Workflow improvement for small businesses and teams
Fix the workflow.
Build only what’s needed.
I help small businesses and teams remove friction from the way they work. Sometimes the answer is a better process. Sometimes it’s automation. Sometimes there’s a missing tool between two systems, so I build it. I start with the problem, not the technology.
Case study
Making overwhelming bookkeeping manageable.
Card Sorter, built around one freelancer’s tax preparation.
- Card statement
- Copy by hand
- Categorise by hand
- Bookkeeping
- Card statement
- Card Sorter
- Review & correct
- Export for bookkeeping
- The barrier
- The transaction work was so complicated that the freelancer didn’t want to tackle his tax return without a tool to help.
- What changed
- Card Sorter reads the statement and organises the transactions. He reviews and corrects the categories; the tool learns from those corrections.
- The practical result
- A manageable way to prepare his bookkeeping: review and export organised transactions, instead of sorting every entry from scratch.
- In real use
- Used on almost 700 real transactions.
Have a step like this?
Approach
Start with the workflow.
Understand
How does the work actually happen?
Not the process on paper. The real work, workarounds included.
Simplify
What can be removed, changed or standardised?
Most friction should go before anything gets built.
Build, if needed
What is still missing?
An automation, a connection, a form, a small tool, an interface or a website.
Test
Does it work better?
On real work, with the people doing it.
Working together
Start with one workflow.
We start with one recurring task, the people doing it and the tools involved.
- A focused review
- We agree the scope and cost first. You get a map of the current workflow, the steps that can be simplified and a recommendation for the first fix.
- Before a build
- If a tool or connection is needed, we agree what it must do, what it will cost and how we’ll test it before building.
- Handover & support
- We test the fix with the people doing the work and walk through how to use it. Any ongoing support is agreed as part of the scope.
About
Booking.com · Rituals · VanMoof · Hitachi
Years of process improvement, finance transformation, operational workflows, systems and automation inside these companies.
Contact
Tell me what’s not working.
Tell me where the work gets stuck. A few lines are enough.
I’ll read it and reply by email. If I can help, I’ll suggest a practical first step.
Prefer email? panos@darasflow.com
From the Lab
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