The most expensive way to automate something is to automate a process that should not exist.
And it happens constantly: an approval nobody reads, a form that retypes what already exists, an email copied to three people “for information”. Automated, all of these become permanent.
Want us to map one process with you?
Tell us which one eats the most of your time and we will look at what can be cut before any tool.
How to map a process in an hour
Take a sheet of paper and write, in order:
| Column | What you write |
|---|---|
| Step | What happens |
| Who | One person, not a department |
| Where | In which tool or on paper |
| Time | Minutes of active work |
| Waiting | How long it sits still |
The last column is the revelation. In a typical approval process the active time is 20 minutes and the total is three days. You do not have a speed problem — you have a waiting problem, and that gets solved with reminders, not faster typing.
Two more things to record:
- How many times the work changes hands. Every handover is a point of loss.
- How many times the same information is typed. More than once means duplicate entry.
What to cut before automating
Four questions per step, in this order:
- Is it needed at all? Many steps exist because something went wrong once.
- Does it need a person? Checking for routine errors does not.
- Does it need this person? Approvals climb the hierarchy for no reason.
- Does it need to happen now? Plenty can be batched once a day.
The first question usually removes 20% of the steps. Ask of every approval: when was the last time something was rejected? If nobody remembers, it is not an approval — it is a delay.
And one threshold worth setting: approvals only above a defined amount or risk level. The rest go through and get sampled.
Which flows are worth doing first
| Flow | Why it pays |
|---|---|
| New customer onboarding | Repetitive, many steps |
| Expense approval | Long waiting time |
| New joiner setup | Steps get forgotten, mistakes cost |
| Support request | Gets lost in email |
| Monthly invoicing | Predictable, with a deadline |
The criterion is not frequency but frequency × pain. Something done ten times a month that hurts badly is worth more than a daily task that already runs smoothly.
Which processes deserve priority: what to automate. How the tools connect to each other technically: connecting tools without code.
Not sure which flow to tackle first?
Send us three processes and we will tell you which pays back fastest.
What an automated flow looks like
Five elements, and all of them are needed:
- One entry point. A single form, not email plus phone plus a word in the corridor.
- Routing rules. Who picks it up, based on what.
- Notifications with a deadline. A reminder if it sits still.
- Visible status. The requester sees where it is without asking.
- A record. Who did what and when.
The first is half the job. As long as parallel entry channels exist, the flow is not a flow — it is a suggestion.
The fourth eliminates “where are we with this?”, a hidden cost in every team — see also project management tools.
The mistakes that lock in the chaos
- Automating without simplifying. A bad system becomes a fast bad system.
- Too many exceptions. If the flow has ten “unless” clauses, it is not ready to be automated.
- No manual override. Every flow needs a bypass for the rare cases.
- No owner for the flow. When it breaks, everyone goes back to email.
- Nothing written down. After six months nobody remembers why it was built that way — the format for that document is in technical requirements.
The second is the commonest point of failure. Automate the standard case covering 80%, and leave the exceptions to a person.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need a developer?
For most internal flows, no. For connecting to older systems, yes.
How long does it take?
An hour of mapping, half a day of setup, two weeks of testing.
What about exceptions?
They stay manual. If they exceed 20%, the flow needs rewriting.
How do I get the team on board?
Start with the process that annoys them most, not you.
How many flows at once?
One. The second starts when the first has run for a month without intervention.
The first step
Pick the process you most often ask “where are we?” about, and map it in five columns.
Measure the waiting time. If it is more than ten times the active time — and it usually is — you know exactly what to fix first.
Next step
Book a free 30-minute call with the team at The Dev Alley. We will map one process and see what can be cut before any tool.