You're probably drowning in manual tasks right now. You know, the stuff that makes your team groan when they walk into work Monday morning. The endless data entry, the "quick" processes that somehow take three hours, the things you keep saying you'll fix "when we have time."
Sound familiar?
Here's the thing: we used to be drowning too. We built AmpStack out of a need we saw everywhere: companies wasting thousands of hours on manual work that computers could handle in minutes. We needed it bad.
The biggest mistake? Trying to automate everything at once. (Trust us, we learned this the hard way.) The companies that actually succeed start small and build momentum.
After helping hundreds of companies escape manual chaos, we've figured out the five processes you should automate first. These aren't just good ideas. They're the ones that consistently deliver results fast enough to prove automation works.
1. Invoice Processing (Because Nobody Likes Chasing Paper)
You know what's soul-crushing? Watching your finance team spend hours typing numbers from PDFs into spreadsheets. We've seen companies where the AP person dreads Monday mornings because there's a pile of invoices waiting.
Here's what automation actually does:
- Pulls data straight from PDF invoices (no more squinting at blurry vendor stamps)
- Checks everything against your purchase orders automatically
- Routes approvals to the right people based on dollar amounts
- Pays vendors on time without anyone having to remember
What you'll see:
- Your AP process goes from days to hours
- Vendors stop calling to ask where their money is
- Your finance team can focus on actual analysis instead of data entry
- You know exactly when money's going out (no surprises)
Start here: Pick your most common, boring invoices first. The ones that look exactly the same every month. Quick wins build momentum.
2. Employee Onboarding (And Making Sure Ex-Employees Can't Access Your Stuff)
Ever had a new hire sit around for their first week because IT forgot to create their accounts? Or worse, realized six months later that the person who left in January still has access to everything?
Unfortunately, most companies wing it when it comes to getting people set up or locked out. It's chaos.
Here's what automation fixes:
- Creates all the accounts your new person needs (automatically, on their start date)
- Sends welcome messages and training schedules without anyone forgetting
- Orders their laptop and tracks delivery
- The second someone leaves, all access is gone instantly
What changes:
- New hires actually start working on day one instead of waiting around
- You sleep better knowing ex-employees can't log into anything
- Every new person gets the same great experience, regardless of their manager
- IT stops getting interrupted every time someone joins or leaves
Start here: Make a list of every system your people use. All of them. Then automate creating and destroying access. The security alone is worth it.
3. Lead Qualification (So Your Sales Team Stops Chasing Junk)
You know what kills sales teams? Getting a "hot lead" that turns out to be a college student doing research for a paper. Or worse, having a real buyer sit in your system for three days before anyone responds.
We see it constantly: marketing sends over leads, sales wastes time on bad ones, good ones slip through the cracks. It's maddening.
Here's what happens when you automate this:
- The system figures out which leads are actually worth pursuing (based on real behavior, not just wishful thinking)
- Good leads go straight to your best reps, automatically
- Follow-up happens instantly, even if your sales team is in meetings
- Marketing and sales actually talk to each other (through data)
What you'll notice:
- Your sales team stops complaining about lead quality
- Response times go from "whenever" to "immediately"
- More prospects turn into customers because nothing falls through cracks
- You can finally tell which marketing efforts actually drive revenue
Start here: Set up basic lead scoring first. Just flag the obvious good ones and obvious junk. Then get fancy.
4. Expense Reports (The Thing Everyone Hates)
Let's be honest: expense reports suck. Your people hate filling them out, your finance team hates processing them, and somehow there's always that one person who submits a $200 "business dinner" at a steakhouse with no explanation.
What automation does:
- Scans receipts and fills out the form automatically (no more deciphering crumpled papers from wallets)
- Catches policy violations before they hit finance (goodbye, mysterious "consulting fees")
- Routes approvals to the right people instantly
- Pays people back without finance having to chase down missing receipts
The difference you'll see:
- Expense reports go from quarterly torture to "did that already happen?"
- Policy violations basically disappear
- Your team actually likes the expense process (we know, weird)
- You know exactly where money's going without digging through spreadsheets
Start here: Get receipt scanning working first. Once people see they can snap a photo and be done, they'll love you forever.
5. Customer Support Routing (So People Actually Get Help)
Nothing's worse than a customer with a billing question getting routed to tech support, then bounced to sales, then back to tech support. By the time they get to the right person, they're furious about a problem that could've been solved in two minutes.
Automation sorts this out:
- Reads what the customer actually wrote and sends them to the right team immediately
- Flags urgent issues from important customers (no more VIPs stuck in general queues)
- Routes technical problems to technical people, billing questions to billing people (revolutionary, we know)
- Keeps customers updated automatically so they don't wonder if you forgot about them
What improves:
- Customers get answers faster instead of getting bounced around
- Your support team handles things they're actually good at
- Customer satisfaction scores go up because people aren't frustrated before you even start helping
- You can see which types of problems happen most and actually fix the root causes
Start here: Set up basic keyword routing. "billing" goes to billing, "password" goes to tech. Get fancy later.
How to Actually Make This Happen (Without Overwhelming Everyone)
Here's what we've learned: automation momentum is everything. Start with something that makes people's lives obviously better, then build from there.
Month 1: Pick the Obvious Win Start with expense reports or invoice processing. These are boring enough that nobody will resist, and the results are immediate and visible.
Months 2-3: Get Sales Excited Tackle lead qualification and routing next. Sales teams love getting better leads, and they'll become your automation champions.
Months 4-6: Handle the Complex Stuff Now hit employee onboarding/offboarding. It requires more setup, but by now people trust that automation actually works.
Month 6+: Keep the Momentum Going Expand to customer support and whatever other manual chaos you've identified. By now, automation is just how you do things.
Don't Make These Mistakes (We See Them All the Time)
Starting with the hardest thing first: We get it, you want to automate the most painful process. But if it's complex and everyone's resistant, you'll fail. Start boring and build credibility.
Forgetting about the humans: The best automation in the world fails if your team doesn't use it. Involve people in designing solutions, don't just impose them.
Automating broken processes: If your manual process is a mess, automating it just creates automated mess. Fix it first, then automate.
Not measuring anything: If you can't show that automation is working, people will assume it's not. Track time saved, errors reduced, whatever matters most.
Here's What Happens Next
The beautiful thing about automation? Each win makes the next one easier. You build internal expertise, people stop being scared of change, and suddenly everyone's suggesting processes to automate.
Companies that start with these five typically automate 15-20 more processes within their first year. It becomes a way of thinking, not just a project.
You know what? We'd be honored to help you figure out where to start. The manual chaos doesn't have to continue forever.
Ready to stop drowning in manual work? Let's talk about which of your processes are screaming for automation.