The path of a sale
Quote→Order→Delivery→Invoice
At each step, the same information comes back: customer, items, quantities, prices, discounts, delivery address. When it is copied out again, every step becomes a chance to make a mistake.
Do the maths
Re-keying time per document3 minutes
Steps re-keyed per sale4
Sales per month200
Time lost each month40 hours
An example to adapt with your own figures. Forty hours is a working week every month.
Is this an issue for your business?
Where the errors creep in
- A discount granted on the quote, forgotten on the invoice.
- A partial delivery invoiced as if everything had been delivered.
- Extra work done at the customer’s premises, never invoiced.
- A delivery address corrected in one document, but not in the others.
These errors take time to correct, and sometimes cost the customer’s trust.
The solution: one document that moves forward
In integrated business management software, the accepted quote becomes the order, the order becomes the delivery note, and the delivery note becomes the invoice. Nothing is copied out again: each step takes what is already known and adds only what has changed.
Key takeawayThe real cost of re-keying is not the three minutes it takes. It is the error it eventually lets through.
