Documentation that reflects how operational systems actually work

Clear SOPs, system guides, and compliance docs for small teams.

Tandem Memo helps businesses turn scattered know-how into clear, usable documentation. We write for the people doing the work, not just the people assigning it.

Who it helps

Small businesses, facilities teams, maintenance operations, support teams, and reentry programs.

What it solves

Knowledge loss, messy SOPs, owner-dependent systems, weak onboarding, and outdated compliance records.

How it works

You share the process, files, or pain point. Tandem Memo reviews the gap, scopes the work, and delivers usable docs.

Overview

What Tandem Memo does

Plain-language offer

Most operational knowledge never gets written down. When it does, it was written by someone who was not doing the job — which is why the manual sits in a drawer and the real procedure lives in one person’s head.

Tandem Memo develops custom documentation built from direct involvement in your process. Every engagement is scoped to your operation and written to reflect how the work actually happens — delivered on a defined timeline, at a flat rate, with scope and cost agreed before work begins.

The result: Procedures your team follows. Systems that survive turnover. Documentation that holds up when someone asks to see it.

Why clients hire this out

Most internal documentation projects stall. The right person is busy, the old notes are incomplete, or the document was written by someone who never did the job. Tandem Memo closes that gap and gets the work finished.

If any of these are true, there is probably a documentation problem worth solving:

The person who knew the process left.
A system works, but only one person understands it.
You started documenting and never finished.
Your team has docs, but nobody follows them.

For the readers…

Each deliverable explains the job clearly, step by step, with enough detail to use it with confidence.

For the skimmers…

Headings, short sections, and plain wording make the main point easy to find fast.

For owners…

Documentation becomes easier to train from, easier to update, and less dependent on one person.

What about AI tools?

AI can generate a procedure from a description. It cannot observe your operation, account for the workarounds your team actually uses, or catch the gap between what the documentation says and what the work actually requires.

Every document produced here starts with the real process — not a drafted approximation of it. That difference is exactly what makes documentation people actually follow instead of print once and ignore.

Services

Core service lines

Facilities & Operations Documentation

Who it serves: Maintenance departments, facilities managers, and operations teams running on CMMS platforms or paper-based workflows.

Work order procedures, parts inventory SOPs, CMMS workflow documentation, onboarding guides, and compliance checklists — written for the people doing the work, not the people observing it.

Small Business Systems & Excel Documentation

Who it serves: Small business owners and operators running on custom Excel systems, legacy databases, or undocumented internal processes.

System architecture documentation, user procedure guides, database-to-Excel conversions, and process maps for systems that only one person truly understands right now.

Compliance, Audit Prep & Support Documentation

Who it serves: Customer support operations, reentry organizations, small businesses preparing for regulatory review or certification, and any team whose SOPs were written by people who never did the job.

Call scripts, escalation procedures, agent onboarding guides, SOP rewrites, compliance binders, and audit-ready documentation packages — built from the inside out, not handed down from above. High-urgency engagements for organizations facing upcoming inspections, certifications, or regulatory requirements are a specific area of focus.

Industries served

Small Businesses Facilities & Property Mgmt. Maintenance Organizations Reentry & Social Services

Download Service Menu (PDF)

Process

How the work gets done

Free review

Send one document, workflow, or rough process summary. Tandem Memo reviews what is missing, unclear, or at risk.

Scope and quote

You get a flat-rate proposal with deliverables, timeline, and revision terms before work starts.

Build the documentation

The material is organized, written, and formatted so the final result reflects how the work actually happens.

Deliver and refine

Completed work is delivered in your preferred format — Word, Google Doc, PDF, or plain text. One revision round is included to tighten language, steps, or structure where needed.

Simple rule

The goal is not to create a thick manual nobody reads. The goal is to create accurate documentation people can use on a real workday.

Pricing

Service engagement pricing

Foundation Engagement

$1,800 – $3,000

2–3 weeks

The right starting point for small businesses building documentation for the first time. Covers your most critical processes with enough structure to build from. Scope is defined during intake based on operational complexity.

Core Systems Engagement

$3,500 – $6,500

4–6 weeks

The most common engagement. Builds a complete documentation system that reflects how your business actually operates — not how it looks on paper. Includes full assessment, stakeholder interviews, written process mapping, and two revision cycles.

