This week our experts name the tasks worth automating first and the tools that actually work for small businesses without a big IT budget behind them.
Every small business owner knows the feeling. You are spending hours on tasks that feel important in the moment but are not actually moving your business forward. Chasing invoices, scheduling appointments, copying data between systems, sending follow-up emails, reconciling expenses. The list is long and the time it consumes is real.
Automation promises to fix that, but knowing where to start, and which tools are actually worth the time and money without a dedicated IT team behind you, is where most small business owners get stuck.
This week on Let’s Talk, our experts tackle the question directly: which repetitive admin tasks should Australian SMEs automate first, and what tools genuinely deliver without blowing the budget or requiring a technical degree to set up?
Let’s Talk!
Rakesh Prabhakar, Country Head, Australia & New Zealand, Zoho
“The best place to start automating is not necessarily the task that takes the longest. SMEs should first automate repetitive, rules-based work, particularly where manual handling can lead to delays or errors.
Finance is often the clearest starting point. Automating recurring invoices and payment reminders can remove hours of data entry while improving visibility over cash flow. Sales teams can automate lead capture and follow-up reminders, while customer service teams can automatically route enquiries and escalate unresolved issues. These are just some areas where automating simple workflows can make an immediate difference.
The technology does not need to be complex. Low-code platforms such as Zoho Creator allow business users to build custom apps and workflows using straightforward triggers. For example, when a customer completes a form, the platform can create a CRM record, notify the appropriate employee and schedule a follow-up.
SMEs should also consider packaged, integrated tools that bring core business functions together. Platforms such as Zoho One connect finance, sales, marketing, service and workplace operations, allowing businesses to automate across functions without maintaining a costly patchwork of separate systems.
The key is to automate a process only after understanding it. Begin with one clearly defined workflow and measure whether automating it saves time or reduces mistakes. The tools that work best for SMEs are those that are affordable, easy to configure and capable of growing with the business, without requiring a dedicated IT team to manage them.”
Taryn McLaughlin, Regional Vice President ANZ, Docusign
“For small businesses, the smartest place to start is nailing the basics. Focus on high volume, repetitive documents that are directly linked to cash flow, such as quotes, sales agreements, renewals, and payment terms. Automating these first delivers the fastest return.
Every organisation, big or small, runs on agreements. Automating the creation of documents you reach for again and again, like employment contracts, NDAs, contractor agreements, and supplier onboarding forms removes the need for repetitive manual practices that quietly eat hours every week.
The payoff is real. Australian organisations that have adopted automated workflows and AI tools have cut their end-to-end agreement cycle time by 34%, saving around 18 hours in the process, according to Docusign’s ‘Capitalising on AI’ report.
You don’t need a big IT budget to get there. Tools like Docusign IAM let you build reusable templates, easily share documents for signing, and do the chasing and tracking for you, flagging renewals and missing fields before they become a problem.
Start with the predictable tasks, leverage automated platforms that you trust, and give your team time back to spend on customers and growth.”
Nick Martin, APAC GTM Lead, Remote
“For SMEs, the fastest wins come from automating high-volume, rules-based workflows and layering in more as the business scales. The goal isn’t to introduce more software, but rather to reduce administrative burden without creating new complexity.
Payroll is the clearest starting point. It is repetitive, time-sensitive, and the consequences of getting it wrong compound quickly into penalties, compliance errors, and lost employee trust. That is why governance matters as much as automation. Rule-based workflows like payroll are well suited to automation, but only when businesses trust the system with clear approvals and audit trails built in.
In Australia, this pressure has increased with Payday Super now in effect. Remote’s latest research found just 15% of Australian businesses felt fully confident going into the 1 July transition.
Employers must now report and transfer super contributions alongside each pay run instead of quarterly, shrinking the payment window from 28 days after quarter-end to 7 days after each separate pay. This has the potential to increase compliance risks as every pay run now triggers an audit, with severe penalties for late or incorrect payments.
SMEs don’t need custom IT for this. Platforms that unify payroll, super, and compliance obligations in a single system, supported by simple automations that remove manual reconciliation, can lower the risk of errors and penalties. Getting Payday Super right protects more than just business compliance. For SMEs navigating tight cash flow alongside new compliance challenges, automation can protect employee trust while keeping the business moving and growing.”
