What to expect

What a Business Efficiency Audit looks like

A written report, delivered in 3 working days, showing where your business is losing time and what to do about it. Here is what that looks like in practice.

Sample report

See what you actually receive

Every report is specific to your business. This is an example of the format and depth, based on a typical trades client.

Business Efficiency Audit·Westbrook Plumbing Ltd
Prepared by Joe Armstrong, Cortel

Executive Summary

The main operational drag is time lost to manual quoting and invoice follow-up, an estimated 6 hours per week between Pete and Sarah. The highest-value system to build first is a quote-to-job pipeline that removes manual re-entry between jobs. Combined with automated invoice reminders, this returns roughly 7.5 hours per week to the business within the first month.

Proposed Systems

PrioritySystemTime savingEffort
Start hereQuote-to-job pipeline4 hrs/weekLow
Month 1Overdue invoice reminders2 hrs/weekLow
Month 2Job scheduling from WhatsApp1.5 hrs/weekMedium

System 1: Quote-to-job pipeline

The workflow being addressed

Pete writes every quote from scratch in a Word template, entering client details, job description, and parts list manually, roughly 25 minutes per quote. Accepted quotes are re-entered into Xero as invoices by hand. There is no record of which quotes are open or which have gone cold.

What Cortel builds

A quoting form connected to Westbrook's existing Xero account. Pete describes the job in a short form; the system generates a formatted quote, logs it, and converts it to a Xero invoice on acceptance. If a quote receives no response in 7 days, a follow-up is triggered automatically.

Report continues, typically 8-12 pages covering all systems in full

Your report will be specific to your business, your tools, and your workflows, not a generic checklist.

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Example audit findings

What this looks like in practice

Every audit is different, but these are the kinds of findings that come up regularly.

Building contractor

Spending 3 hours a week copying job details between WhatsApp, a spreadsheet, and their invoicing tool.

One automation handles the transfer. Saves roughly 150 hours a year.

Recommended: Make.com connecting WhatsApp, Google Sheets, and Xero

Low effort

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