Simplicating

A practical Simplicating guide

Stop entering the same customer information twice.

A few extra keystrokes can look harmless. Repeated across every job, they cost time and create chances for disagreement.

Imagine a customer asks for a job. Someone records the address in an email, copies it into a schedule, then types it again for the invoice. Each step made sense when it began. Together, they form a process worth revisiting.

Follow one real job

Choose a recently completed job and follow its information from the first contact through billing. Ask the people who do the work to show you what actually happened, including their spreadsheets and workarounds.

  1. Where was the customer’s name, address, and job request first recorded?
  2. Who entered or corrected that information later?
  3. Which copy would an employee trust if two versions disagreed?
  4. Where did someone wait or ask another person for status?

Do not begin by choosing software. First decide what information the process truly needs and who should own its accuracy.

Give each fact an authoritative home

Your team can use several systems without maintaining several equally authoritative versions of a fact. For each important item—customer address, quoted price, job status—decide where its current value lives and how other people get it. Record exceptions such as a job-site address that differs from the billing address.

Before: Sales, scheduling, and billing each keep a partial version of the order.
After: Each team still makes its own decisions, but everyone works from one current order and a visible history of changes.

Test one change

Pick one repeated entry and remove it for a small set of jobs. That might mean a shared form, a clearer handoff, or connecting existing tools. Have the team check accuracy and exception handling before expanding the change.

Try this today: On one sheet, write “Fact,” “Where first collected,” “Current authoritative home,” and “Where reused.” Fill it out for one customer job. Circle every place the same fact is typed again.

Count the minutes saved per job and the number of jobs each week. The book’s simple estimate is minutes per occurrence × occurrences per week × 50 weeks × loaded hourly cost ÷ 60. Add error and delay costs separately; avoid treating an estimate as a guaranteed saving.

Adapted from the book’s discussions of recurring friction, authoritative information, and end-to-end work.