Frank Skiffington, Head of ANZ, Zoom
“SMEs get the most value from automation when they stop asking “what can we digitise?” and start asking “what is contributing to workflow friction?”
Meeting administration is a major area for potential automation. Scheduling, transcribing, and sending action items can take up many hours each week. For SMEs, automating these tasks is an easy way to reduce admin and streamline processes.
Customer Experience (CX) is another area where reducing manual processes can improve outcomes for both staff and customers. AI agents can handle routine inquiries and support requests, freeing up employees to focus on higher-value interactions and more complex customer needs.
Document and collaboration workflows should also be a priority. Teams often lose time switching between meetings, notes, documents, and messaging platforms. Tools like Zoom Workplace that combine communication and collaboration in a single workflow can help SMEs move faster without adding operational complexity or requiring significant IT investment.
The key is to focus on high-frequency, low-complexity tasks first, such as meeting scheduling, transcription, action tracking, customer enquiries, and document workflows. These are quick wins for SMEs using out-of-the-box tools that don’t require enterprise budgets or dedicated IT teams. A 2025 GTIA report found 37% of SMB tech budgets go to maintaining operational stability, 19% to automation, and 13% to technical debt, highlighting a shift toward foundations that support simpler, scalable automation.
The real value comes from giving teams back time, reducing friction, and enabling more agile operations.”
Merlin Luck, Regional Director – Commercial, ANZ, Datadog
“Time is the biggest competitive advantage available to SMEs, but too many pay the invisible tax of repetitive admin work. Leaders in observability and operational efficiency see the same pattern constantly: talented people doing work AI should, and can, own.
Every SME leader deploying AI to automate workloads should start with what’s observable.
In monitoring and alerting, manual log-checking and incident triage are productivity killers while AI-driven anomaly detection surfaces genuine issues instantly. This puts enterprise-grade operational intelligence within reach of lean teams.
Security compliance can see manual effort accumulate quickly. AI-powered continuous threat monitoring and automated audit reporting replace labour-intensive checks, giving SMEs the security posture of a much larger function.
Tool sprawl is another silent budget drain. AI-driven visibility across the entire technology stack tells SMEs exactly what’s being used, what’s redundant, and where spend can be consolidated.
As AI takes on more of this work, observability has to extend to the tool doing the monitoring, with visibility over an AI’s actions – decisions, data usage, errors – mattering just as much as the task itself.
If a task’s frequency and time cost can be measured, the ROI on AI automation can be proven and justified. Start with the observable, get those right, measure the hours saved, and build from there.”
Santanu Dutt, Vice President and Head of Technology, Asia Pacific-Japan, Zscaler
“For SMEs, the biggest wins come from automating routine tasks that are both time-consuming and security-critical. Start with employee onboarding and offboarding, access provisioning, multi-factor authentication, software patching, and backups. Cloud-native platforms now make these capabilities accessible without the cost or complexity of a large IT team.
This matters because attackers increasingly exploit operational gaps rather than sophisticated technical weaknesses. In Australia, phishing accounts for 38% of initial access incidents, yet many businesses still rely on manual processes to manage identities and access. Automating these controls helps ensure employees receive only the access they need, when they need it, while reducing the risk of human error.
The goal isn’t simply to save time—it’s to reduce risk while enabling growth. SMEs should prioritise solutions that automate security as part of everyday operations, rather than adding another layer of administration. Adopting a Zero Trust approach allows businesses to strengthen resilience, simplify IT operations, and free up resources to focus on customers and innovation. Zero Trust significantly reduces the attack surface and one cannot attack what one cannot see.”
Charlie Sheppeard, Executive General Manager, Strategy & Operations, Xero
“For small businesses, the best admin tasks to automate first are the repetitive financial workflows that follow the same steps every time, like capturing documents, reconciling transactions and pulling together a clear view of cash flow. Because the process is consistent and the outputs are easy to review, the time savings show up quickly. For example, Xero’s auto bank reconciliation is helping customers save 22 hours a month by using bank feeds and automated reconciliation suggestions.
