By Mo Hussein
1 min read
The problem
Recruitment agencies placing contractors often run timesheets on spreadsheets and WhatsApp. Hours get chased every week, overtime is worked out by hand, and the same figures are typed again into invoices, self-bills and Xero.
Three people, three steps
Rather than design one system for everyone, we designed one step for each person involved.
- The contractor submits hours from a phone web app that keeps working without signal, because plenty of them work on sites with poor coverage.
- The client approves from an email, without creating an account, because a login is the step most clients never get round to.
- The agency gets the paperwork made from the approved hours: overtime worked out, the client invoice and the self-bill raised, and both sent to Xero as drafts.
What we learned
Every extra step for a contractor or client is a step that can be skipped. A skipped step lands back on the agency as chasing. That's why client approval needs no login at all.
The same idea works in most service businesses. Find the person whose step is slowest, and make it smaller. If you know whose step that is in your business, it's a good thing to bring to a discovery call.
