AUTOMATION AUDIT
Find where AI and automation can take tedious work off your team, and where to start.
We look closely at how your business works, find where AI and automation could save time or improve the process, work out what is worth doing, and give you a practical Roadmap for what to build.
Every Automation Audit starts with a free Discovery Call. We'll tell you if an Audit isn't the right next step.
- Examines
- Up to three processes
- Includes
- One 60-minute Audit Call
- Delivers
- An Automation Roadmap you keep
- Ends with
- One 30-minute Audit Review
WHAT IT IS
A decision, not a document.
We work out what is worth doing and what should happen first. The answer is usually a combination.
AI where intelligence is useful. Code where certainty is possible. Humans where judgement matters.
- AI to read, sort and draft
- Automation that runs by rule
- Systems that talk to each other
- People on the decisions that matter
- A clear place to start
UNDERSTAND, THEN DIAGNOSE
The work as it really runs, then what it's telling us.
- Friction: Waits until someone has time
- About 70 a week
- Friction: Typed in again, checked by eye
- 7 to 9 minutes each
- Every supplier lays theirs out differently
- Assumed: accounts software accepts imports
- Judgement: Price decisions stay with a person
- Fine: Works as it should
- 75 to 85% match first time
- Not yet known: how often prices change
- STEP 01Invoice arrivesShared inbox
- Friction: Waits until someone has time
- About 70 a week
- STEP 02Details enteredBy hand, against the order
- Friction: Typed in again, checked by eye
- 7 to 9 minutes each
- Every supplier lays theirs out differently
- Assumed: accounts software accepts imports
- EXCEPTION AT STEP 02Price differs from the order: queried with the supplier
- 75 to 85% match first time
- Not yet known: how often prices change
- STEP 03ApprovalOperations manager
- Judgement: Price decisions stay with a person
- STEP 04PaymentAccounts software
- Fine: Works as it should
DISCOVERY
We follow each step with the people who do it, exceptions included.
ANALYSIS & DIAGNOSIS
Then we find where it waits or repeats, what could be taken on, and what should stay with people.
70 invoices a week × 7 to 9 minutes × 75 to 85% that match = 6 to 9 hours a week. Time returned is not a cash saving.
SHAPE, NOT BUILD
Then we shape what could actually be done about it.
Still part of the Audit. Nothing is built yet: this is what your Roadmap records.
We look for work that needs understanding. Here, invoices that no two suppliers lay out the same way.
STEP 01Invoice arrives
AIChosen: CODEHUMANSTAYS MANUALCollected as each one lands.
STEP 02Details entered
Chosen: AIChosen: CODEHUMANSTAYS MANUALAI reads any layout. Code checks and matches it to the order.
STEP 03Approval
AICODEChosen: HUMANSTAYS MANUALApproved with the work already done.
STEP 04Payment
AICODEHUMANChosen: STAYS MANUALWorks well, so it stays as it is.
AI handles the interpretation. Engineering controls what happens next.
AI READS THE INVOICE
Illustrative demo invoice. Not a customer's data or result.
- Supplier
- Known supplier, new layout
- Invoice date
- 14 Oct
- Order reference
- PO-20418
- Line items
- 3 lines
- Total
- £1,284.60
CODE CHECKS IT AGAINST YOUR RECORDS
- Passed: Supplier matches its record
- Passed: Order reference exists and is open
- Passed: Lines add up to the total
- Flagged: One price differs from the order
To the operations manager to approve, with the difference explained.
WHAT THE AUDIT GETS YOU
An Automation Roadmap that is yours to keep.
What to build, what stays with your team, what it is worth, and where to start.
Now
Clear value, ready to build
Supplier invoice matching
6 to 9 hours/week
THE PROCESS ABOVE · OPENED BELOW
Next
After the CRM is tidied
Enquiry triage and routing
Not yet quantified
Later
Earns its place as you grow
Customer order portal
Depends on growth
Not recommendedShould stay with people
Automated credit decisionsJudgement with consequences. Automation would add risk, not value.
Without usWhat you can improve yourself
Tidy the CRM before automatingAnything that reads it is only as good as its data.
RECOMMENDATION · NOW
Supplier invoice matching
- Today
- Every invoice is opened, looked up against its order, checked and typed in by hand. About 70 a week.
- With the change
- AI reads each invoice, whatever the supplier's layout, and code checks it against its order. The operations manager approves with the work already done; any difference arrives with the reason. Approved invoices are posted to accounts, ready for the payment run.
- Stays with your team
- Approving invoices, accepting a changed price, every conversation with a supplier, and the payment run.
- Value
- 6 to 9 hours a weekCalculated from your evidence. Time returned, not a cash saving.
- Not yet confirmed
- Whether the accounts software accepts imported invoices. How often supplier prices change.
- Where to start
- With the suppliers who send the most invoices.
In your customer portal
Read it online, with every figure tied to its evidence.
As a download you keep
Share it inside your business or with another provider.
In a 30-minute Audit Review
We walk you through it and answer your questions.
Build with us, build it yourselves or brief another provider. The Roadmap is yours either way.
HOW IT WORKS
From a free conversation to a decision that's yours.
You pay only once we both agree an Audit is the right step.
01 DISCOVER
Discovery Call
FREE
We understand the problem and the opportunity, and whether an Audit is the right next step.
- An Audit is the right step
- A build conversation makes more sense
- Nothing should be built yet
02 AUDIT
Automation Audit
We investigate the opportunities and produce your Roadmap.
- Order and Intake
- Audit Call60 min
- Analysis
- Roadmap
- Audit Review30 min
03 DECIDE
Your Roadmap
YOURS
The Roadmap is yours. You decide what happens next.
04 BUILD
Implementation
OPTIONAL
If you choose XPLORATECH, we scope and quote the build from your Roadmap.
NOT INCLUDED IN THE AUDIT · QUOTED SEPARATELY
See how we build
QUESTIONS
What people ask before an Audit.
Where could AI help my business?
Anywhere work currently needs a person's intelligence to move forward. Today's AI can follow a conversation, understand documents and images, turn loose information into structured data, research and compare, draw on your business knowledge, draft and rework content, support a judgement and carry multi-step digital work through, using tools where that helps. We actively look for manual work where it could save time, add capacity or improve the process, then engineer the integrations, software and controls that make it dependable inside your real business process. If AI genuinely adds nothing to a step, we won't force it in.
What happens if I want XPLORATECH to build it?
We scope and quote the build from your Roadmap as a separate piece of work: implementation is not included in the Audit.
How do you assess potential value?
From your evidence, with every assumption visible, and calculated in code so the same inputs always give the same answer. Values show time returned; we don't guarantee savings, and time returned is not automatically cash.
Does the Audit consider security?
Yes, as part of judging what is practical. For each opportunity we look at the systems and data involved, the access a solution would need and the controls the workflow calls for, and that shapes the solution and architecture the Roadmap recommends. It doesn't replace a penetration test, a formal security audit or legal compliance advice.
What information do you need from me?
A short Intake questionnaire, where ranges and "I don't know" are fine, and the 60-minute Audit Call with the people who know the work. No technical knowledge needed.
START WITH A CONVERSATION
Start with a free Discovery Call.
Tell us where the time goes and where you think AI could help. We'll tell you honestly whether an Audit is the right next step.