Repetitive admin tasks. And which one can go first.

Every business has the same eight jobs that come back every week, that nobody pays for, and that somebody still has to do. Here they are, with what they cost over a year.

The eight that come back everywhere

The order is not arbitrary. It follows what is most expensive when it gets left undone.

• Collecting and matching receipts. They arrive by email, in chats, on paper and in a supplier's portal. Four routes, four habits, and half of them are missing at the end of the month.
• Keeping an eye on deadlines. Not your own appointments, but the ones set from outside: notice periods, appeal periods, certificates, official decisions.
• Sorting incoming post. Who is writing, what do they want, by when.
• Writing quotations and invoices. The number range, the line items, the template, the filing.
• Answering messages. Spread across five channels, and nobody remembers where Tuesday's enquiry ended up.
• Coordinating appointments. Reconciling the site, the office and the customer.
• Reconciling payments. Who has paid, who has not, what is outstanding.
• Closing the month. Always the same steps, always in the same order, always the one that gets forgotten.

What that costs over a year

The figures are conservative and come from a business that measured them rather than guessing.

Collecting and matching receipts: around four hours a month when it goes well. Writing quotations: one to three hours each, depending on size. Sorting and answering messages across every channel: half an hour a day, often more.

Together, in a one-person business, that easily comes to twelve hours a week. That is a full working day, every week, for work no customer pays for.

What can go first

Not what annoys you most, but what costs most. These three almost always are:

First the receipts. They cost the same hours every month, they follow a clear rule, and a missing receipt costs real money at the end of the year in lost input tax.

Second the deadlines. The effort is small, the damage from missing one is large. If you are reminded on the due date, you are reminded too late.

Third the inbox across every channel. Not the answering, the sorting: what is an enquiry, what is advertising, what is waiting for me.

What is better left with people

The price. The decision whether to take a job on. The conversation with a worried customer. The judgement about whether a supplier is reliable.

And anything that cannot be undone. A message that is out, is out. That is why replies are created as drafts and sent by a person.

The gain is not that nobody decides any more. The gain is that you spend your time deciding instead of searching.

How to measure it instead of believing it

Keep a note for one week of what comes back and how long it took. No tool needed, a sheet of paper will do.

Afterwards the list looks different from what you expected. In almost every business the most expensive job is not the one people complain about most, but one nobody mentions, because it has become so obvious.

Common questions

Which job should I hand over first?

The one that comes back most often and where a mistake is most expensive. In most businesses that is receipts or deadlines, not the thing people complain about loudest.

Is it worth it with three employees?

Yes, often more than with thirty. With three people the boss does the administration personally, usually in the evening. Every hour that disappears there is time off, straight away.

What happens if the automation makes a mistake?

It happens, which is why one rule holds: what can be undone, it may do. What goes outside is created as a draft and sent by a person.

Do I have to tidy up my processes first?

No, but they get tidied up along the way. A rule a machine is meant to follow has to be written down, and at that point you notice where three people do it three different ways.