ZV / Automation
Which job eats the week?
The same thing gets typed twice, and paperwork gets chased by hand. The month takes days to close. Pick the loop you want gone.
- Sub-consultant invoicePDF bills matched to a phase by handInvoices wait until a PM checks them against the phase budget.
- Change orderThe phase overran before anyone drafted the extra workScope creeps on a fixed fee, and the write-off shows up at the monthly review.
None of those? About 3 minutes to run the numbers.
Run the numbersAutomation for engineering and architecture
PDF bills matched to a phase by hand
Invoices wait until a PM checks them against the phase budget.
Number to bringHow many hours a week does a PM spend matching sub-consultant bills to a phase?
The phase overran before anyone drafted the extra work
Scope creeps on a fixed fee, and the write-off shows up at the monthly review.
Number to bringRoughly how much unbilled extra work do you write off in a year?
Bring those two numbers
About three minutes. You type the numbers; I do not invent them. The first conversation is next if the loop is worth mapping.
Work you want to stop doing by hand
- Document and invoice intakeFields come off the sub-consultant invoice and into the system of record, matched to the right phase. Anything ambiguous stops in a queue for the project manager.
- Stop double entry between systemsA project record gets one home. The accounting system receives a controlled copy, and anything ambiguous waits for the person who owns it.
- Inbound enquiry triageIncoming requests and submittals land in one queue, sorted by discipline and who should answer.
- Close preparationMilestone billing becomes a visible process with owners and blockers, so invoices go out when the milestone lands.
- Finish the workflow you already boughtCheck what the software you licence already does before building anything. Add only the part that is genuinely missing.
- Automation inventory and cleanupOne pass over the small automations already running: what each one does, whose login it uses, what breaks quietly. You get a written register and a decommission list.
Worth reading
The language of business automation
13 minute read
What should your company automate—and when?
11 minute read
What happens to the workflows when someone leaves
4 minute read
A different kind of business
Next step
Tell me which one it is
The first conversation is free, and it’s genuinely fine to arrive without knowing what you need.