What matters is not adding more technology for the sake of it. It’s about bringing trusted financial clarity into the systems a business already uses. That might mean asking questions, testing scenarios, getting proactive insights in the flow of work and having routine tasks completed in the background with human oversight, rather than manually moving between systems.
For small businesses, the strongest results usually come from starting inside the platforms they already trust – whether that’s within their accounting software, like JAX in Xero, or through secure connections into tools like Claude or Microsoft Copilot. And work with your accountant or bookkeeper; they can help you start in the right place and these tools can help you get more out of your conversations with them. The goal is simple: less toggling, less admin and more time for decisions that drive growth.”
Elise Balsillie, Head of Thryv Australia and New Zealand, Thryv
“For many SMEs, automation should begin in the places where customers are left waiting, wondering or chasing, as those small silences can shape how a business is remembered.
I recommend you begin with customer enquiries. Whether it is a missed call, a buried email or a slow reply – all these can turn warm intent cold. Automating enquiry capture, first responses and follow-up reminders, gives customers the reassurance that someone has seen them and will come back with the next step.
Then look at bookings and job flow. Online scheduling, confirmations and gentle reminders remove friction for both sides. They also give a small business the calm, professional rhythm customers associate with trust.
Payments deserve the same attention. Automated invoices, payment links and overdue reminders protect cash flow without turning owners into debt collectors.
Reviews should also be systemised, but with care. Positive reviews build visibility, while negative reviews can reveal where service, communication or follow-through has broken down. An automated review request sent after a completed job helps capture the customer’s experience while it is fresh. The real value comes from what happens next. Strong feedback can be amplified, while poor feedback should trigger a fast, human response that acknowledges the issue and gives the business a chance to repair trust before frustration spreads.
Thryv helps SMEs centralise everyday customer admin, from enquiries and appointments to invoices, payments and reviews, so business owners can spend less time chasing tasks and more time building stronger customer relationships.”
MJ Robotham, Director, APAC, NinjaOne
“Most SMEs don’t need to start with a big, headline-grabbing AI program. The fastest wins often come from automating administrative work that quietly eats up hours every week.
A practical place to start is the repetitive tasks: administrative work, data entry, routine reporting, etc. These aren’t “nice to have” tasks, they keep the business running, but doing them manually creates delays and avoidable risk.
The encouraging part is that businesses don’t need a huge IT budget or a large internal team to get moving. Many cloud platforms already include automation features that reduce manual effort, tighten security, and make day-to-day operations easier.
The SMEs getting real value are the ones solving specific problems and removing bottlenecks. When used correctly, automation makes teams more effective without adding complexity. And as adoption accelerates, trust matters – choose tools that are secure, transparent, and easy to manage, so people can focus on customers, growth, and judgement-led work.”
Renée Chaplin, VP – Asia Pacific, Constant Contact
“Small business owners are not just the boss – they’re often the marketer, the seller, the customer service team, and everything in between.
But it doesn’t mean they have to do it all.
Technology – and automation in particular – has never been more accessible, easy to use and affordable for small businesses than it is right now.
For those not already embracing automation, the logical starting point is to review repetitive and time-consuming tasks. Then business owners should assess which tasks are (1) not within their skillset and/or (2) they do not enjoy doing.
Marketing is often first to fall into these buckets.
Adopting automation for email and social media marketing allows owners to redirect time and energy to high value human-only work such as customer calls, building relationships and shaping the brand.
AI is also an avenue for small businesses to market themselves efficiently and affordably. In Constant Contact’s recent Small Business Now report, 88.7 per cent of respondents across Australia and New Zealand indicated they are already using AI for marketing, with 45.1 per cent using it for emails and social media, 37 per cent for data analysis, and 35.2 per cent for content creation.
And the payoff has been tangible. More than half (51 per cent) report having saved time, while 31.1 per cent say they’ve saved money and stretched budgets further.”
Morgan Wilson, Founder and Director, creditte accountants and advisors
“Automate invoicing first. Not because the software is clever, but because most small businesses have quietly let their clients decide when they get paid. Getting paid on time, in full, is the key to business success.
I worked with an IT business where debtors were mostly 90 days overdue, some as far back as 500 days. No one owned the follow-up. No one had accountability on who owed what.
