A process audit is not a list of recommendations. It is the full picture of how your business works today. In other words, the paths, the tools, the data and the waits. First the picture, then the decisions.

Last week, we spent an hour and a half with a partner redefining what our own audit should be. His remark stung: a diagnosis with three tips is something everyone does. What is missing, in his view, is a complete twin of the business.

Process audit: why the classic diagnosis is not enough

The classic process audit ends with a report full of recommendations. However, those recommendations rest on what the owner said, not on what really happens.

In fact, an owner describes the business the way they think it works. Yet between a client’s request and their payment, there are a dozen small actions nobody mentions, because nobody sees them. For example, an address typed in a second time, then an email forwarded to the right person, or a follow-up done from memory.

This is not a new finding, either. In a Harvard Business Review article from 2007, Michael Hammer already explained that companies fail to improve their processes without a structured assessment of their actual state. So the picture comes before the advice.

What the full picture of a process audit contains

A complete process audit captures four layers. Otherwise, the picture stays blurry.

  • The paths: the real route of a request, an order or a complaint, step by step.
  • The tools: every piece of software, every spreadsheet, every inbox involved along those paths.
  • The data: what gets typed in, where, how many times, and by whom.
  • The waits: the time that passes between two steps, the time nobody measures.

Only then do you understand how the business creates its value. As a result, the decisions become obvious: what to automate, what to delegate, what to remove. Sometimes even which job should change shape.

Process audit: the five-step method for a small business

A process audit in a company with fewer than twenty people fits in five steps. Still, none of them needs special software.

First, pick a single path. The most frequent one, or the one that annoys you most. For example, a quote request comes in. Then, take a real request, the last one you received, and follow it all the way to payment. Above all, not an imaginary request: a real one, with its snags.

Magnifying glass held over a row of brass gears with one out of line, an image of a process audit

Next, write down every action: who does what, in which tool, and how much time passes before the next step. After that, mark in red every double entry and every wait longer than a day. Finally, repeat the exercise on a second path the following week.

After three paths, you have a map. Admittedly, it looks like a wall covered in red threads. That is normal, and that is exactly what was missing.

What you almost always find

A process audit rarely reveals one big problem. Instead, it reveals twenty small ones that add up.

The first, almost every time, is double entry. The same information typed into three different tools, because nothing links them. We already described that badly assembled piece of furniture in our article on how to connect your tools.

The second is knowledge stuck in one head. A step that only one person knows how to do, with no written trace. So the day that person is away, the path stops. That is why the picture also serves as the base to document your processes.

The third is the invisible wait. A request that sits two days in an inbox before anyone reads it. Nobody sees it, since no clock is running on it. Yet that is often where the client leaves.

Why you redo the process audit after every change

A process audit is not a document you file away. Rather, it is a picture you take again after every change, in order to compare.

For example, at one client, we automated a step and thought we had fixed the path. Then, in the next picture, we saw the problem had simply moved one step down. Without the comparison, nobody would have noticed for months.

In this way, the audit becomes a library. Each version shows what changed, what worked, and what is left to do. That is what lets you grow without rebuilding every time.

Ask yourself this question before you change anything

Can you describe, step by step and tool by tool, what happens between a client’s request and their payment? If you hesitate at a single step, then your process audit starts there.

And if you want us to take the picture with you, write to us.

Frequently asked questions

What is a process audit?

A process audit is the full picture of how your business works: the path a request travels, the tools used at each step, the data that moves around, and the time lost between two steps. The picture comes before the recommendations.

How long does a process audit take in a small business?

For a company with fewer than twenty people, plan one to two weeks of following real requests, not filling in a questionnaire. Most of the time goes into watching, not writing.

Do you need a consultant for a process audit?

Not for the first picture. Follow one request yourself from start to finish and write down every tool, every person and every wait. An outside eye becomes useful later, to decide what to change without picking the wrong priority.

Terry Vilver, co-founder of Meriaky

About the author

Terry Vilver · Co-founder of Meriaky

A computer engineer with 5 years of experience between EDF (France’s national electricity provider) and Meriaky. At EDF, he built a ticketing system that automatically assigns customer files to the right operators. For the past 2 years at Meriaky, he has been helping small business owners free themselves from repetitive tasks: client follow-up runs automatically, and they save time and money.

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