Client: PurrMacka - a charity project and cat coworking space in Belgrade helping homeless cats.
Situation
Staff and volunteers come to the shelter twice a day. During every shift they need to record the animals’ condition: food, health, behavior, medical notes, household tasks, supplies, and what needs to be done next. Before the project, all of this lived in ordinary Telegram chat messages.
That setup quickly became hard to manage. Data was unstructured, important details disappeared in the message stream, admins could not see the overall state of the shelter, and workers had no reliable way to hand tasks over between shifts.
Solution
The initial request was to build an AI assistant that would collect reports from Telegram. After discussing the workflow with the client, we recommended not using AI. The problem was not text generation - it was data structure, easy input, clear statuses, and operational visibility.
Instead, we built an Airtable-based system with forms, tables, dashboards, and automations. It fits the client’s budget and the way the shelter team actually works.
Result
Workers now create shift reports through structured forms. Admins can track the shelter through tables and dashboards covering animals, shifts, tasks, supplies, and medical events.
We also built workflows for medical staff: checkups, vaccinations, cat documents, and observation history. The system includes automated duty calendars and a task handoff process between shifts.
The result is cheaper and more robust than an AI layer: no complex custom development, no token costs, and no need to reconstruct structured data from chaotic chat messages after the fact.