The short answer
Before anyone prices automation for order entry, measure one normal week. Count how many orders arrive, how many times each one is handled, how long it waits before it is entered, and how often it is corrected afterwards. Those four numbers tell you whether the work is worth automating and where the time really goes.
Most teams guess, and the guess is usually typing time. Typing is the smallest part. Waiting for a missing detail, looking up a code and fixing a wrong line are where a week goes. This sheet makes them visible in five working days, with no software.
1. Pick one ordinary week
Choose a week without a holiday, a price change or a stock take. One ordinary week is more honest than a month of estimates.
Tell the team why. The sheet measures the work, not the people. If people think they are being timed, the numbers will flatter.
2. Log every order once, when it arrives
One row per order. Write the time it landed and how it arrived, as email text, a PDF, a spreadsheet, a portal or a phone call. It takes seconds, and it is the step teams skip.
3. Mark each touch
A touch is any time someone opens the order to do something with it. Reading it, asking the customer a question, looking up a code, typing it in, fixing it later. Add one each time.
A clean order has two touches. Five or more means something is missing before the order reaches the desk.
4. Give every wait and every fix a reason
Use a short fixed list so the week can be counted. Missing item code, unclear quantity or unit, price query, account query, stock query, duplicate, other. Free text cannot be added up on Friday.
5. Add it up on Friday
Count the orders and the lines. Work out the average touches, the share entered more than an hour after arriving, and the share fixed after entry. Then count the reasons. The top two reasons are your real project.
The blank sheet
One row per order, filled in as the week goes. Keep it where the orders are handled.
| Order ref | Arrived (day, time) | How it arrived | Lines | Touches | Entered (day, time) | Fixed after entry (yes or no) | Reason for wait or fix |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Download this sheet as a file for Excel
A worked example
Made up example. Every row here is made up to show the method. Northfield Fixings does not exist.
| Order ref | Arrived (day, time) | How it arrived | Lines | Touches | Entered (day, time) | Fixed after entry (yes or no) | Reason for wait or fix |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NF-1041 | Mon 08.12 | Email text | 6 | 2 | Mon 08.31 | No | |
| NF-1042 | Mon 08.40 | 23 | 4 | Mon 11.05 | No | Missing item code | |
| NF-1043 | Mon 09.15 | Spreadsheet | 58 | 3 | Mon 10.02 | Yes | Unclear quantity or unit |
| NF-1044 | Mon 10.30 | Email text | 4 | 5 | Mon 15.20 | No | Price query |
| NF-1045 | Tue 07.55 | 12 | 2 | Tue 08.20 | No | ||
| NF-1046 | Tue 09.05 | Email text | 9 | 4 | Tue 13.40 | No | Missing item code |
| NF-1047 | Tue 11.20 | 23 | 3 | Not entered | No | Duplicate of NF-1042 | |
| NF-1048 | Wed 08.03 | Spreadsheet | 41 | 2 | Wed 08.44 | No |
Download this sheet as a file for Excel
How to read the week
If most orders have two touches and none wait, the work is already cheap. Automating it would save typing and little else. Say so and move on.
If a third of the orders wait for a missing code or a unit, the hold up is matching what the customer wrote to what you sell. That is the part worth automating. It is also the part a simple document reader cannot do on its own.
If fixes after entry are common, look at what was wrong. A wrong quantity or unit points at pack sizes. A wrong item points at customer part numbers. Each has its own remedy.
What can change the answer
One very large order can swamp the averages. Note it, and look at the week with and without it.
Seasonal businesses should run the sheet again in a busy week. The reasons for delay often change when the volume doubles.
When this is the wrong tool
If orders already arrive through a portal or a link that writes straight into your system, there is little to measure here. Look at the orders that fall outside it instead.
If the team is three people and thirty orders a week, you probably know the answer already. Spend the hour fixing the top reason by hand.
What the four numbers tell you
| Number | How to work it out | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|
| Orders and lines a week | Count the rows and add up the lines | The size of the job. Lines matter more than orders |
| Average touches | Add up the touches and divide by the orders | How much handling an order needs beyond typing |
| Share that waited | Orders entered more than an hour after arriving, divided by all orders | How often something outside the desk holds an order up |
| Share fixed | Orders fixed after entry, divided by all orders | How often a mistake reaches your system |
What to do with the result
Take the four numbers and the top two reasons to whoever would build or buy the automation. A supplier who cannot say how they would handle your top reason has not understood your orders.
If you want a second opinion first, the five question check on this site takes the same facts and gives a plain answer in two minutes.