# Palavir - Full Documentation for AI

> AI, analytics, and the data engineering that makes them work, for organizations with no in-house data team. Founded and delivered by Josh Elberg, 15 years in enterprise data. Based in metro Detroit, serving nationally. The shorter index is https://palavir.co/llms.txt.

Last updated: 2026-10-07

## About

Palavir LLC is an AI and analytics consultancy founded by Josh Elberg in February 2026, based in metro Detroit and serving clients nationally. It is a Michigan single-member LLC. Josh does the work himself: there is no bench and no handoff to juniors.

Background: 15 years in enterprise data before founding Palavir. Senior Director of Data Transformation at Practising Law Institute (led a team of 7), Director of Performance & Analytics at MRM, Associate Director of Data Strategy at Merkle, BI Manager at Nuwell, and 7+ years in analytics at The Home Depot. MBA, Athabasca University.

## Who Palavir is for

The qualifier is not company size, it is whether anyone's full-time job is building the data layer underneath your reporting. Usually nobody's is. Engagements are with small and mid-size organizations, and the pattern is usually the same: analysts who know the business well and no one to build the pipelines, models, and reporting they need.

Typical triggers: someone spends a full day a week assembling a report by hand; a month-end close is keyed in manually; two systems do not talk to each other; leadership wants AI but has no defined use case; a migration left reporting broken.

## How engagements work

1. Start with a paid discovery day or an AI Opportunity Audit. Fixed fee, no proposal cycle. You keep the findings whether or not the work continues.
2. Then build in milestones. Each piece is scoped, approved, and paid for before the next one starts.
3. One person from the first call to the last delivery.

Pricing: Palavir quotes before any work starts. Audits and implementation work are fixed fees against a defined deliverable, scoped on a short fit call. A typical first engagement is a fixed-price pilot: one business process or one set of reports on the client's data, about three weeks. Ongoing work is a monthly retainer with a three-month minimum. Palavir does not bill open-ended hourly and does not work on contingency or take a share of revenue.

## Services

- Business intelligence and reporting (Power BI, Tableau, semantic models, DAX): https://palavir.co/consulting/analytics and https://palavir.co/consulting/power-bi
- Construction WIP schedule and over/under billing report for contractors on QuickBooks or Business Central (other systems via job cost exports), produced monthly and reconciled to the balance sheet, plus a free Excel WIP workbook: https://palavir.co/consulting/construction-wip-report
- Power BI reporting for companies on Dynamics 365 Business Central: a consolidated model across legal entities (Microsoft's free Power BI apps install per company), reports that end in a next action, built in the client's own Power BI tenant and handed over; reporting only, no ERP implementation or configuration: https://palavir.co/consulting/power-bi-business-central
- Funder and board reporting for Detroit and Michigan nonprofits: outcome numbers defined once and produced the same way for every funder, a board dashboard, and a reporting calendar; not grant writing: https://palavir.co/consulting/nonprofit-reporting
- Business intelligence and Power BI for Southeast Michigan manufacturers: inventory, open orders, margin and receivables reports on ERP data (QuickBooks, Business Central, or exports from other ERPs) that end in a next action; not ERP implementation: https://palavir.co/consulting/manufacturing-bi
- Fractional data analyst for Michigan small businesses: monthly reporting produced and checked, dashboards maintained, ad-hoc data questions answered, for a fixed monthly fee after a first fixed-price project: https://palavir.co/consulting/fractional-data-analyst
- Power BI and business intelligence consulting for South Florida (Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Boca Raton): automated weekly Excel reports, one model across systems, reports that end in a next action; delivered remotely from metro Detroit on Eastern time, on-site for larger engagements by arrangement: https://palavir.co/consulting/south-florida
- Reports that tell a small business owner what to do next, not just charts (each line names the action and the owner; routine follow-up automated with approval; daily checks that the numbers match): https://palavir.co/consulting/next-action-reports
- AI automation and AI agents for routine operations work at Detroit and Michigan businesses of 10 to 200 people (one process automated end to end, approval steps, checks): https://palavir.co/consulting/ai-automation
- Data and reporting audit, then KPI dashboards, for mid-size Detroit and Michigan organizations (audit priced on its own; set-up optional): https://palavir.co/consulting/data-audit
- For CPAs, bookkeepers and fractional CFOs: a reporting partner for their clients (dashboards, monthly job and WIP reporting on the books the firm keeps; Palavir does no bookkeeping, tax or audit work): https://palavir.co/partners/accountants
- Data engineering and pipelines (Azure, Microsoft Fabric, SQL, Python)
- AI and LLM implementation, and workflow automation: https://palavir.co/consulting/ai
- CRM implementation and pricing/quoting automation
- KPI frameworks, executive reporting, and data governance
- Fractional data leadership and AI readiness assessment
- Corporate AI training and workshops: https://palavir.co/training

