10 workflows companies can automate
The best candidates are often found in the handovers between email, spreadsheets and line-of-business systems. Here are ten types of workflows worth investigating — without assuming that the whole process must run without people.
In short
- Look for repetition, manual data transfers and waiting time between systems.
- Automate the predictable steps and send uncertain cases to a responsible employee.
- Prioritise by frequency, time spent, data quality and the consequence of errors.
- Measure the process before and after, so the effect can be documented.
1–3: Sales and customer management
1. Inquiries can be registered automatically from forms and shared inboxes. The solution can check contact details, create a lead in the CRM and send a confirmation. If the subject or sender is unclear, the inquiry can be placed in a queue for manual distribution rather than being routed incorrectly.
2. Quotes can be prepared from approved product data, customer agreements and standard templates. The automation can gather information and create a draft, while an employee still assesses the price, terms and the final quote. This reduces copying without moving the commercial responsibility to software.
3. Follow-up can be driven by agreed events. When a quote has gone unanswered, or a customer is missing a document, the system can create a task or send an approved reminder. Rules for frequency and stopping are important, so the communication does not become mechanical or intrusive.
4–6: Finance and administration
4. Receipts can be pulled from a dedicated inbox, checked for file type and linked to the correct supplier or case. Document understanding can suggest an amount and date, but sensitive or uncertain fields should be validated before anything is posted to the accounts.
5. The basis for invoicing can be assembled from time tracking, subscriptions or deliveries. The automation can find missing entries and produce a draft for review. This is especially useful when the manual work consists of reconciling the same data sources every month.
6. Approval flows can route expenses, purchases or agreements to the right person based on amount, department and type. Each decision can be logged, and a deadline can trigger a reminder or escalation. This provides oversight, but requires clearly defined roles and amount thresholds.
7–8: Operations and customer service
7. Support cases can be categorised and enriched with customer details, the agreement and the relevant system status. A rules engine can handle clear-cut topics, while AI can suggest a category for free text. The employee should be able to correct the suggestion, and high-priority cases must follow safe, documented rules.
8. Operational alerts can be collected, filtered and linked to a known service. Repeated signals can be grouped, so the team sees one incident rather than many identical messages. The automation can create a case and call in the right on-call person, but critical actions should require clear authorisation and have a manual emergency procedure.
9–10: Employees and reporting
9. Onboarding and offboarding can be coordinated from an approved employee record. Tasks for equipment, access, licences and introduction can be distributed automatically and tracked to completion. The actual granting of sensitive permissions should follow the principle of least privilege and have a responsible approver.
10. Management reporting can pull the agreed key figures from the source systems, check whether the data is complete and update a dashboard or a report. This removes repeated copying, but not the need to explain the trend. The definition of each key figure must be shared, otherwise you are simply automating the disagreement.
The list is inspiration, not a definitive answer. A workflow only becomes a good candidate when it occurs often enough, can be described, has available data and has a clear owner. Start by observing the actual work. Shortcuts and exceptions often tell you more than the official process description.
How to choose the first workflow
Gather three to five candidates and assess them in the same way. Note the number of repetitions, total time spent, errors, waiting time, systems and data quality. Also describe the consequence if the solution gets it wrong. A high-volume, low-risk process is often a better first project than a rare process with major business-critical importance.
Then choose the smallest coherent part that can deliver value. It might be preparing a case rather than approving it automatically, or a report draft rather than automatic distribution. Once that part works reliably, the next step can be added on a better basis for decisions.
Agree in advance on how the effect is measured, who monitors errors, and when the process should be stopped or sent for manual handling. This turns the automation into a controlled operational process rather than a hidden script that only one person understands.
Next steps
Use our guide to choosing the right process, or read about how Webits works with IT automation and system integrations. A concrete assessment starts with your current workflow, not with a particular tool.