InsightsAutomation · 1 min read
The notebook, the WhatsApp thread and the spreadsheet three people edit at once. Where the hours go, and where to start taking them back.
Bookings written in a notebook. Invoices typed out in WhatsApp, one at a time. Stock counted by hand on a Saturday. The same customer’s details entered in three places, and one of them always wrong.
None of that is a technology problem. It is an hours problem, and they are the kind of hours that never show up in the accounts, because they belong to the owner.
Start with how the work actually moves
Not how it is supposed to move. Follow one order, one booking or one invoice from the moment it starts to the moment it is paid, and write down every time someone copies something from one place to another. Those copies are where the time goes, and where the mistakes come from.
What software should be doing
- The form that fills in the record, instead of someone retyping it
- The invoice that sends itself when the job is marked done
- The reminder that goes out without anyone remembering to send it
- The record that exists in one place instead of four
What it should not be doing
Replacing the parts of your business that depend on judgement or on a relationship. Automation takes the copying away so people can do the part only people can do.
That is why we begin every automation project with an audit. It is paid work, because it is where the thinking happens, and at the end you know exactly what is worth automating and what is not.