Eliminated Their 6-Person Data Entry Team with One Weekend Build
Manufacturing client: "We have 6 people doing data entry from supplier invoices. Can automation help?" THE MANUAL BOTTLENECK - 6 full-time data entry clerks - 2,000+ supplier invoices monthly - 15 different ERP systems (acquisitions over 20 years) - Processing time: 8 minutes per invoice - Error rate: 9% - Annual cost: $234,000 THE WEEKEND AUTOMATION BUILD Used my manufacturing template, customized for their complexity: MULTI-ERP INTEGRATION WORKFLOW (18 nodes) Input processing (Nodes 1-3): - Email attachment monitoring (15 supplier email accounts) - FTP server polling (legacy suppliers) - Manual upload portal for exceptions Invoice intelligence (Nodes 4-8): - Vendor detection and routing - Purchase order matching - Line item extraction and validation - Tax calculation verification - Approval workflow routing ERP integration layer (Nodes 9-15): - System routing based on division/vendor - SAP integration (3 instances) - Oracle integration (2 instances) - QuickBooks Enterprise (4 instances) - Legacy systems (6 custom APIs) - Data format transformation per system Quality control (Nodes 16-18): - Cross-system validation - Exception handling and alerts - Audit trail generation BUILD TIMELINE Friday evening: Started development Saturday: Core workflow and testing Sunday: ERP integrations and validation Sunday evening: Production deployment Total build time: 16 hours over weekend THE IMMEDIATE IMPACT Week 1 results: - Processing time: 8 minutes ā 45 seconds per invoice - Accuracy: 91% ā 98.4% - Throughput: 2,000 invoices/month ā 4,500 capacity - Human intervention: <3% of invoices Month 1 transformation: - Eliminated 6 data entry positions - Redirected staff to supplier relationship management - Reduced invoice processing errors by 89% - Improved cash flow through faster processing ANNUAL SAVINGS CALCULATION - Staff costs eliminated: $234,000 - Error reduction value: $48,000 - Faster processing benefits: $67,000 - Total annual impact: $349,000