5 key benefits of workflow automation

If manual processes are slowing you down, causing errors, and eating into your profits, you need workflow automation. With workflow automation, you automate specific tasks and processes in your business to overcome some of the problems inherent in manual work.

The good news is that a surprising number of workflows are ripe for automation. That’s according to research by enterprise technology provider WorkMarket, which found that 74 percent of respondents think automation could handle at least some of their daily tasks.

Workflow automation comes with a whole heap of benefits too. Below, we outline five of the most important.

1. Save time

How much of your employees’ time is consumed by repetitive work that could be automated? Chances are it’s a lot. For example, according to Gartner, accounting teams spend up to 30 percent of their time on manual accounting rework. For a company with 40 full-time accountants, automating those tasks would save 25,000 hours of staff time.

When you implement workflow automation, employees don’t have to do monotonous, time-intensive tasks. Instead, you free up their time so they can help your business grow.

2. Save money

Automation doesn’t just save your company time; it can save you money. This happens in several ways.

The first is a direct result of saving time, which leaves your team free to focus on revenue-generating activities. Second, by adopting new workflow automation software, companies can reduce their reliance on the expensive and outdated legacy solutions employees need to complete manual work. Third, fewer errors combined with an increase in compliance means organizations spend less money fixing mistakes and dealing with regulatory issues.

3. Increase productivity

This benefit is pretty straightforward, and we’ve touched on it already. When your team doesn’t have to waste time on repetitive tasks, they have more time to focus on work that matters and are more productive as a result.

With repetitive busywork removed, employees are also less likely to experience the brain drain that can occur when completing mind-numbing tasks. This can leave them more motivated to work harder on important tasks.

4. Reduce errors

Manual processes aren’t just time-intensive — they’re also often prone to errors.

These errors can occur in any number of ways. Handwritten forms can be hard to read, and team members can enter information from digital forms improperly or make incorrect manual calculations. Worse still, the more repetitive the task, the more likely it is that employees will lose focus and make a mistake.

By applying workflow automation solutions to automate data entry and approval workflows, you can all but eliminate human error. For example, there’s no need to manually input data into multiple systems because once the data is recorded, it can be automatically shared between spreadsheets and databases.

5. Streamline approvals

Manual approval processes are an enormous time suck. They can slow down workflows and lead to errors and missed deadlines. Often, employees spend more time sending and chasing documents than they do signing off on work and tackling tasks.

Digitize and automate the approval process, and all of these problems disappear. With automatic routing, sign-offs are sent to the correct approver based on conditional logic as soon as someone completes a step in the process. Approvers get automatic notifications to remind them that documents are waiting for their attention.

Get started with workflow automation with Jotform

Jotform’s suite of software tools is the perfect way for any business, big or small, to get started with workflow automation.

Use Jotform’s wide range of form and PDF templates to automate the data-collection process for every department, from HR to sales. Collect and manage all of that data in one place using Jotform Tables. Automate approval processes using Jotform’s approval templates that route sign-offs and remind users without you having to lift a finger. Get started for free today.