Wellborn Ascent: analyst rigor on a full P&L
Everything before this page was marketing a business. This is running one on data. Reporting directly to ownership with no middle management, I built an AI-enabled operations system that replaced four roles and cut $120K in annual payroll, automated the daily close for real-time P&L visibility, query 60K+ transactions a month in SQL to surface margin leaks, raised brand compliance audits from 62% to 99%, and grew the highest-margin in-store foodservice line 87%. The recruiter translation: I do what marketing ops does (systems, data integrity, automation, reporting) at whole-business stakes.
An operations layer instead of an org layer
Own P&L visibility across all three locations by automating the daily close: ownership now sees transaction accuracy and cash variance by employee in real time instead of in a week-old spreadsheet. Underneath it, I query 60K+ monthly transactions in SQL to surface margin leaks and over/short variances by location and employee. It's the same margin-leak analysis a marketing analyst runs on campaign waste, pointed at a whole business.
The automation layer replaced management instead of assisting it. An AI-enabled operations system built on Claude API, Zapier, Make and browser automation, fronted by a Slack interface where 14 staff and ownership trigger workflows in natural language, took over scheduling (4 hours weekly with recurring conflicts → 10 minutes, zero errors), payroll (2 hours with OT mistakes → 10 minutes, zero timecard disputes), bank reconciliation (fully automated, 20 hours a week recovered, 100% discrepancy accountability with full audit trail), and daily reporting (2 hours per location → 15 minutes across all three, with over/short auto-flagged to the responsible employee). Net effect: three management roles and a reconciliation assistant replaced, $120K a year in payroll removed, and I monitor the production workflows daily, iterating logic to hold 99% reliability across scheduled runs.
Forecasting and growth ride on top. A demand-forecasting model triggers inventory orders days in advance: zero stockouts even through a regional supply shortage, and no short-load or split-delivery penalties on minimum-volume orders. A pricing engine recommends retail adjustments off real-time cost movement. And the marketing instinct still pays rent: menu redesign, staff upsell training and promotional activation grew the highest-margin in-store foodservice line from $800 to $1,500 in daily revenue, an 87% lift, while brand compliance audit scores went from a 62% average to 99% across every location, recovering every point previously lost to minor warnings.
Lead weekly and monthly business reviews with ownership, turning performance data into pricing, staffing and expansion calls. Three locations went from operational disarray to fully systemized inside the first quarter.
Time reclaimed weekly, by workflow
Business outcomes
Why this matters for a marketing ops / analyst seat
Strip the retail context away and the role is a marketing operations job description: own the systems (automation platform, data pipeline, reporting layer), guarantee data integrity (reconciliation with full audit trail, variance accountability), run the analytics (SQL on 60K+ rows monthly, forecasting models), and translate it for stakeholders (weekly and monthly business reviews driving pricing, staffing and expansion decisions). The difference is that here, a broken workflow doesn't dent a dashboard; it stops payroll. Operating at that stakes level, alone, reporting to ownership, is the strongest evidence I have that I can be trusted with a revenue team's operational backbone.
Full metric table
| Metric | Result | Measurement basis |
|---|---|---|
| Annual payroll automated | $120K | 3 management roles + 1 reconciliation role replaced |
| Reconciliation labor | 20 hrs/wk → 0 | Claude API workflow, 100% of transactions, full audit trail |
| Scheduling | 4 hrs → 10 min/wk | Zero conflicts across 14 staff |
| Payroll processing | 2 hrs → 10 min/wk | Zero timecard disputes |
| Daily reporting | 2 hrs/location → 15 min total | Over/short auto-flagged by employee |
| Transactions analyzed | 60K+/mo | SQL: margin leaks, variance by location/employee |
| Inventory forecasting | 0 stockouts | Including a regional supply shortage; no penalty fees |
| Compliance audits | 62% → 99% | All locations, brand audit program |
| Foodservice line | $800 → $1,500/day (+87%) | Menu redesign, staff training, promotional activation |
| Automation reliability | 99% | Scheduled production runs, monitored daily |