Tips from our pilot services
Short, practical tips for small businesses
One tip at a time, each from one of our pilot services. Every tip links to its pilot and to a sample made from invented data.
These are pilots: we are learning which ones are worth building further. Every report is reviewed by a person before it reaches you, and nothing is sent to your customers on your behalf.
Missed-Call and Web-Inquiry Follow-Up List
Missed calls: return the safety problems first
A tip for home-service businesses: when you work through missed calls, return the ones that mention a safety problem first, such as a gas smell, a burst pipe or no heat in winter. Then go by how long each caller has been waiting.
Count the caller who also used your web form once
A tip for home-service businesses: the person who missed you by phone at 7pm often fills in your web form at 8pm. Match calls and form submissions by phone number or email, so one person is one lead and nobody who already got a reply gets a second call.
Reply to a lead the way they reached you
A tip for home-service businesses: answer a lead in the channel they used. If they texted, text back; if they filled in the form, email. Keep it to two or three sentences and name the job they asked about.
See the Missed-Call and Web-Inquiry Follow-Up List pilot and its sample
Stale Estimate Follow-Up List
Estimates: follow up within a week and name the job
A tip for contractors: follow up on an estimate within a week of sending it, and name the job and the estimate number in the first line, so the reader knows what you mean without opening an old email.
Keep a last-contact date on every estimate
A tip for contractors: write down the date of your last contact on every open estimate. A list sorted by days since that date shows where to start, and it keeps one customer from getting two follow-ups in a week.
Old estimates: confirm the price still holds
A tip for contractors: when an estimate is more than 60 days old, check whether the price and scope still hold before you chase it. A follow-up on a number that has moved can backfire.
Job-Cost Exception Report
Job costs: compare spend with progress, job by job
A tip for small construction firms: for each active job, compare how much of the budget is spent with how much of the work is done. A job whose spend runs well ahead of its progress deserves a look this week, not at closeout.
Check for a duplicate bill before it is paid twice
A tip for small construction firms: when the same vendor bills the same amount to the same job within a few days, check whether it is a duplicate before anyone pays both.
A cost on a closed job: late bill or wrong job number?
A tip for small construction firms: a cost that lands on a closed job can mean a late bill or the wrong job number. Ask which before anyone reopens the job or moves the cost.
Receipt and Invoice Match Review
Month-end: match the easy ones first
A tip for bookkeepers: at month end, match on the exact amount and a window of a few days first. What is left over, payments with no document and documents with no payment, is where the questions are, so that is where your time goes.
Receipt and charge differ? Note the reason once
A tip for bookkeepers: when a receipt and the charge for it differ by a few dollars, decide whether it is a tip, a fee or something else, and write down which. Then nobody answers the same question twice next month.
Check for duplicate receipts and duplicate charges
A tip for bookkeepers: before you close the month, look for two receipts for one charge and for two charges that share one receipt. Both are easy to miss when a month has dozens of lines.
See the Receipt and Invoice Match Review pilot and its sample
Unpaid Invoice Tracker with Draft Reminders
Invoice reminders: start friendly and specific
A tip for small service businesses: write the first reminder as if the invoice was simply missed. Put the invoice number, the amount and how to pay in the first lines, and keep the tone friendly; there is time to be firmer later.
Keep a list of invoices you are not chasing, and why
A tip for small service businesses: keep a short list of the invoices you are deliberately not chasing and the reason for each, such as a dispute, a partial payment or an agreed plan. It stops a reminder going to someone you are already talking to.
Which overdue invoice first? Oldest, then largest
A tip for small service businesses: when several invoices are past due, work through them oldest first and, among those, largest first. A simple aging table (current, 1 to 30 days, 31 to 60, 61 to 90 and over 90) shows where the money is waiting.
See the Unpaid Invoice Tracker with Draft Reminders pilot and its sample
CRM Duplicate and Data-Quality Check
CRM duplicates: use a rule you can explain
A tip for small sales teams: decide your duplicate rule before you merge anything, for example same email first, then same name and company, then same phone last, and write it down. A rule you can explain is one you can undo.
Clean the formats first, then look for duplicates
A tip for small sales teams: standardize the formats before you look for duplicates. Lowercase emails, ten-digit phone numbers and two-letter state codes make the same person look the same in every record.
Stale leads: set a cutoff and review them in one sitting
A tip for small sales teams: pick a cutoff for stale leads, for example no activity in 120 days, and review every lead past it in one sitting instead of a few at a time. Decide to re-engage, archive or delete, and note which.
See the CRM Duplicate and Data-Quality Check pilot and its sample
Product Catalog Cleanup and Cross-Store Check
Check barcode check digits before you upload
A tip for sellers on two stores: check the check digit on every GTIN before you upload a product file. A barcode with a wrong last digit can get a listing rejected, and it is easy to find in a spreadsheet before it is a problem.
Two stores: pick one source of truth
A tip for sellers on two stores: pick one store as the source of truth for titles, descriptions and prices, and compare the other to it. Differences then have a direction: you fix one copy, not both.
Before you copy a listing to another store, check its limits
A tip for sellers on two stores: stores set different limits for titles and require different fields. Check the title length limit and the required fields, such as brand and barcode, before you copy a listing across.
See the Product Catalog Cleanup and Cross-Store Check pilot and its sample
Pilot. The sample is made from invented data.