This is a sample audit of a made-up firm.
Where time goes
Maya · hours of email a year
Where the time goes
Hours are estimated from each email read or written, then added up by area. 15% of the email Maya sends goes out before 8, after 6 or on a weekend.
When Maya writes
5,357 emails sent, by weekday and hour12a3a6a9a12p3p6p9pMonTueWedThuFriSatSun
FewerMoreBusiest: Friday 9 am, 121 emails
Who brings the work
5,754 emails received from people, by who wrote themClients · mostly operations, sales, collections1,999
Staff · mostly operations, scheduling, purchasing1,999
Suppliers and trades · mostly purchasing, scheduling, finance900
Others · mostly marketing, industry and peers, IT and systems642
The city and inspectors · mostly tax, scheduling214
Where the time goes
hours a yearOperations316 h
People and HR54 h
Sales45 h
Marketing34 h
Legal29 h
Finance28 h
Scheduling24 h
Purchasing18 h
Governance and board11 h
Personal and non-business10 h
Industry and peers9 h
Tax7 h
Payroll7 h
Collections6 h
IT and systems5 h
3 smaller areas10 h
What the systems send
Notifications, platforms and calendar traffic, and the work hidden inside them01
The accounting system already knows which invoices are late.
97 hon invoice reminders52 hcould run on their own
52 h could run on their own97 h invoice reminder hours
Overdue notices from QuickBooks Online arrive every morning, and Iris turns each one into a reminder by hand.
What could change. Let the overdue notice start the reminder, for Iris to approve.
02
Two project tools are paid for, and only one of them is used.
1,335Buildertrend emails in the year63Basecamp emails in the year
1,335Buildertrend
63Basecamp
Daily logs, purchase orders and client updates all run through Buildertrend. Basecamp still bills every month, but its last project notification came in February.
What could change. Close the Basecamp account after moving anything still in it, or keep it only for the one use nobody has moved yet.
03
Supplier newsletters are a fifth of the system mail.
20%of system emails5,474supplier newsletters
5,474 supplier newsletters27,372 system emails
Promotions and catalogues from suppliers arrive in four mailboxes each. Nobody acts on most of them.
What could change. Send supplier marketing to one shared folder that Theo checks once a week.
04
Calendar invites and updates are the biggest single source of system mail.
6,840calendar emails27,372system emails a year
6,840 calendar emails27,372 system emails
Each site visit change sends an update to everyone on the invite, and each acceptance comes back as an email.
What could change. Keep site visits on one shared calendar and turn off acceptance emails.