Save on long-term costs with automated daily processes to save time and labor costs
We are on the eve of an economic crisis, and saving costs is one of the first things you can do. This can be done in many different ways. You can always apply methods that only work in the short term, but you can also save costs in the long term by automating your processes.
Automation
Automation is often thought of in terms of industrial processes where a machine replaces (almost) all people. However, automation does not need to be applied only to industrial processes but can also be applied to everyday processes in, for example, business services.
In this blog, we show you which (daily) processes can be automated to save costs in the long term, e.g., through time efficiency or labor costs.
Invoices
There are companies that still create their invoices in Excel or even write them out by hand. These companies can immediately save costs and time by starting to create invoices in an administration system or CRM system.
If your company already uses an administration system or CRM system, costs and time can often be saved. This can be done in various ways, namely:
Automatically generate sales invoices
As a company, you can save a lot of time by automatically generating invoices. This can be automated, for example, by linking time registration to invoicing.
When you or your employees fill in all the hours in the administration system or CRM system, these hours can be used directly to place the number of hours worked on the invoice if the hours are directly linked to a company, order, or customer. This works well if your company often works on an hourly basis. Does your company work on a product basis with products that have a fixed price? Then this process becomes even simpler. When creating an invoice for a customer, you can easily select the customer and the chosen product with a fixed price, and then let the automation generate the invoice automatically.
This process can be further automated in many ways, e.g., by automatically setting the invoice date to the same day (or allowing it to be selected), automatically increasing invoice numbers, and also by automatically adjusting the invoice to the customer (the system can make selections based on individual or company, which country the customer lives/is established in, or, for example, set the company size).
Webshop invoices
If you have a webshop where customers can order products, your company can choose to automatically generate an invoice immediately after the order. If you use a separate administration system or CRM system, you can also choose to automatically forward the order to the administration system via an API connection, after which the administration system immediately generates an invoice.
Just like generating invoices, you can also do this with customer data, product data, and other data that the customer has filled in during the ordering process. This can shorten or even eliminate the time it takes to enter data into the administration system, save time, and in some cases, reduce the need for personnel to carry out this process.
Purchase invoices
In addition to generating and forwarding sales invoices, you can also automate the process of purchase invoices. Nowadays, it is also possible to forward purchase invoices to your administration system or CRM system via email links, apps that allow you to scan, upload, or even take a picture of supplier invoices, or by giving limited access to your regular suppliers so they can upload the invoice directly to your administration system or CRM system.
Complete ordering process from quote to invoice
If you have a website with a quote form, order form, or webshop, you can completely automate this process from quote to invoice. When a (potential) customer requests a quote via the quote form on your website, instead of just sending an email, you can also save this information in your database or forward it to your administration system or CRM system. At that moment, you already have all the data in your system to be able to create a quote.
Even better is when you use fixed prices to directly generate a quote by your system, send it to the customer via email, and include an "Accept" and "Reject" button in the email. If the customer clicks on "Reject," an email is automatically sent to you with any comments or suggestions, allowing you or your employees to adjust the quote and resend it at the touch of a button. Clicking on the "Accept" button automatically places the order with your supplier or forwards it to your logistics department.
When sending a product, you can fully automate your administration system or CRM system at the touch of a button to send the customer details via email or an API connection to the transport company, where you can automatically place the order, generate the packing slip, and send the Track & Trace code to the customer via, for example, email, SMS, or Whatsapp.
During this process, you can also automatically generate and send the invoice or include it with the product, but you can also choose to generate the invoice automatically based on the Track & Trace code when the status is "delivered" and send it via email.
This shows that a quote form or order form can be fully automated.
Inventory management
Your inventory management can also be (almost) fully automated. You start by indicating the quantity in stock for all your products. Then you automate your webshop, administration system, or CRM system so that with each order (quote or invoice), the quantity is automatically reduced in the inventory by invoicing or reserving the product.
This process can also be automated by keeping track of inventory for reservations and scheduling in a planning system. In this way, the systems can automatically check whether the product has already been rented or reserved, and, for example, block a date or time in the reservation form on the website. This way, you can set up the reservation form, order form, and quote form on your website and speed up the control process, so you no longer have to spend time on it.
Product management
When it comes to automating product management, think of synchronizing product information from your administration system or CRM system to your website or webshop and always displaying the current names, texts, and prices of the products. This way, you only need to maintain and track the products in one place, not 5, 6, or more.
In addition to synchronizing product information, you can also make manual imports and exports. This then needs to be checked and carried out by yourself or an employee. This is semi-automation, but to make it as efficient as possible and save costs and time, importing and exporting can also be fully automated by integrating API connections into your website or webshop and administration system or CRM system.
Social media
You can also automate your social media channels used for your business by scheduling posts/messages, but you can go even further. For example, every time you create a page, menu button, blog item, or news item, you can also automatically post a message on your social media channels.
The reverse works almost the same, but unfortunately, it's not as in-depth as posting a news item on your website. However, you can do this by placing, for example, a Tweetbox on your website that automatically displays the latest tweets from your Twitter account.
You can also use social media to simplify the login process for your customers, employees, or yourself and offer them the opportunity to log in to your website, webshop, or other online application using their Google, Twitter, or Facebook account.