What manual data entry really costs you
The sum to do with your own company's numbers, the items almost everyone forgets, and a way to tell whether automating that work makes sense or not
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Where the hours you pay for every month are hiding
Guides written for the person who decides, not for the person who codes, with the things I'd usually explain to you on the phone
You can read them just to understand how things work, without writing to us
Working out whether it's worth it, before you lift a finger
You can do the sum on your own, and sometimes the answer is that it isn't worth it, that happens too
Which process is best to start from
You don't automate everything at once, you start with one, and choosing it well is half the result
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How long an automation takes to pay for itself
It's a division, you don't need a consultant to do it, you need to put the right numbers in
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Automation or a new hire, how to work out which one you need
Do the sums before you post a job ad, look at what the repetitive work you are about to hand to someone really costs you, how much of it can be automated, and the cases where a person is exactly what you need
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Why custom software costs so much
You are paying for a person's hours, not a finished product, and seeing that changes the way you buy it
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A monthly fee or software paid for once
They are two ways of splitting the risk, and it pays to know which way it falls before you sign
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Do I buy a ready-made program or get a custom automation
The ready-made program costs less and you have it tomorrow, the custom one does exactly what you do, and the choice isn't obvious
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What a value entered wrong costs you
Writing it correctly was ten seconds, putting it right is another story altogether
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How to measure how much time a job takes away
You need a number, not a feeling, and to get it you don't have to put a stopwatch in anybody's hand
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You don't need to automate everything
In almost every office two or three processes take the big slice of the time, the rest is noise
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What isn't worth automating, from someone who does it for a living
There are jobs where an automation is money thrown away, and we tell you before instead of after
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How to handle more work with the same staff
A method for working out which steps are eating your hours, which ones can be taken out of the way, and how much extra work you can carry with the people you already have
Read the guideThe words people use on you without explaining them
API, RPA, OCR, EDI, acronyms with simple things underneath
What an API is, and why your business software may not have one
If your vendor told you an API is needed and you nodded without understanding, this page is for you
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RPA, what it means when somebody says it to you
It's an acronym that goes round in presentations, underneath there's something simple
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Why the computer sometimes misreads a document
It isn't that the program is stupid, it's that a crooked scan is crooked for it too
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EDI, when your big customer asks you to speak their language
If a customer mentioned EDI to you and you pretended to know what it was, here's what it is
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Automation and artificial intelligence are not the same thing
One follows rules you decided, the other tries to work things out, and what your business software needs above all is the first
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Do I need artificial intelligence to automate the office
Almost never, and whoever puts it everywhere is probably selling you the word of the moment
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A PDF born on a computer or a scanned one, what difference it makes
They look the same on screen, for anything that has to read them automatically they are two different worlds
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The line items of an invoice inside a PDF, how to get them out
The totals are easy, it's the lines in the middle that give you the headache
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The e-invoice is already a tidy file, let's use it
The data is already in there written cleanly, if somebody is still retyping it something is wrong
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Direct integration or working through the screens, how to choose
There are two ways of making the programs you have in the company work together, here's what changes between them, when one is better and when the other is, and the questions to ask about your process before you decide
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Every month the file arrives with the columns moved
Same supplier, same file, and every time something has shifted
Read the guideAutomatic doesn't mean out of control
The right question isn't whether it can get something wrong, it's what happens when it doesn't understand
How you stop an automation from doing damage
The right question isn't whether it can get something wrong, it's what happens when it doesn't understand
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Does an automation get things wrong less often than a person
It gets them wrong in a different way, and that's the thing that really counts
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Assisted or autonomous automation, how to work out how much freedom to give the system
There are jobs an automation can close on its own, others where it's better for it to stop and ask a person to confirm, and the criteria for deciding which of the two your case is
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Where the automation runs, on an office computer or on a server
The two roads change the cost, the reliability and who has to keep the computer switched on
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Automation can work while the office is closed
Yes, and it's one of the reasons it's worth it, but not for every job
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What if the connection drops while the automation is working
It stops halfway, and the real question is what it finds when it starts again
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Which credentials does the automation use to get into the programs
It's a question you have to ask, and the answer belongs in the contract, not left as a spoken promise
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Where does my customer data end up
It's one of the first questions people ask, and it's right to ask it, the answer belongs in writing in the contract
Read the guideThe things somebody is doing by hand right now
If you recognize your own work in one of these, it's a good place to start
Recording supplier invoices without retyping them
It's the most repeated job there is in the back office, and it's the one where the checks count for most
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Orders arrive by email and somebody retypes them
Everyone sends them the way they like, some a PDF, some an Excel file, some write it in the body of the email
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How to enter the data from a PDF into your business software automatically
How reading an invoice or a delivery note (DDT) in PDF really works, which data can be pulled out, which checks you need so that wrong numbers don't end up on file, and where the method stops working
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How to move data from Excel into your business software without copying it by hand
