Client: Kona Ice (mobile food service/food trucks)
Location: Utica and Macomb County, Michigan, USA
Use Case: Michigan Department of Agriculture & Rural Development STFU notification forms (PDFs)
Industry: Mobile Food Service (Food Service Licensing forms)
Product Type: AI Form Filler, AI Document Automation
Features Used: PDF Batch Fill
Annual Volume: 250+ event permits per season
Start Date: May 2025
Overview
Kona Ice of Utica is a mobile shaved-ice vendor serving 250+ events each season across Macomb County, Michigan. As a licensed Special Transitory Food Unit (STFU), company policy and state law require submitting a Notification of Intent form at least four days before each even.
In practice, this meant manually duplicating and completing the same PDF form for every event. The team had to manually type event details (date, location, hours) into each form, answer several yes/no questions, etc. With staff working on-the-go from phones and tablets, manually filling almost 300 PDF forms per season became a major bottleneck. Kona Ice needed a faster, reliable, mobile-friendly way to batch-create these event permits without changing its existing processes.
Using AI form filler, they replaced one-by-one data entry with batch filling and now processed every MDARD STFU PDF in minutes.
The Challenge
Kona Ice handles dozens of events each season and must notify Michigan regulators 4+ business days before each event. Manually creating 250+ STFU permit PDFs per season was a massive time sink. Many fields (e.g., vendor name, address, license info) and event details (date, location, hours) repeat. In addition, the STFU form has checkboxes. Kona Ice crews use mobile phones/tablets, managing those checkboxes on a small screen was error-prone, and any mistake could mean missing the 4-day deadline. In peak season with tight logistics, the old workflow (copying data from a spreadsheet into individual PDFs) was simply too slow and risky. Any solution had to work seamlessly on mobile.
Instafill.ai Batch Filling Solution
Instafill.ai’s Batch Fill PDF feature was the perfect fit. Kona Ice simply maintained its event data in a spreadsheet, then uploaded the CSV to Instafill.ai. The AI automatically mapped each column to the corresponding form field. This meant all event-specific fields – start/end dates, operation site address, hours, local health department, license county (if applicable), etc. – were filled instantly per MDARD requirements. Instafill.ai also handled the checkbox logic automatically – it checked “Yes” or “No” for fields like “OK to Text?” and “Paid evaluation?” based on the spreadsheet data, just as a human would but with higher speed and accuracy.
Importantly, the entire process is mobile-friendly: Because Kona Ice’s team is always on the move, Instafill.ai’s mobile-first design was key. The staff could generate PDFs right from a phone or tablet and Instafill handles the rest.
- Batch-fill from a spreadsheet or PDF: Upload one CSV/Excel of events and Instafill.ai auto-generates a completed PDF for each row.
- Automated checkbox logic: The AI toggles every Yes/No box (e.g. “OK to Text?”, “Paid evaluation?”) correctly per event record (removing human error).
- High accuracy: Every event-specific field (address, dates, hours, local health jurisdiction, etc.) was populated quickly and precisely.
- Mobile-friendly: Staff completed the entire form-filling workflow on phones/tablets, turning the process into a mobile-friendly document filling.
The Result: Fast and Reliable PDF Document Automation
Instafill.ai transformed Kona Ice’s permitting workflow. After the STFU PDF form was fine-tuned, the AI filled every field with 100 % accuracy. A task that took dozens of hours now takes less than a minute per batch, giving the team a reliable, rapid way to meet Michigan’s four-business-day notice rule, without the usual stress.
| Stage | What was done | Time required | Accuracy after stage | Effort for Kona Ice |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| One-time AI model fine-tune | Instafill.ai team fine-tuned AI model for the form. | 1–2 business days (once) | ≥ 99 % field-level accuracy | Provide PDF form + data for batch filling |
| Full-season batch run | 250+ events from May-to-September 2025 | ≈ 25-30 minutes for all PDFs | 100 % after the fine‑tune | Review and email to health dept. |
| Manual method (for comparison) | ≈ 8 min/form | 40+ hours of entry | Dependent on user; prone to typos/errors | Each field manual filling |
What these numbers mean:
- Massive time savings: What used to take hours per event batch is now done in minutes.
- No recurring setup: Because the STFU form is now fine‑tuned, next season’s schedule is processed the same way – upload new .csv, .tsv, .xlsx, .xls, receive PDFs in minutes.
- Easier compliance: Dozens of event permits are completed swiftly, eliminating the risk of errors and late filings.
- Cost impact: 40 hours × ≈ $20/hr seasonal staff = ~$ 800 saved every season (labor only).
- Scalability: The same batch fill can be fine-tuned for other state or county permit PDFs.
With the fine‑tune complete, Kona Ice can handle hundreds of event permits each season by uploading a spreadsheet and letting Instafill.ai’s AI form‑filler output compliant PDFs in a single batch.
Conclusion
Kona Ice’s switch to Instafill.ai shows what a purpose-built AI form filler can deliver: a one-time, two-day model tune-up, 100 % field-level accuracy, and hundreds of STFU permits generated in minutes – straight from a phone. The result is less paperwork, no deadline anxiety, and more time serving customers.
If your team still copies data into PDF forms, whether food-truck notices, event licenses, or other regulatory documents, Instafill.ai can apply the same AI PDF automation to your workflow.
👉 Try Instafill.ai today and see how fast it takes over.
More Instafill.ai case studies: How a Hemp Farm Automated Compliance PDF Forms with Instafill.ai Document Filler