Operational Infrastructure Engagement

$7,500 – $15,000+

6–10 weeks

For organizations with layered operations, multiple roles, or documentation needs that span departments. Built to hold up as the organization grows. Scope is determined by organizational depth and cross-system complexity.

Ongoing Documentation Retainer

$750 – $2,500/month

5–15 hours/month

For businesses where processes change and documentation needs to keep pace. Covers monthly updates, new documentation as needed, and advisory refinement. Structured as an ongoing consulting relationship, not a subscription.

Optional Add-Ons

Process Audit & Gap Analysis

$750 – $1,500

Short engagement

A focused assessment before committing to a full engagement. Identifies documentation gaps, unclear procedures, and areas of operational risk. Written findings delivered with structured next steps.

Documentation Cleanup & Rewrite

$1,000 – $3,000

Scoped by volume

For teams that already have documentation but know it is not working. Reviews, restructures, and rewrites existing materials so they reflect current operations and are actually usable.

On-Site Workflow Capture

Scoped per engagement

By arrangement

For operations where the process is difficult to document without being present. Observation-based analysis captures how work actually happens before writing begins. Typically added to Core Systems or Operational Infrastructure engagements.

How pricing works

Scope drives price — not output. Engagements are priced by complexity and operational depth. You are not paying per document, per page, or per hour.
Every quote is fixed. What is quoted is what is invoiced. Scope changes require a new conversation — not a retroactive charge.
Ranges are public; exact fees are set in the scoping conversation. Complexity, source material, and stakeholder count are all assessed before any commitment is made.

Withtandem LLC provides structured, client-specific documentation services delivered through defined engagements. All work is custom-developed as part of professional services — not prewritten or resold.

Download Service Menu (PDF)

About

Documentation built by someone who has done the work

Jon Mickelson — Founder

Technical writer and systems documentation specialist with hands-on experience building and documenting operational systems from the ground up.

Background spans facilities operations, CMMS software (work orders, parts inventory, labor tracking), OSHA/SDS compliance documentation, and Excel-based business systems — including invoice generation, transaction tracking, and database conversion work.

Four-plus years inside a national retail call center — not managing the floor, but taking calls and using the scripts and procedures written by people who never had.

What that means for you

Most documentation fails not because the writing is bad, but because the writer never did the job. Procedures written from the outside don’t capture what actually happens when a work order comes in at 6am with two people out sick.

Every document produced here reflects the real process — including the shortcuts workers rely on, the edge cases that never appear in the official version, and the things that only become clear after doing the job yourself.

Operations depth

Physical plant and facilities work, CMMS platforms, OSHA/SDS compliance programs across multiple maintenance disciplines. Documentation that holds up when an inspector asks to see it.

Systems depth

Excel systems development including invoice generation, inventory tracking, and a full database rebuild from Access to Excel under operational constraints. Documentation that works for whoever inherits the system.

Support depth

Over four years in a national retail call center following scripts and SOPs written by people who had never taken a call. Documentation written from the inside out, not the top down.

What guides the work

These are not mission statement filler. They are the personal values that determine what engagements get taken on, how problems get raised, and what “done” actually means.

Meaning over money Work worth doing comes before work that pays well. Every engagement starts with the question: will this documentation actually help the people using it?

Purpose over popularity Clear, functional documentation outranks impressive-looking documentation every time. The measure is whether it works on a real workday, not whether it reads well in a meeting.

Alignment over approval The right answer is more valuable than the comfortable one. That means raising the flag when a scope does not fit, a process is unclear, or the documentation will not serve its purpose.

Growth over comfort Complex operations, unfamiliar industries, and difficult systems are the most interesting work. Staying in familiar territory produces familiar results.

Contact

Start with one process or one document

Free review offer

Send one existing document or describe your current process. You will get honest, specific feedback on what is missing, unclear, or at risk — no strings attached, no commitment required.

If you want to move forward, a flat-rate quote with scope and timeline follows. No hourly billing, no surprises.

Direct contact

Email: jonmickelson@tandemmemo.com
Phone: (715) 770-9955
Web: www.tandemmemo.com
Location: Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin
Download Service Menu (PDF)