp on the Timeline to check it
- Ask it again until it agrees
Show the answer
Open a cited timestamp on the Timeline to check it. A confident answer is not proof. Timestamps let you check each claim against what was on screen.
3. Which step of the invoice chase is the best first automation?
- Handling a disputed invoice
- Phoning clients 60+ days late
- Building the overdue list and logging the Chased on date
Show the answer
Building the overdue list and logging the Chased on date. Those steps repeat, have a clear result, are easy to check and can be undone. Disputes and calls need judgment.