Quick answer
Automate repetitive, rules-based work that wastes the most time or carries the most risk: approvals, invoicing, onboarding, reporting, ticket routing, quoting, data syncing and reminders. Start with the single workflow where hours saved are greatest and the steps are clearest.
How to choose what to automate
Good candidates are frequent, repetitive, rules-based and error-prone. Map the steps, count how often it happens and estimate the time and risk involved. Start small, prove the value and expand. Our guide to replacing spreadsheets uses the same approach.
Eight workflows worth automating
- Approvals: purchase requests, leave and expenses routed to the right person with a full audit trail.
- Invoicing and billing: generating, sending and chasing invoices from the same source data.
- Customer onboarding: collecting documents, creating accounts and triggering tasks automatically.
- Reporting: replacing manual weekly reports with live dashboards. See how a share registry platform cut a day of reporting to minutes.
- Ticket and email routing: sorting enquiries to the right team, as in our unified helpdesk.
- Quoting and proposals: generating quotes and PDFs from customer details, as in AI-powered sales automation.
- Data syncing: keeping CRM, accounting and operations systems consistent without re-typing.
- Reminders and escalations: nudging people when tasks or deadlines are at risk.
Automation without losing control
Automation should make work more visible, not less. Build in audit logs, clear ownership of each step, and a way for people to intervene when exceptions occur. Where AI is involved, be transparent about it, as we did in our sales automation project.
How to measure success
- Hours saved per week on the process
- Error and rework rate
- Cycle time from request to completion
- User satisfaction and adoption
Pitfalls to avoid
- Automating a broken process instead of fixing it first
- Hiding decisions inside a black box nobody can audit
- Skipping exception handling
- Forgetting to train the people who will use it
Build, buy or connect?
Simple triggers between popular tools may be solved with off-the-shelf connectors. When the process spans several systems, has complex rules or handles sensitive data, a custom system is more reliable and easier to audit. Our custom internal tools service covers exactly this, and the complete guide explains when to build.
To see how this fits sales workflows, read about custom CRM development, and if you are weighing platforms, low-code vs custom software.
Frequently asked questions
How long does it take to automate a workflow?
Focused automations often reach production in a few weeks because the scope is clear and the users are known.
Will automation replace my staff?
The aim is to remove repetitive work so people can focus on judgement and customers. Good systems keep humans in control of exceptions.
Can you automate with our existing tools?
Yes. Integrations with accounting, CRM, email and other systems are a common part of our projects.
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Get an instant quoteWritten by the LOLCorp engineering team from our experience delivering custom software for UK businesses. This is general guidance, not legal or financial advice.