We didn’t just bolt on software. We changed the terms. Automated reminders, a payment link, and an automated direct debit built into the engagement itself. Average days to pay dropped from months to 11. Some invoices got paid within minutes of landing in an inbox.
The tool did the reminding and collection. The terms did the work.
Most owners treat slow payment as a chasing problem. It’s a terms problem. If your invoice doesn’t state how and when you get paid, you’ve handed that decision to your client, and most will take 90 days if you let them.
Fix your payment terms first. The automation just enforces what you should have agreed to upfront.”
Matt Hodgson, Founder, Bring Digital Performance
“Start with anything you copy and paste between systems. For most SMEs, that means reporting, invoice follow-ups, and shuffling data between your CRM, accounting software and inbox. These tasks are high-frequency and zero-judgment, which is exactly what automation handles well.
At Bring Digital Performance, we’ve automated client onboarding, monthly SEO reporting, and our sales pipeline using Zapier, HubSpot, and Claude, none of which required a developer or an IT budget. The rule we apply is: if a task occurs more than weekly and follows the same steps each time, it gets automated. If it needs judgement or a relationship, it stays human.
The mistake I see SMEs make is starting with customer-facing automation, chatbots and auto-replies, because it’s visible. Automate the plumbing first. The boring internal wins compound, freeing up hours every week, and when something breaks, you can fix it before a customer ever sees it.”
Steven Richardson, Co-Founder and Managing Director, SILQ
For sole practitioners and small legal practices – the SME’s of the legal world, document generation and invoicing are the first tasks that should be automated. Both are high-frequency, time-consuming tasks that can be made seamless and affordable with cloud-based software.
“Document Generation
Legal document generation software operates on an enter-once, use-many principle. Enter a client’s name, address, matter type, and relevant dates once against a matter record, and the software populates every document automatically.
SILQ legal practice management software can automate letter generation, cost agreements, Court forms, and settlement statements across matter classes in all areas of law.
Automated Invoicing
Manual billing is one of the most avoidable inefficiencies faced by SME’s. SILQ’s invoicing tools let legal practitioners track billable hours, generate invoices, convert to PDF, and email them to clients, reducing errors and accelerating cash flow without additional overhead.
To make the most of your time, finding one tool that does both these administration tasks is key. SILQ delivers these capabilities easily, integrating with a range of best-in-breed partners like Microsoft Word, Outlook, Xero, MYOB and more. The best part is you don’t need a big IT budget.”
Fleur Allen, Business Educator, Mentor and Coach, Ask Fleur
“For SMEs without a big IT budget, the trick isn’t automating everything, it’s prioritising, for example a place start I’d recommend is what protects revenue. Starting with the client journey: map your ideal client personas, then automate lead tracking through a simple pipeline (a free CRM that scales with you, or a spreadsheet if you’re just starting out) so no enquiry falls through the cracks, and set up follow-up reminders or sequences so nobody has to remember to chase.
Cost effective CRMs that provide automation and can scale when your business does include Systeme.io, HubSpot’s free tier, and Salesforce Essentials.
For service-based businesses, this matters even more when you’re upgrading or nurturing existing clients, because that relationship needs a human touch, not just automation for automation’s sake.
My biggest tip: become your own client. Sign up for your own membership or subscription and see what actually lands in your inbox. Are ten emails firing at once, or are they staggered into a proper onboarding sequence? If it feels overwhelming to you, it will feel overwhelming to them too.
Automate the tasks. Keep the connection human.”
Jake Shelley, Managing Director and Co-Founder, Jiffi
“Start with the tasks that are frequent, rule based, and low judgement, not the ones that feel biggest. Invoicing and follow ups, appointment scheduling, data entry between systems, and rostering are the classic first candidates. They happen daily, follow a predictable pattern, and rarely need a human decision, which makes them cheap to automate and low-risk if something’s slightly off.
AI has changed what “automate” means here. It used to mean rigid, rules based workflows: if X happens, do Y. Now AI can handle the messier admin that sits just outside automation’s reach, drafting replies to customer emails, summarising call notes, chasing overdue invoices in a human tone, or turning a voice memo into a rostered shift change. That’s a meaningful shift for SMEs, because it means automation no longer requires a developer to map every rule in advance.
