We are living through a time of little or no economic growth for some market segments. Uncertainty has run through 2020 since March, when the quarantine began, "recalculating the route" of the strategic plans devised the year before.
Since growth never arrived for many — mainly because of the pandemic context we are living in — it is time for business owners to "get their house in order": review investment plans, revenue plans and, above all, costs.
HOW TO GET YOUR HOUSE IN ORDER?
An efficient way to do this is by automating administrative and operational record-keeping processes.
We are already halfway through 2020, and there are still companies with a high rate of manual operations in their administrative, financial, and production planning and control (PCP) processes.
The shortest path between the current problem and the solution is being able to count on a financial system that bills contracts automatically (issuing payment slips, electronic service invoices (NFS-e), and invoices with a single command — or none at all, just a schedule set up as defined in the contract).
EVERYTHING DIFFERENT IN YOUR DAY-TO-DAY
Have you ever considered the possibility of your company having an invoice issuer that, with a single command, issues the invoice (NF), then sends the customer an email with a PDF file, an XML, and a personalized message?
Or the possibility of your salesperson out in the field checking stock and prices and placing orders? All of it without exchanging a single phone call, WhatsApp message, or email — everything through the system.
Another advantage of having a purchasing planning system, for example, is detecting purchasing needs automatically and, with a single command, determining everything that needs to be bought, by supplier and by period, taking into account your order book, your inventory, or an analysis of your consumption history.
QUALITY TIME UNDER YOUR CONTROL
Imagine how much time would be saved on these operations alone. Convert that time into financial gain, considering the cost per hour of each operation and the sum of them all. That may well be a way out: cutting costs while increasing productivity.
The acquisition of an ERP system should primarily take the cost-benefit ratio into account — in other words, it should be treated as an investment.
When it comes to process automation, you must put down on paper the current operating costs plus the cost of the risk of performing an operation incorrectly. A payment slip that never gets sent, purchasing planned outside the lead time, production planned outside the feasible window for producing and delivering to the customer — these can multiply the company's operating costs several times over, not to mention those customers who charge contractual penalties for production stoppages caused by supply shortages.
The solution is very close to you. Plan ahead, research the best solution, and take your company to a new level of administrative and financial management.
Originally published in Portuguese at useall.com.br.