5 repetitive tasks a small business in Angola can automate

Start with one task that is repeated often, follows the same steps each time, and where a mistake is easy to spot. Good first candidates are reports, answers to common customer questions, reminders, sorting documents, and copying data between tools.

Keep a person in charge of checking the result. Automation should remove the boring work, not remove the judgement.

If someone copies numbers from several spreadsheets into one report, that is a good candidate. The data can be collected and the report prepared automatically, ready for a person to check.

What it looks like: every Monday, the sales, stock and expenses figures are gathered into one summary and sent to the people who need it. What a person still does: read it, question anything unusual and decide what to do.

Opening hours, prices, locations, how to book. An assistant can answer these on WhatsApp, in Portuguese, and pass the conversation to a person when a question is new.

What it looks like: a customer asks where you are and when you open, and gets the right answer straight away, at any hour. What a person still does: handle the questions the assistant cannot answer, and keep the answers up to date.

Appointments, deliveries, unpaid invoices. Automatic reminders reduce no-shows and late payments, and nobody has to remember to send them.

What it looks like: the day before an appointment, the customer receives a message with the time and place, and a way to confirm or change it. What a person still does: deal with the changes and the cases that need a personal call.

Invoices, forms and delivery notes can be read, sorted and filed automatically, with anything unclear flagged for a person to review.

What it looks like: scanned or photographed documents are read, the key details are filled in, and the file is saved in the right folder. What a person still does: check the items marked as unclear, and spot-check the rest.

Copying an order from one place into another is slow and easy to get wrong. Connecting the tools removes the copying, and the mistakes with it.

What it looks like: when an order arrives in your online store, it appears in your stock list and your delivery sheet without anyone typing it again. What a person still does: handle the exceptions, such as an item that is out of stock.

• Tasks that happen rarely, because the effort rarely pays back.
• Tasks that change every time, because there is no repeatable pattern to automate.
• Decisions that need judgement, such as accepting a large order or answering a complaint.
• Anything where a mistake would be costly and hard to notice.

• Pick one task, not five.
• Write down the steps someone follows today.
• Decide who reviews the result.
• Try it for a few weeks, then extend it if it works.

If you would like help choosing the first task, we map the workflow with you before automating anything, and we only automate what is worth it.

Pick one or two simple measures before you start, such as the hours spent on the task each week, or the number of mistakes found. Compare after a few weeks.

If the task now takes noticeably less time and the results are as good or better, extend it. If not, adjust the steps or stop. A small experiment that you can stop is better than a big project you cannot.