Automating Energy Efficiency Grant Assessments for Grant Advisory Teams with AI

Client Overview
The client is an Australian firm providing grant advisory services to businesses seeking funding for energy efficiency and innovation projects. Their consultants guide clients through complex eligibility requirements, ensuring compliance while maximising access to available grants.

The Challenge
Managing the Energy Efficiency Grant (EEG) assessment process required substantial manual work, including validating invoices, checking eligibility criteria, and chasing client documentation.

This effort consumed between 5–20 hours per week, created risk of inconsistency or error, and diverted consultants from high-value advisory work. Left unaddressed, these inefficiencies threatened to slow response times for applicants and limit the firm’s capacity to scale support for the growing EEG programme.

The Solution
Sync Stream developed EEG Flow, an AI-powered automation system hosted on the client’s infrastructure. The solution consists of two automated workflows and a reporting dashboard designed to reduce manual workload, improve accuracy, and ensure compliance with grant requirements.

Key capabilities include:

• Automated extraction of invoices from emails and cloud storage.
• Validation of document type, entity details, and spending categories against EEG criteria.
• Automated eligibility checks with clear logging and follow-up requests for client clarifications.
• Daily reminder workflow to track outstanding client actions and escalate as needed.
• Reporting dashboard for monitoring workflow execution, sent emails, and processed invoices.

By automating routine processing and follow-ups, EEG Flow improves accuracy, speeds up applicant support, and establishes a scalable framework for future grant automation.

Results
Ongoing benefits include:

• Reduction of manual processing by 5–20 hours per week.
• Improved compliance and accuracy in financial assessments.
• Faster, more consistent responses to client submissions.
• Freed consultant capacity for higher-value advisory work.

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