Industry · 25 people

Quotes, invoices and job reports without replacing the management system

Illustrative examples based on hypothetical organisations. These are not real clients; figures are assumptions, not measured results.

1,092 h/year · Potential time recovered

The organisation

A made-to-order manufacturing and installation workshop with 25 people: three office staff, one quote preparer, twelve technicians working in the workshop and on site, and the remainder in production. They use Excel, accounting software and email.

The challenge

Quotes take three to four days to send, and some orders are lost through late responses. The office also spends hours entering supplier invoices and transcribing paper job reports.

What we would examine

1. Questionnaire for management, office staff and the workshop lead.
2. A 75-minute review interview, demonstrating the processes on screen.
3. A second round to confirm quote, invoice and job-report volumes.
4. Analysis and testing of candidate tools with work samples free of sensitive data.

Processes and proposed improvements

• Quotes: 15 a week, built from scratch in Excel at 90 minutes each: 1,035 hours a year. An assistant would draft from the customer request and company templates. The aim would be 30 minutes per quote and a response within 24 hours: around 690 hours recovered a year.
• Invoices: 70 a week at four minutes each: around 215 hours a year. A reader connected to the accounting software would target 80% automated entry, with office review: around 172 hours recovered.
• Job reports: twelve technicians, five weekly reports each, at ten minutes per report: 460 hours a year. Mobile dictation converted into text would target half the preparation time and fewer lost reports: 230 hours recovered.

What we would avoid

Replacing the whole management system and migrating its data if three small connected tools could meet the same needs. We would compare the cost and effort before recommending a replacement.

Proposed 90-day roadmap

1. Month 1 · Invoices. Start with the quickest, lowest-risk process to implement.
2. Month 2 · Quotes. Prepare company templates and train the quote preparer.
3. Month 3 · Voice reports. Pilot with three technicians and expand only if it works.

What the figures mean

The scenario totals around 1,092 hours a year. At €25/hour, that represents €27,300 of working capacity. Tools are estimated at €250/month (€3,000/year), leaving about €24,300 in time value after licences, before the Study, implementation and maintenance. This is not guaranteed cash savings. The roughly two-month estimate for recovering the Study and first year of tools is indicative: it excludes implementation and assumes the projected time savings are achieved.