Leck Tech Contact

Small Business Operations Efficiency Check

Find out how much staff time you could get back by automating repetitive work, and how much your business depends on a few people and manual steps. 15 everyday questions, about 3 minutes, no technical knowledge needed.

  • Free, no email required to see your results
  • Want more precision? Each area has optional deeper questions (10 in all) with tips on how to find the answers
  • Your answers stay in your browser unless you choose to send them
  • Covers onboarding, approvals, invoicing, scheduling, reporting, key person risk and data accuracy

Answer from what you know. In the scored questions, “Not sure” is fine: it counts the same as “Partly” and goes on a short list of things worth finding out.

Where you could get time back

These questions are not scored. They show where automation is most likely to give your team time back.

When someone new starts, does setting up their accounts, software, equipment and paperwork take hours of manual steps?
Is the same information typed into more than one system, such as orders into accounting or form entries into a spreadsheet?
Do approvals (purchases, quotes, time off, expenses) mean chasing people by email or on paper?
Are invoices, statements or payment reminders created or sent by hand?
Does booking appointments, jobs or staff shifts take back and forth calls and emails?
Does someone build the same report or spreadsheet by hand every week or month?
Do customers or staff fill in paper or PDF forms that someone then types up?

About your business

How many people work in your business?

Key people

If your most experienced employee were out for two weeks, could others keep the important work going?
Does more than one trusted person have the logins and admin access for your key systems (email, website, domain name, accounting)?
Are your key processes written down where staff can find them?
Go deeper: 4 technical questions (optional)

Answer any you can; skip the rest. Here “Not sure” counts as a gap and goes on your list of questions for your IT provider.

Each critical task (payroll, billing, ordering, opening and closing) has at least two people who can do it.

How to find out: Make a list of critical tasks with the names of everyone who could do each one today.

Procedures are reviewed at least once a year and kept in one place everyone can find.

How to find out: Check when your procedures were last updated and whether staff know where they are.

There is a list of your key vendors, accounts and renewal dates that someone else could pick up.

How to find out: Ask who would know when your domain name, software subscriptions and internet contract renew.

Admin passwords for key systems are kept in a business password manager with emergency access, not in one person's head or browser.

How to find out: Ask where the admin passwords for your email, website and accounting system are kept.

Systems and information

Does your business information live in proper systems (accounting, CRM, job or practice management) rather than spreadsheets one person maintains?
Do work requests and tasks live in a shared system, rather than in inboxes, sticky notes or memory?
Can you see the status of jobs, orders or projects without asking someone?
Go deeper: 3 technical questions (optional)

Answer any you can; skip the rest. Here “Not sure” counts as a gap and goes on your list of questions for your IT provider.

Each kind of information (customers, jobs, inventory, pricing) has one master record, not several copies kept in different places.

How to find out: Count how many places your customer list or price list is kept today.

Spreadsheets the business relies on are stored in the cloud with version history, not on one computer.

How to find out: Find the spreadsheets the business could not run without and check where each one is saved.

Your main systems can export data or connect to other tools, through built in integrations or an API.

How to find out: Look in each main system's settings or help pages for integrations, exports or an API.

Accuracy

Do mistakes like wrong prices, addresses or amounts get caught before they reach a customer?
Do you know roughly how much time your team spends on admin and paperwork each week?
Go deeper: 3 technical questions (optional)

Answer any you can; skip the rest. Here “Not sure” counts as a gap and goes on your list of questions for your IT provider.

Forms and systems check entries (required fields, valid amounts, known customers) before they are saved.

How to find out: Try entering an obviously wrong amount or a missing field in your main system and see whether it stops you.

Key numbers (invoices against payments, stock against orders) are reconciled on a regular schedule.

How to find out: Ask your bookkeeper how often invoices and payments are matched, and how long it takes.

You track a few operational numbers (turnaround time, errors, backlog) to spot problems early.

How to find out: Ask whether anyone could say today how long a typical order or job takes from start to finish.