You start from the file, put the checks in before saving and let an automated system fill in the screens, even if your business software offers no direct integration at all
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Every month somebody logs into the portals and downloads the same files
You log in, search, download, rename, save in the right folder, twenty times in a row
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How to automate the repetitive tasks you do in the browser
Logins, forms to fill in, documents to upload and receipts to download, which of these steps can be handed over to an automation, how it works underneath and when it isn't worth trying
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Two programs that say two different things
The business software says one thing, the spreadsheet says another, and every month somebody spends half a day working out which one is right
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Ordered, delivered, invoiced, and the three numbers don't match
That's where the margins go, quietly, one line at a time
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The bank statement and the cash journal, line by line
The entries are always the same ones, only the figures and the dates change
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The same client entered three times, spelled three ways
Nobody did it on purpose, it happened over ten years, and now the reports don't add up
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A new client has to go into three programs
The same data, three screens, and on the third somebody gets a digit of the VAT number wrong
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Two business systems that have to know the same things
One for production, one for accounting, and a person in the middle acting as the bridge
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Delivery notes arrive with the truck and end up in a pile
Then somebody, when there's time, books them in one by one, and meanwhile the stock in the system is wrong
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The supplier sends the new price list and it's two thousand lines
An Excel file turns up laid out his own way, and somebody has to get it in without getting a single price wrong
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The shared inbox where everything ends up
Orders, payment reminders, questions, attachments, and somebody sorting them by hand from first thing in the morning
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Renaming files according to the practice's rule
There's a rule, everybody knows it, and nobody follows it when things get busy
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The payment reminders go out from whoever remembers, so nobody sends them
The due dates are there, so is the list, all that's missing is the time to look at it
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The quote is always the same one, three numbers change
And you write ten of them to sell one, so nine are work nobody pays for
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The Monday morning report
Same steps, same copy and paste, same spreadsheet, every week for three years
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What work an accountant's practice can automate
Which of the practice's jobs can be handed to an automated system, which are better kept by hand, and how to tell in two minutes which of the two groups a process you run every week belongs to
Read the guideWhat you already have, and what to do with it
Old, closed, with no integrations, doesn't mean lost
How to automate your business software without replacing it
How automating a program you already use works, which jobs can be taken off people's hands, which are better left with them, and how to do the sums yourself to see whether it adds up
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How to automate a program that has no integrations
If your business software exposes no data and talks to nothing, there's still a road, letting a system use it and click in your place, how it works, when it's worth it and where it breaks
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The software is twenty years old and nobody touches it any more
It works, the company runs on it, and every time you ask to connect it they tell you it can't be done
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The consultant says to replace your software, is he right
Sometimes he is, and we say so too, even though we make a living from the opposite
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What happens to the automation when your business software changes
Which updates break an automation and which don't, how it notices by itself that something doesn't add up, and what it takes to get it back on its feet quickly
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The supplier has changed the invoice template
It happens, and it's expected, the question is who puts a hand to it and who pays
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The software vendor says it can't be done
He may well be right, and he may well be talking about his own job, not yours
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We had our Excel macros, then everything broke
They were written by someone clever who isn't here any more, and nobody knows where to start
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Including the awkward questions, which are the ones worth asking before you sign
What you need to have ready before we start
Less than you think, and nothing technical, but that little has to really be there
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How to record the video of the process we need
Three minutes of screen are worth more than ten emails, and you need nothing special for it
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Nobody can explain how it's done, it just gets done
Marisa knows how, but when you try to have the rules explained twenty exceptions come out
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Who decides what the system does
You do, always, and that isn't a courtesy, it's the only way it works
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How long it takes to have it up and running
It depends, but not on weeks of code, it depends on how quickly the odd case shows up
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The first day the automation really works
You don't flip a switch and walk away, you start slowly with the brake within reach
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An automation isn't a job that ends
The day it's ready isn't the end, it's day one, and anyone who sells it to you as finished is misleading you
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My office staff will think I want to replace them
It's a serious worry, it has to be faced before and not after, because if the office pulls the other way nothing gets off the ground
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Whoever does nothing but data entry leaves sooner or later
And when they go they take away everything they knew about the process, which was written down nowhere
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When the deadline arrives and the office holds its breath
The work doesn't grow slowly, it all arrives together in five days, and it's always the same five
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I already have a technician who looks after the computers
Good, that's not a problem, they're two different trades that meet
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If I switch supplier one day, what am I left with
It's the right question to ask before you sign, not after, and it goes for anyone, not just for us
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Is it worth going with a one-person company
It has real advantages and real risks, and we set out both of them, then you decide
Read the guideShow us what you still do by hand
Describe the process or send a short screen recording and we'll tell you what can be automated