The tools that work without a big IT budget share three traits: they’re subscription priced rather than project priced, they plug into what the business already uses instead of requiring a rebuild, and they don’t need an IT team to configure. Owners sometimes don’t need a digital transformation. They need to remove themselves from repetitive loops they never needed to be standing in.”
Nitesh Roopa, Managing Partner, ProfitPulse
“Most owners automate the wrong thing first. They start with whatever annoys them most. Start instead with what touches cash, because that is where slow or sloppy admin quietly drains money.
Begin with the order to cash cycle. Automate your invoicing and payment reminders, then give clients a way to pay the moment they open the invoice. An invoice that goes out late gets paid late, and chasing it by hand is money left on the table.
Next, kill the manual data entry. Set up bank reconciliation and bill capture so nothing is typed in at month end. Payroll follows if you have staff.
The test is simple. Automate anything repetitive, rules based and frequent. If a task needs judgement, keep a person on it.
None of this needs custom software or an IT team. Your accounting platform is the hub. Xero or MYOB handles reminders and reconciliation, a tool like Dext reads a photo of a bill, and a payment button bolts straight onto the invoice.
Automate one process fully before you start the next. Half automated is worse than manual.”
Emily Emberson, Channel Success Manager, Accounting & Bookkeeping, Pinch Payments
“For most SMEs, the first process to automate should be payments. Every business needs to get paid, and automating payment collection and reconciliation is one of the simplest, highest-impact improvements you can make without a large IT budget. In Australia, average debtor days still sit between 42 and 60 days, so reducing payment delays can have a real impact on cash flow.
Beyond payments, look for repetitive tasks where staff are manually transferring information between systems. Many popular business applications already integrate with each other, or can be connected using tools like Zapier, making it easy to eliminate duplicate data entry.
It’s also worth taking the time to fully understand the software you already use. Many businesses only use a fraction of their apps’ capabilities, despite having access to excellent training resources and support teams. Finally, don’t underestimate the value of working with an experienced bookkeeper or accountant. They see what works across many businesses and can recommend practical automation opportunities that deliver immediate efficiency gains without requiring a significant technology investment.”
Michael Russell, Managing Director, Finwave Finance
“Most SME owners approach automation the wrong way. They look for tools first and problems second. That produces a business full of subscriptions nobody uses consistently and processes that are half-automated and therefore twice as unreliable.
Start with tasks that meet three criteria: they happen frequently, they follow a predictable pattern, and a mistake costs you time or money to fix. That combination tells you where automation earns its keep fastest.
For most SMEs, the highest return areas are invoicing and payment follow-up, appointment scheduling, lead response, and data entry between systems. These are not glamorous, but they are where hours disappear quietly every week.
The tools that actually work without an IT budget tend to be attached to software you already use. Xero has built-in payment reminders. Calendly eliminates scheduling back-and-forth at minimal cost. Zapier connects most business tools without code and has a free tier covering basic workflows. Many CRMs now include automated follow-up sequences that would have required a developer two years ago.
The honest constraint is not budget. It is time to set things up properly once. Automation configured badly creates confident errors at scale, which is worse than doing the task manually.
Pick one process, map exactly how it works today, then automate that specific thing. Repeat. That approach compounds.
Buying ten tools on a weekend does not.”
Paul Kyriakos, General Manager, SOLUM Oceania, SOLUM
“Running a small or medium-sized retail business means constantly balancing customer service with the day-to-day tasks that keep the business moving. From pricing and promotions to inventory management, there are countless operational tasks required to keep a store running smoothly.
Small retail teams have little time to spare. Employees are often juggling multiple responsibilities, from helping customers and replenishing stock to processing deliveries and managing inventory. Time spent on manual administrative tasks can take away from the activities that have the greatest impact on the customer experience.
Retailers can now make meaningful operational improvements without requiring large technology investments. Electronic shelf labels (ESLs), for example, allow stores to update prices across the business in real time, removing the need to manually replace paper labels whenever prices or promotions change. Designed to work with existing systems, ESLs can be introduced gradually without requiring a major IT overhaul.
