Enter it once
Every time the same thing is typed again you pay for it twice and can get it wrong twice.
Follow one customer's name through your office. It gets written on the estimate, then typed again into the schedule, the work order, the invoice and the payment. Every retype is somebody's minute and another chance to get it wrong. The best-run companies follow one rule: enter it once, and use it everywhere.
Key points
- Pick one job from last month and follow the customer's name: it can be typed five times, from the estimate to the payment.
- Every one of those is somebody's minute, and every one is a chance to get it wrong.
- One wrong digit in an address sends the crew to the wrong house. One wrong number on an invoice means you wait another month to get paid.
- Enter it once, and use it everywhere. Across every job and every week, that adds up to hours, and to mistakes that never happen.
- Every time the name gets typed again, that's time you're paying for twice.
Transcript
Here's a test for your office.
Pick one job from last month.
Now follow the customer's name.
It got written on the estimate.
Typed again into the schedule.
Again on the work order.
Again on the invoice.
And again when the payment came in.
Five times.
Same name, same address, same job.
Every one of those is somebody's minute.
And every one is a chance to get it wrong.
One wrong digit in an address, and the crew drives to the wrong house.
One wrong number on an invoice, and you wait another month to get paid.
The best-run companies follow one rule.
Enter it once, and use it everywhere.
The name goes in once, and every place that needs it already has it.
It sounds small.
But across every job, every week, it's hours.
And it's the mistakes that never happen.
So run the test.
Follow one name through your office.
Every time it gets typed again, that's time you're paying for it twice.