The five workflows every operations team should automate first

Start with the processes that cost the most time and break the most often. Here is the shortlist we give every new team, and why each one earns its place.

How to pick a first workflow

Good first candidates share three traits. They happen often, they follow rules you can write down, and you can tell whether they worked. If a process only happens twice a year or depends entirely on gut feeling, leave it for later.

1. Approvals

Purchase requests, time off, discounts and access requests all follow the same pattern: someone asks, someone checks a rule, someone says yes. An agent can check the rule instantly and escalate only the exceptions.

2. Intake forms and requests

Requests arrive by email, chat and forms, then get copied into a tracker by hand. Route everything into one place, tag it automatically and assign it to the right owner.

3. Invoice and payment matching

Matching invoices to purchase orders and payments is slow, repetitive and error-prone. Automating the match leaves your finance team with only the mismatches to review.

4. Customer and employee onboarding

Onboarding is a checklist spread across many tools. Trigger the whole sequence from one event: accounts, welcome messages, training tasks and reminders.

5. Weekly reporting

If someone copies numbers into a slide every Monday, that is a workflow. Pull the data, write the summary and post it where the team already works.

If you can explain the steps to a new colleague in five minutes, you can probably automate them.

A simple rollout plan

1. Pick one workflow from this list and write down the steps.

2. Build it with a person approving every outcome for the first week.

3. Review the decisions, tighten the rules and remove the manual check where it is safe.

4. Move on to the next workflow.