TML had developed a collection of complex spreadsheets to control and organise their flow of work.

These spreadsheets tracked jobs from initial request through to completion and billing, and were the basis of invoicing clients and paying their drivers.

But as the company grew and took on more drivers and more business, the administration overheads of keeping these spreadsheets up to date became a serious issue.

Long hours of work were required every evening just to keep on top of the process, and to be ready for the early morning despatch meeting the next day.

I worked closely with the company directors to understand their business model, their challenges, and their vision for the future.

Step by step, we introduced improved spreadsheet design practices, implemented more robust data quality controls, and (most importantly) implemented software to automate key business processes, performing them far faster and with greater accuracy than was previously possible.

I wrote software to download new job requests from major clients; to aggregate, raise and submit weekly invoices, and to calculate payments owed to drivers for the journeys made.

The initial project to automate operations was quickly followed by others to automate billing, synchronise business data across their 4 sites, and to calculate payments due to drivers.

Many tedious, manual tasks that had previously taken hours to complete were replaced with automated routines that ran in seconds or minutes.

Data in the workbooks was also used to provide business insights, and enabled a driver bonus scheme to be rolled out.

TML managed to regain control of their business, and the directors had time again for other things besides work.