The Task Every Business Dreads. We Automated It.
Last week we opened The Lab, a set of free tools built from what we keep noticing across client work. The Process Finder looks at something you do on repeat and shows you where the time actually goes. We pointed it at something real to see what it would say.
Every business has one: the task everyone dreads and nobody's fixed because it's "just how we do it." For one of our clients, it was invoicing.
Here's what one month actually looked like for them:
1. Log into the time tracker, export hours per client
2. Calculate totals by hand
3. Build each invoice individually in Excel
4. Export every invoice to PDF
5. Email each one out, one by one
6. Spend the next two weeks chasing unpaid invoices
Six manual steps, followed by two straight weeks of follow-up, every single month. So we ran their exact process through our Process Finder tool from The Lab, just to see what it would find.
It didn't just say ‘automate this.’ It sketched out the whole workflow: pulling time data, calculating rates, generating invoices, emailing clients, and sending payment reminders, using tools they likely already have, like Zapier, Google Sheets, and an automated invoicing platform. No one touches Excel. No one chases a client by hand.
Our client is building it out now, starting with the invoicing step. Nothing about the work has changed yet, but for the first time, someone actually looked at it straight instead of just living with it. That's really why we built The Lab: so more people can get that same look at their own work.
What's the Task Your Team Dreads Most?
The Process Finder is the one tool in The Lab, built the way we approach everything else: look closely at what's actually happening, then hand back something useful. Describe what you do on repeat and see what it finds. It's free, and there's nothing to sign up for.