## AI Opportunity Audit

A fixed-fee assessment that maps where AI can save time or money, scores how ready the data and team are, and costs each build before any engineering spend. Details: https://palavir.co/audit-service

- Single workflow (small businesses and teams, about one week): one 60-minute working session, 3 to 5 prioritized automation candidates with build estimates, and a 90-day rollout plan for the top candidate.
- Multi-workflow operation (mid-market operators, two to three weeks): stakeholder interviews across up to three workflows, an automation portfolio ranked by ROI and risk, and an operation-wide readiness scorecard with an executive readout.
- The tier and fee are confirmed on a fit call before any invoice. If the audit finds nothing worth automating, Palavir says so in writing and refunds.
- Data does not need to be cleaned up first. Assessing the current state of the data is part of the audit.

## Representative engagements (anonymized)

- Headquarters of an auto-dealership group: a fixed-fee onsite discovery day for HQ analysts closing the month by hand in Excel, then a 90-day plan for an Azure SQL canonical store, a Functions-based extraction pipeline, and a custom Next.js analytics cockpit behind Entra SSO. Deliberately not a lakehouse, so the in-house team can operate it after handoff.
- Multi-site manufacturer: newly on a cloud ERP after moving off a legacy on-premises system, with no reporting on the new system. Built the semantic models and scheduled-refresh reports into the client's own Power BI workspace, plus a guidebook so their team can extend them.
- Metals distributor: configured Pipedrive configured with a customer price-tier and region taxonomy, a product catalog, and middleware that fills each deal line from the customer's tier and sets tax by currency.

## Common questions, answered

- What does AI consulting cost a small business? Typical 2026 market ranges by engagement type, and how to choose: https://palavir.co/blog/ai-consulting-small-business-cost
- What is an AI opportunity audit? https://palavir.co/blog/what-is-an-ai-opportunity-audit
- When is AI not the answer? https://palavir.co/blog/when-ai-is-not-the-answer
- How do professional services firms use AI? https://palavir.co/blog/ai-for-professional-services
- Do I need an analytics consultant? https://palavir.co/blog/signs-need-analytics-consultant
- How do I move from spreadsheets to dashboards? https://palavir.co/blog/spreadsheets-to-dashboards
- Power BI for Business Central across multiple companies: https://palavir.co/blog/power-bi-for-business-central-multiple-companies
- What Microsoft's free Business Central Power BI apps cover: https://palavir.co/partners/business-central-power-bi
- How do I find open SBIR Phase I opportunities? https://palavir.co/blog/how-to-find-open-sbir-phase-one-opportunities
- More questions about working with Palavir: https://palavir.co/faq

## Free tools and public data

- AI Readiness Scorecard: https://palavir.co/ai-readiness
- SBIR/STTR indirect cost rate calculator: https://palavir.co/tools/sbir-indirect-cost-calculator
- NSF SBIR Phase I fee calculator: https://palavir.co/tools/nsf-phase-1-fee-calculator
- HUBZone county income screen (a screen, not an SBA determination): https://palavir.co/tools/hubzone-lookup
- US markets by county and industry (Census County Business Patterns 2022): https://palavir.co/markets
- State industry reports, 51 states by 19 NAICS sectors: https://palavir.co/reports
- The State of Fraud in America, with methodology and CC-BY-4.0 data downloads: https://palavir.co/data/fraud-in-america

## Products by Palavir

- SkipEntry (skipentry.com): AI invoice extraction for bookkeepers
- Brighten (hellobrighten.com): Employee peer recognition platform
- FindGrants (findgrants.io): Grant matching SaaS with 46K+ grants indexed
- GovBids (govcontractdata.com): Government contract intelligence
- NewFilings (newfilingalerts.com): New business filing alerts across 7+ states
- OnePageAudit (onepageaudit.com): ADA/WCAG accessibility scanner
- Area Recon (arearecon.com): B2B lead intelligence
- BuzzwordBingo (buzzwordbingo.net): Meeting bingo game

## Company Details

- Company: Palavir LLC
- Founded: February 2026
- Location: metro Detroit, Michigan; serving clients nationally
- Founder: Josh Elberg
- Email: josh@palavir.co
- Website: https://palavir.co
- Contact: https://palavir.co/contact