For small retailers, the right technology can simplify everyday operations and support the people running the business. By reducing manual processes, retailers can improve efficiency while giving teams more time to focus on customers and the in-store experience.”
Muthukumar T, Partner, Befree
“The best place to start isn’t with the most sophisticated technology but with the tasks that eat the most time and require the least human judgement.
Bank reconciliations are the obvious first target. Cloud accounting platforms like Xero and MYOB pull in bank feeds automatically and match transactions without manual data entry. For most SMEs, this alone reclaims several hours a week.
Accounts payable and receivable are close behind. Tools like Dext and Hubdoc capture supplier invoices from email or a phone photo, extract the data, and push it directly to your accounting software. No manual keying, fewer errors, faster approvals.
Payroll and STP reporting can run almost entirely on autopilot through platforms like Employment Hero or KeyPay. Both integrate directly with ATO systems and handle superannuation calculations, payslips, and STP lodgement in one workflow.
Expense management through apps like Hubdoc or Dext removes the shoebox entirely. Staff capture receipts on their phones; coding and reconciliation happen in the background.
None of these require significant IT investment. Most integrate with software that SMEs are already using. The bigger challenge is knowing which workflows to tackle in which order. At Befree, our automation team has helped businesses cut manual processing time by up to 80%, without asking clients to change their existing systems.”
Grant Philipp, CEO & Founder, Office Hub
“For SMEs, the highest priority automation is at the front gates of your revenue pipeline, not in the complex backend infrastructure. Speed-to-lead is where you win or lose the sale. If a prospect requests a workspace quote and waits for hours for a manual email response from you, you have already lost them to a faster competitor.
The solution is that SMEs should automate the Lead-to-Lease bridge by deploying immediate inquiry auto-responders, qualification workflows, and self-service calendar scheduling.
The best part is that you don’t need a massive IT budget or an expert developer to do this for you. Many budget-friendly cloud-based automation platforms, such as Make and Zapier, act as the digital glue by effectively moving leads from your website into your CRM, such as Zoho or HubSpot Free.
Pair this infrastructure with automated scheduling tools like HubSpot Meetings and Calendly, which integrate directly with your email or website. By letting clients book their own consultations based on your real-time availability, you easily eliminate the friction of back-and-forth email scheduling.
Automating these repetitive coordination tasks allows teams to focus on where they fit best: building relationships, negotiating deals, and delivering exceptional service.”
Kim Owen-Jones, General Manager, SME, MYOB
“For SMEs, the biggest productivity gains come from reducing the repetitive admin that quietly takes up valuable time.
MYOB’s latest Business Monitor found that 43% of businesses that have digitised more of their operations say they’ve become more productive, with 19% reporting increased profitability and 18% saying they get paid faster.
With the introduction of AI into the platforms SMEs are using every day, it’s never been easier to streamline or eliminate manual admin processes from the workflow.
If you’re wondering where to start automating, ask three questions.
What tasks are a perfect partner for AI?
Tasks that follow the same process every time are a perfect partner for AI. Creating invoices, chasing payments, capturing expenses, reconciling transactions and answering common customer enquiries are all good candidates for automation. Additionally, SMEs are using the tools to streamline processes that require personalisation but can be made simpler through tech, including marketing and communications (35%), customer service (29%) and data analytics (27%).
Where are mistakes costing you the most?
Manual processes can increase the risk of errors, duplicate work and missed deadlines. Automating routine tasks such as payroll, expense management, invoice reminders and reporting can improve consistency and reduce administrative pressure, while keeping people focused on the decisions and relationships that drive the business forward. MYOB’s AI BAS automates the admin prep behind each quarterly lodgment, reducing hours of work to minutes through enhanced accuracy.
Can your existing software do more than you’re asking of it?
Many SMEs assume automation requires expensive technology or a major IT project. Often, the first step is simply making better use of the tools they already have. Features like bank reconciliation, expense capture, invoicing and payment reminders can remove hours of manual work without significant investment.
For most SMEs, successful automation isn’t about buying more software or hiring an IT team. It’s about using the technology you already have to eliminate low-value admin and create more time for the work that grows your business. Whether that’s accounting software with built-in automation or simple tools like Solo by MYOB, the all-in-one app for sole operators, the biggest gains usually come from starting small and automating the tasks you do every day.”
