Manual processes, tool chaos and a lack of overview: these problems not only cost companies time, but also money, motivation and growth. In this article, we show you the three biggest time wasters that we see time and time again with our customers - and how you can easily eliminate them with modern no-code solutions.
Time waster 1: How manual processes block your efficiency - and how no-code can help
Do you recognise yourself?
It's Friday afternoon.
You first open the ERP system to export the invoice data.
Then you jump into CRM to mark open deals and then you manually copy figures into an Excel document requested by your manager.
Because the formulas aren't quite right, formatting takes almost half an hour.
When you finally send the report, you get a message back: "Customer XY's project is missing. The invoice came in yesterday."
- You search in the e-mails
- then in Excel project lists
- then in the PDF export and you find the invoice - but in a completely different format.
So: adjust again, save again, send again.
And this is just one of many other manual tasks.
What happened here?
- Data must be collected manually from 4 tools
- Formats do not match and must be adjusted manually
- Current information is missing because someone did not maintain it immediately
That costs time, nerves - and trust
- Employees lose several hours per month with manual reporting
- The probability of incorrect data increases massively
- Frustration arises because everything "feels like work" without any real work having been done
Mini facts
Studies show: Teams lose up to 8 hours per week due to manual work and copy-paste.
Source: The Stepstonegroup
Solution with No-Code & Blinno
We at Blinno automate precisely such reports:
- monday.com dashboards that bring together live data from CRM, ERP & project tools
- Make.com scenarios that automatically retrieve, convert & merge figures from different sources
- Automated report creation, e.g. as a PDF or in a dashboard
Practical example
Cognito Treuhand GmbH saves several hours per month thanks to automated invoicing with Make & monday.com - the month-end closing is now completed in minutes instead of a day.
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How long do you need for your monthly report? If it takes longer than 5 minutes, automation is your solution.
Time waster 2: Tool chaos in the company: When systems don't talk to each other
Do you recognise yourself?
- You want to know how far along the new customer project is.
- You first open the Excel project board and see no updates since last week.
- Then check the Microsoft Teams channel archive. Maybe someone has written something there?
- Next, you look in your project management tool, but certain information is missing here too.
After 15 minutes you know: Actually, you don't know anything.
- Your colleague has saved the list locally, your assistant uses Google Sheets.
- The figures in CRM do not match the reports in Excel.
- And the customer is just asking about the project status.
What is the problem here?
- Data is scattered around: CRM, Excel, Slack, email, Notion, Teams, Drive... but nothing is synchronised.
- Outdated tools: Excel as project management? Only as long as your team consists of 2 people.
- No overview: If everyone is working somewhere else, nobody knows who is doing what and why.
- Unnecessary meetings: Only to collate information.
Ask yourself:
- How many tools do you use every day - and how many of them are really linked?
- How often does it happen that two people work on different versions?
- Do you have a place where all data is up-to-date and centrally accessible?
Mini facts
Studies show that employees lose up to one working day per week due to tool switching, data searches and a lack of synchronisation.
Sources: Harvard Business Review & Unleash
Solution with no-code platforms & integrations
With monday.com as the central platform and Make.com for integration, you can:
- Bundle projects, tasks, deadlines & communication in one place
- Set up automatic updates, status changes & notifications
- Seamlessly integrate Excel, CRM & other tools
We can use various no-code tools to connect different systems - without having to write a single line of code.
This has the advantage of
- there is centralised data management instead of a proliferation of tools
- Automated synchronisation between ERP, CRM, marketing & project tools is possible
- No more duplicates - a standardised, reliable data basis is available
Practical example
At the international market research company Kantar Verian, we automatically merged complex data from SAP SalesCloud and HubSpot.
The result: standardised customer data, measurable campaigns and a clear overview of all data
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