How Automation Reduces Admin Task Overload

Reclaim time, cut busywork, & focus on what matters

You don’t need an enterprise-sized budget for automation to make a big impact on your organization. Small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) can use automation to streamline administrative tasks so they can spend more time on their core responsibilities.

How automation helps small businesses

Here are just a handful of applications for automation technologies that are useful and accessible for SMBs.

Customer service

For customers, part of the appeal of working with a small business is building relationships with real people. However, that doesn’t mean they want to wait for answers to their questions. Automating some aspects of your customer service will streamline and enhance your ability to deliver that great experience. 

Customer service chatbots trained on your support materials can deliver those answers automatically. Automated agents can walk through initial steps for more complicated queries and then schedule a follow-up with a human representative.

Customers get answers faster without losing the human element they expect.

Data entry & document management

Whether your records are paper or electronic, updating and organizing them manually takes a lot of time. Intelligent document processing takes much of this work off your plate while providing consistently high-quality results.

For instance, rather than spending an hour organizing a pile of forms and processing them in small batches, use a scanner to upload them to the intelligent document processing tool. It will classify invoices, reports and other papers in one batch and send their contents where they belong.

Financial management

Use automated accounts payable solutions to create and deliver invoices and reminders, then mark them paid when the money arrives in your bank account. Automated timesheets track individual employee hours and present them for easy approval.

Finally, intelligent bookkeeping hooks into each of these processes to give you an up-to-date look at your fiscal health whenever you need it.

Scheduling

Plotting employee shift schedules out on paper or a spreadsheet is time-consuming, even for just a handful of employees. Automating that work ensures your bases are always covered.

All you need to do is plug in employee availability, your hours of operation and any other special considerations such as limited equipment or customer preferences. You’ll get a schedule that automatically accounts for those variables.

Project management

Not only does automating your project management allow for faster work, but it can also free up time; there’s no need to spend an hour on a catch-up meeting when everyone can see the exact status of the entire project with just a few taps or clicks.

Project management automation helps you make the most of that advantage by intelligently tracking processes, notifying key users when dependent tasks are complete and much more.

Supply management

Paper, sticky notes and coffee pods. Those are just a few examples of supplies you know your business needs on a daily basis. So why spend time ordering and re-ordering the same items?

Walmart Business lets you subscribe to products you order frequently,¹ so you can lock in low prices while you avoid running out. That means more time working at your best and less time catching up.

Do more with less

Looking for more ways to save time and money for your business?

Sign up for a Walmart Business account and you’ll unlock access to our complete selection of tools, tips and insights that help build stronger businesses, as well as helpful features such as free curbside pickup² and free, fast shipping.³

Create even more efficiencies for your business with one of three Walmart Business+ membership plans. Each tier includes free shipping, no order minimum,⁴ and free delivery from store,⁵ $35 minimum. You’ll even start earning 2% back in Walmart Business Rewards on orders of $250 or more.⁶

You don’t have to be a big corporation to benefit from automating your processes. You just have to know where a little bit of effort now can make the biggest impact in the future.

¹ Shipping, delivery, and minimum order fees may apply. Eligible items only. Terms apply.

²​​ $35 minimum order. Excludes most Marketplace items, freight & certain location surcharges.

³ $35 minimum. Restrictions apply.

⁴ Excludes most marketplace items. Freight & location surcharges may apply.

⁵ Restrictions apply. 

⁶ Rewards can only be used toward future purchases on Walmart Business. Additional terms apply.