Matthew Owens, Director, Annexa
“I would start with the repetitive administration work that frustrates people the most and burns hours every week. Things like invoice processing, approvals, expense coding, customer onboarding, quote-to-order handoffs or chasing internal sign-offs are usually the best first candidates.
The common thread is that these processes still rely on people manually copying data between systems, updating spreadsheets, forwarding emails or pushing workflows along.
More recently, what has changed is the emergence of agentic AI. Traditional automation handled the simple, rules-based steps. The newer AI tools can also manage some of the decision-making in between – like reading an email, identifying the customer or supplier involved, pulling the right data from NetSuite or the CRM and triggering the next action automatically.
What is also making this more accessible is the emergence of MCP servers for platforms like cloud ERP NetSuite, which make it easier for AI agents to securely interact with ERP workflows without massive custom development or big IT projects.
These tools are not free but the time they give back to your team each week will provide immediate value.”
Jonathan Reeve, Regional Director, ANZ, Eagle Eye
“The tasks to automate first are the ones that are high-frequency, rules-based, and low-judgement – the work that eats hours but rarely needs a human decision. Across almost any business, that points to three areas: finance admin like invoicing and reconciliation, scheduling and coordination, and the repetitive movement of data between the systems you already run.
A good starting point is often finance administration, because it is where manual effort most directly costs money. Accounting platforms automate invoice reminders, recurring billing and reconciliation as standard, and that holds whether you are a ten-person team or a finance department of fifty.
Next is scheduling and coordination. Tools that remove the email tennis of finding a time – and the reminders and follow-ups that surround it – claw back a surprising amount of the week, and they scale from an individual to a whole team with no setup overhead.
The principle that matters more than any tool: automate the task, not the decision. Hand the repetitive, predictable work to software, and keep people’s time for the judgement calls. The barrier today is not budget or technical skill – modern tools are subscription-priced and largely self-serve – it is deciding which hour of repetitive work to give up first.”
Michael Powrie, Founder and CEO, NeonNow
“I built NeonNow on one principle: automate repetitive work so we can focus on being human, and that principle applies just as directly to any SME drowning in admin! Automate the tasks that are repetitive and low in empathy based judgement first.
Appointment scheduling, follow-up emails, and answering the same enquiries over and over are the obvious starting point, because a mistake there costs little compared to the task being left undone.
For an SME, that means starting small. A cloud-based CRM with built-in automation can handle quote follow-ups and reminders. AI-powered chat tools can manage after-hours enquiries. Calendar-linked booking tools remove the back-and-forth from scheduling altogether. A trades business that automates confirmations and reminders can attend to more jobs without hiring extra staff, and a professional services firm that automates intake forms frees up hours each week for billable work.
None of this requires an IT department. The tools that work best for small teams are quick to set up, usually within an afternoon, and billed as an affordable monthly subscription. Start with one task, automate it properly, and measure the time it frees up before adding the next.”
Scott Capelin, Founder, inLIFE Wellness
“The best place to start with automation is wherever your team is repeatedly copying information from one place to another. Invoicing, appointment reminders, payroll, customer follow-up emails, lead management and document signing are all high-value tasks that can often be automated in just a few hours. Every repetitive task you eliminate frees your team to spend more time serving customers or growing the business.
The good news is that you don’t need a huge IT budget. Affordable cloud platforms such as Xero for accounting, HubSpot for customer management, Calendly for bookings and Zapier or Make to connect different apps together, can deliver significant time savings with minimal technical expertise. Start with one process, measure the time it saves, and then automate the next. Small improvements compound quickly and can have a surprisingly large impact on productivity.”
Yasmin King, Director & Co-Founder, SkillsAware | CEO, SkillsIQ, SkillsAware
“In a former role as NSW’s inaugural Small Business Commissioner, what constantly stunned me was how many SME’s had neither automated their invoicing nor understood their costs. These aren’t separate failings. A business that hasn’t systematised money coming in usually hasn’t systematised money going out either. They work flat out hoping they have enough cash to survive.
