In his book, Shaping the Dream, Israelmore Ayivor says, “They say ‘time is money.'” But, I want to say, ‘time makes money.’ This means time is greater than money. There’s no doubt that time has become a hot commodity in this technologically-driven world. The breakneck speed and ever-evolving nature of the business sector drives the need for automation. Here are four time-wasting tasks that can be easily automated.
1. Invoice Data Entry
While a mom and pop shop can maintain their invoicing accounts via a spreadsheet or even a pen and paper, a larger company can struggle with this type of invoice processing. Rather than spending countless hours punching in numbers, savvy financial professionals can shift to an optical character recognition (OCR) model.
As Petr Baudis from the data-extraction company Rossum clarifies, smart OCR invoice data entry allows invoices to be scanned and processed through machine learning technology. This allows software to capture all of the relevant data points within an invoice. Then, the software can automatically input that information into a company’s accounting software. This simple, yet sleek, automated invoicing solution frees up business owners to focus on their business.
2. Social Media
At this point, there are numerous ways to automate the mind-numbing grunt work that goes into running a corporate social media accounts. A machine cannot yet take over content creation. But, it’s possible to automate posting that content.
Scheduling apps like Sprout Social and Hootsuite let a marketing manager upload content and have it post to certain accounts at specified times. If they want to take their social automation efforts even further, they can utilize a tool like IFTTT to ensure that new content is instantly propagated throughout their online marketing network. This removes hours of laborious time spent posting, reposting, and rehashing content across social channels.
3. Appointment Scheduling
Every busy professional knows the frustration of working with others’ schedules. It can be frustrating to deal with the back and forth with dates, the best time of day to meet, and meeting location. The ever-growing global workspace has added further complications. Now, there are geographic locations and time zones to factor in to the scheduling process.
Fortunately, many available applications can easily automate the process of scheduling appointments. Apps like Calendar and Doodle help bring everyone’s schedules into one place. The apps can help you find the best time, schedule an event, and even reschedule all without a flurry of hand-typed emails or texts.
4. Data Backup
A company can lose critical information without a data backup process. However, if employees are still manually backing up data, saving documents to the cloud, and loading their device’s essentials onto backup drives, then they’re wasting valuable time.
Popular backup services like Dropbox, Google’s Cloud Storage, and Carbonite allow a business to schedule continuous data backup. Also, many of these backup services offer a free trial to ensure they meet user needs before making any larger financial commitment.
Automate to Optimize Productivity
The world is in a state of perpetually increasing automation. However, just because there are time-wasting tasks that can be easily automated doesn’t mean it takes minimal effort. Employers and employees should continually look for new ways like these to automate simple tasks. In doing so, they can help optimize efficiency, boost productivity, and contribute to the bottom line.
