Results
The problem we needed to solve…
As a business owner, Adrian faced a common challenge, he was having to spend several hours each week on repetitive admin tasks, which he didn’t enjoy and it was taking precious time away from other revenue-driving activities. This included tasks such as council form submissions, invoicing, and materials ordering.
Our Solution – Automated Workflow
We built a workflow using make.com (the free version, so there was no extra cost to Adrian) that when triggered, automatically creates job folders in Dropbox, creates Form 7 and Form 5 Word documents for submission to Council, creates draft invoices in Xero and sends emails to suppliers to order materials.
Each task in the workflow is triggered by clicking on a link (webhook) within the master job spreadsheet Adrian already had set up as part of his processes. This meant there was no significant change to Adrian’s process and the data now only needed to be input into ONE place, rather than having to manually put the same information into multiple forms, invoices, and emails.
This solution not only saves Adrian significant time (3 hours per week) on admin tasks, but also reduces the chance of errors as there is no double handling of information.
Technology Used
- Make – provides the automation between the systems
- Google Sheets – online spreadsheet to store relevant information
- Google Docs – used to store templates of each form
- Google Workspace/Gmail – email provider
- Dropbox – the client’s preferred file-hosting service
Return On Investment
Time saved
The automation solution has saved Adrian an average of 3 hours per week of admin tasks. This equates to 1.6 days per month and 19 days per year.
The value of the time saved through our solution equates to a revenue opportunity of $1,950 per month or $23,000+ per year (assuming an average rate of $150 per hour).
Cost of the solution
By leveraging existing software and free automation solutions (make.com), we were able to keep costs minimal for Moorlands Plumbing – $1,500 for set up + $99 ongoing monthly service fee.
Moorlands Plumbing will see a return on the set-up cost within the first month of the solution running, based on the value of time saved being $1,950 vs $1,500 set-up cost.
The ongoing service fee equates to 5% of the value of time saved by the solution.
| Item | Cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Understanding the Problem | $500 | Half day workshop @$1,000 per day |
| Prototype & Refine Solution | $1,000 | One day @ $1,000 per day |
| Software | $0 | All software was existing or Free |
| Ongoing service fee | $129 | Monthly service fee |
| Total | $1,500 (initial) + $129 (ongoing) |
Owner
As the owner of Moorlands Plumbing, I was faced with a challenge I’m sure many other business owners experience – having to spend several hours a week on repetitive admin tasks, which I really didn’t enjoy and felt like it was taking time away from more important things! The team at QB & Co Consulting were great, they created a solution for me that automatically fills out council forms, drafts invoices and sends emails to suppliers. It’s saved me at least 3 hours per week, which over time, works out as a lot of extra hours to be spending on the tools or getting new business! Thank you Matt and Christina for spending the time to understand my existing processes and building something that has genuinely saved me and my business time. I’m looking forward to see what else we can build next!