That’s why invoicing automation comes first, not just for hours saved, but because it imposes the discipline of tracking what you’re owed. Tools like Xero chase late payers automatically and build the record that reveals your margin. Pair that with an honest handle on cost per job, and profit stops being a guess.
The same discipline applies to people. A wrong hire devours time and money, so a smart, repeatable recruitment process, ie specific skills required, structured interviews, proper reference checks, is essential, as are repeatable onboarding processes.
Any high-frequency tasks should be automated: scheduling, support triage, marketing follow-up. Most operators already own automation they never use, eg Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace.
Get one automated process working properly before you start the next (I saw a lot of starts of multiple automations with none completed). However, the most critical thing is reviewing the manual process first and making sure it’s right, because automation means you’ll only be repeating it faster, not improving it.”
Billy Loizou, AVP and General Manager, APAC, Amperity
“Businesses should start by automating tasks that are repetitive, rules-based, and consume valuable employee time. Customer service routing, reporting, lead qualification, invoice processing, and customer follow-up workflows are all good candidates because they follow predictable patterns and deliver immediate productivity gains.
The bigger challenge isn’t the automation itself. It’s the quality of the data driving it. Recent research shows marketers rank poor data quality, integration friction, and fragmented customer identity among the biggest barriers to AI adoption, ahead of budget or talent.
AI doesn’t fix fragmented customer understanding. It accelerates whatever understanding already exists. If customer data is incomplete or inconsistent, automation simply scales those issues faster.
The organisations seeing the greatest return from AI aren’t automating the most processes. They ensure automation runs on trusted, connected data, enabling more valuable use cases like real-time customer engagement, churn prevention, and continuously updated customer segmentation. The goal isn’t to automate everything. It’s to remove manual work so people can focus on higher-value decisions.”
Anthony Simonetta, Co-founder and Managing Director, XtraClubs
“There’s really no magic formula for AI automation. SMEs should focus on automating only those processes they have intimate knowledge and specialised skills in. Letting AI automate anything without strong guardrails will do more harm than good. AI is an incredible enabler when the operator is the expert in the seat, guiding the technology to complete activities that are well-defined with very stringent boundary parameters. Automation without those expert conditions is a recipe for disaster or a placebo suggesting productivity but actually resulting in nil.”
Tiffany English, CEO, Access Offshoring
“It’s easy to waste human energy on manual data transcription and calendar coordination. The fastest operational wins come from connecting low-cost applications you already own. We find that pairing basic optical character recognition software with cloud accounting systems eliminates repetitive tasks, while simple integration tools seamlessly bridge client onboarding workflows between the customer database and project management platforms.
We also know that many businesses look overseas for a human solution to a fundamentally broken workflow. Hiring remote administrative support is an exceptional way to scale, but throwing people at an unautomated process simply creates a larger, more distributed version of the same operational drag. True scale happens when technology absorbs the repetition.
Once routine tasks run on automated tracks, the strategic value of a global team changes entirely. Offshore professionals are no longer trapped in a cycle of mindless data processing. Instead, they’re freed to focus on high-value capability building, complex problem-solving, and deep client relationship management. When you use technology to absorb operational friction, you unlock a superior economic model where your remote workforce drives long-term business growth and cultural continuity rather than just low-cost productivity. The question to ask is: how is your business currently balancing automation with human talent to eliminate administrative drag?”
Ramy Hanna, Principal, Trinity Accounting Practice
“Start with the tasks that delay you getting paid. Across our small business clients, the first three things to automate are invoice reminders, bank reconciliation and receipt capture. Xero handles all three without extra spend: automatic invoice reminders alone can cut debtor days sharply, bank rules do most of the reconciliation, and Hubdoc, included with Xero, files supplier bills straight into the ledger.
Next is payroll and super. Since Payday Super started on 1 July, super leaves your account every pay run, and manual payroll is now where the costly mistakes happen. Automating the calculation and payment trail is no longer optional.
We run a four person practice on Xero, Karbon and SuiteFiles, so we live this advice daily. The rule I give clients: automate anything a $30 subscription can do reliably, and keep your human hours for pricing, quoting and talking to customers. Most small businesses do not need an IT budget. They need two or three well set up apps and one afternoon of training.”
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