Guide
What should a small business automate first? A 15-minute audit checklist
Automate first the task that happens most often, follows clear rules, takes skilled people’s time and is cheap to get wrong in draft. Usually that is data entry, lookups or status updates, not the most visible problem. Score your candidate tasks with the checklist below; the highest score is your first build.
Why not start with the biggest problem?
Because the biggest problem is often the least automatable: rare, political or full of judgment calls. The best first build is boring and frequent. It pays back quickly, earns the team’s trust, and teaches you what your data really looks like before you take on anything harder.
A real example: when we audited a 45-person freight brokerage, the time went to carrier sourcing, check calls and TMS entry, about 3 hours a day per broker. None of it was glamorous. Three workflows on the existing TMS and load boards gave those hours back within a week.
How do I list the candidate tasks?
Ask each person on the team one question: “What do you do every week that you wish someone else would do?” Then add anything that involves copying information from one system to another. You want a list of concrete tasks (“enter POs into the ERP”), not themes (“operations”).
What should I score each task on?
Score each task from 0 to 2 on these six questions. It takes a minute or two per task.
| Question | 0 points | 1 point | 2 points |
|---|---|---|---|
| How often does it happen? | Monthly or less | Weekly | Daily or many times a day |
| How long does each one take? | Under a few minutes | Several minutes | Long enough that people batch or postpone it |
| Does it follow rules you could write down? | Mostly judgment | Rules plus some judgment | Clear rules with known exceptions |
| What do the inputs look like? | Phone calls or handwriting | Free-text emails and PDFs | Forms, structured emails or system data |
| Who does it today? | Whoever has time | Trained staff | Your most skilled or expensive people |
| What does a mistake cost? | Serious and hard to undo | Annoying but fixable | Caught easily in a quick review |
Add up the score. Tasks that score highest are your first build. Anything scoring low on rules or on mistake cost can still be automated later, with a person approving every output.
Which tasks usually score highest?
Across the industries we work in, the same kinds of tasks keep coming out on top:
- Lookups before a reply: checking an order, a rate, a candidate or a record before answering someone.
- Re-keying: copying details from an email or document into a CRM, ATS, TMS or ERP.
- Status updates: telling customers, carriers or clients where things stand.
- First drafts: quotes, write-ups, reports and summaries that a person then checks.
They are the same tasks behind our case studies, from spot-quote prep to tier-1 support tickets.
What should I measure before I automate?
Two numbers: how often the task happens per week, and how long one takes. Multiply them and you have the hours at stake. Write them down now; without a before number, you can’t show the after.
Want us to run the checklist with you?
That is the free workflow audit. You describe the work, and you get back a one-page plan: the 3 tasks worth automating first, hours saved, and what a build would cost.
Frequently asked questions
How many tasks should I automate at once?
Start with one. A single workflow that works builds trust and shows you what your data looks like. Add the next one when the first is running smoothly.
Do I need AI for this, or just automation?
If the inputs are structured and the rules are clear, plain automation is enough. AI earns its place when inputs are free text or documents, or when a step needs a draft rather than a lookup.