Part 4 · Using software and AI · Chapter 4.2
What to automate first
Draft: the wording may change.
The idea
Do not automate everything at once. Rank each job by two things — hours it eats every week, and money its errors cost — and start at the top. For almost every stockist, the top of the list is the bill, then the receipt, then the stock.
Count before you choose
Spend one week writing down where the office time actually goes. A stockist with two billers, one accountant and four salesmen found this:
| Job | Hours a week | What goes wrong | Cost of errors |
|---|---|---|---|
| Typing bills from order slips | 30 | Wrong rate, wrong scheme, wrong GST | Credit notes, angry retailers |
| Posting receipts to party ledgers | 10 | Receipt on the wrong bill or wrong party | Wrong outstanding, missed follow-up |
| Purchase entry and stock | 8 | Batch and expiry not recorded | Expired stock, rejected expiry claims |
| GST return preparation | 6 | Bills missing or doubled | Mismatch notices, lost input credit |
| Salesman incentive sheet | 4 | Returns not deducted | Overpaid incentive, arguments |
| Company claims | 4 | Supporting bills not found | Claims rejected or delayed |
| Monthly MIS for the owner | 3 | Old figures | Decisions made late |
Billing is the obvious first step: it eats the most hours, and every other job reads from it. Receipts come second because they decide the outstanding — the money still in the market. Stock comes third because a wrong batch costs real money at expiry time.
The order that works
- Billing, with clean product, price and GST masters (chapter 4.3).
- Receipts against bills, so the outstanding and ageing are always right.
- Purchase entry with batch and expiry, so stock is right.
- GST reports, which now come free from steps 1–3.
- Order taking on the beat — the salesman's phone, so the order becomes the bill.
- Claims, incentives, payroll — all calculated from data you already have.
- Dashboards last. A dashboard on wrong data is a confident lie.
Notice that steps 4 and 6 cost almost nothing once 1–3 are right. That is the reason for the order: each step feeds the next.
Common mistake
Starting with the exciting part — a salesman app or a colourful dashboard — while bills are still typed from slips and receipts are posted "on account". The salesman's orders arrive faster, but the office still re-types them, the outstanding is still wrong, and the dashboard shows the wrong numbers beautifully. Fix the document at the centre first.
Where you'll use this
This chapter applies the four kinds of documents (chapter 1.2): automate the documents that move money and stock first, because they are the ones that change the books. Order to cash (chapter 2.1) and stock (chapter 2.3) are the first two chains to put in software; chapters 4.4 and 4.5 show how.
Check yourself
- What two measures decide what to automate first?
- Why do GST reports come almost free after billing, receipts and stock are in software?
- Why are dashboards last?
Answers
- Hours the job takes each week, and the money its errors cost.
- They are calculated from the bills and purchase bills already entered; nobody has to collect them again.
- A dashboard only shows the data underneath. If billing and receipts are not right yet, it shows wrong numbers with confidence.