Where does the time go? Examine one workflow

A supplier invoice arrives by email. Someone copies the details, looks for the order and waits for approval (Approval means a person decides before an AI-prepared message goes outside your firm or money is spent.). An estimate of processing time alone can miss the search and the wait.

Choose one recurring task and look at it closely. Record what happens each time, who is involved and where the work stops. Paper or a simple spreadsheet is enough.

Record more than processing time

Ask about more than processing time. Where does someone have to find a file, ask a question or wait for approval? Record working time and waiting time separately.

Ask the person doing the task to keep the notes. Review them together afterwards. This also reveals the workarounds people need in practice and why they use them.

Step 1: Choose a recurring task

Choose a task that happens at least weekly and passes through several stages. It might be an enquiry through to a quote, a supplier invoice through to approval, or a report from raw data to the PDF that goes out. Keep the exercise to one such workflow.

Rare tasks, or tasks that take a different path every time, are less useful here. Pick one you can watch more than once.

Step 2: Record each run

Use a separate page or spreadsheet section each time the task is done. Give each step its own line or row. Record what happened, not what the procedure says should happen:

1. What happened? For example, ‘copied the address from the email into the quoting tool’.
2. Where did it happen, for example in an email inbox, on the phone or on paper?
3. Who carried out the step?
4. Roughly how long did the work take?
5. What held up this step, and for roughly how long?

After a week, compare what happened each time. Do the same questions, entries or delays keep appearing? You need a useful picture, not a precise time study.

Step 3: Mark the steps

Review the notes with the person doing the work. Mark what matters most in each step:

• Retyping: information that already exists digitally is entered again by hand.
• Searching: a document, detail or current version has to be found first.
• Waiting: work stops until an answer, document or approval arrives.
• Judging: a person needs to check, weigh up or decide something.

Retyping or searching may be worth simplifying. If you mark a step as waiting, ask what causes the delay. Judging shows where a person must decide. Not every marked step needs a new tool.

Step 4: Choose one change to examine

Pick a step that recurs or causes a long delay. Ask: why is the address entered again? Who must approve the invoice, and what information do they need? Would a clear template (A template is a prepared structure, for a document, an email or a folder for example, which you only complete for each case.) remove the search for the right file?

A filing rule, someone to cover an absence or a template may be enough. Elsewhere, connecting systems or preparing information from documents for review may help. Look at the workflow before deciding whether AI is needed. A person must approve a message before it is sent outside your firm, and a payment before it is made.

What the notes cannot tell you yet

One week will not capture every unusual case or tell you how much time a change might save. Try a change in daily work, then record the workflow again rather than assuming a saving.

Compare the new notes with the old: has working time changed? Is the wait shorter, or has it simply moved elsewhere?

Our setup cost example shows how many working hours you would need to save for the calculated savings to cover the setup price. Check your notes before and after a change to see whether you save time.

Look at other workflows

The free interview asks about your work, one question at a time, with no account. After level two, your report shows where your time goes and where it pays to start. You book a free 20-minute call with Jules on the contact page.