The audit followed nine people for two working weeks: calendars, inboxes, the dispatch board and the phone log. Every recurring piece of work that showed up more than twice became a process with an owner, a cadence and an hours count.
Admin is the biggest block and the least visible one, because it is spread across everyone in ten-minute pieces. Dispatch and sales are concentrated in two people, which is why both of them say they have no time.
Fourteen of the thirty-one processes are shown here, sorted by verdict. Automate means an agent does the work and a person checks it; delegate means someone other than the current owner does it; keep means the owner should keep doing it.
| Process | Owner | Hrs / wk | Cadence | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Answer inbound calls and DMs | Front desk | 22 | daily | automate |
| Build the next-day dispatch board | Ops Lead | 9 | daily | automate |
| Write and send quotes | Techs | 14 | daily | automate |
| Chase unpaid invoices | Finance | 8 | weekly | automate |
| Post on Instagram and Facebook | Owner | 6 | weekly | automate |
| Reply to Google reviews | Owner | 3 | weekly | automate |
| Monday numbers report | Finance | 4 | weekly | automate |
| Confirm tomorrow's appointments | Front desk | 7 | daily | automate |
| Order parts and track ETAs | Ops Lead | 11 | daily | automate |
| Onboard a new tech | Ops Lead | 6 | monthly | delegate |
| Reconcile the bank | Owner | 5 | weekly | delegate |
| Renew maintenance plans | Front desk | 5 | weekly | delegate |
| Vendor negotiations | Owner | 4 | monthly | keep |
| Hiring interviews | Owner | 6 | monthly | keep |
Each dot is a process from the inventory, placed by how hard it is to automate and how many hours it returns. The quick-wins quadrant is the plan; the big bets wait until the quick wins have paid for them.
The projection assumes one process goes live each week from November and returns its full hours a month after launch. It is conservative on purpose: the first month usually returns less, the fourth month more.
The first five are chosen for hours returned and for how little they depend on each other. Each one has a tool, an owner who checks the output, and a date.
| Process | How | Returns | Live |
|---|---|---|---|
| Inbound calls and DMs | Intake Agent on the phone line and the IG inbox; books straight into the calendar | 22 h | Nov 3 |
| Quotes | Tech dictates on site, the agent writes the quote and sends it within 2 hours | 14 h | Nov 10 |
| Parts and ETAs | Agent reads supplier emails, updates the job, texts the customer the new date | 11 h | Nov 17 |
| Dispatch board | Built at 18:00 from the booked jobs, zones and tech skills; Ops Lead edits, never builds | 9 h | Nov 24 |
| Invoice chasing | Three-step sequence, payment plan offer on step three, human at disputes | 8 h | Dec 1 |
The ninety days are sequenced so the front desk feels the change first, the Ops Lead second, and the owner last.
Intake and quotes live. Front desk stops answering the phone first; the agent does, the human takes the handoffs.
Parts, dispatch, invoice chasing. Ops Lead moves from building the board to approving it.
Social posts, reviews, the Monday report. The owner's week drops from 58 hours to 44.