Process Assessment: Where Are You Losing Time and Money?

Assessing your company’s processes: where are time and money being lost?

Daily processes in your company may look normal because everyone is used to them, yet inside them are lost time, repeated errors and money quietly leaking away. Assessing processes means following work as it actually happens, not as management imagines it. This article explains what to look for, how to gather observations and how to choose the first process to improve.

Digital maturity assessment 6 min read

By Nour Aldein Tleti. Updated 7 October 2026.

How do you assess your company’s processes to find where time and money are lost?

Choose a core process such as sales, purchasing or collection, and follow it from start to finish with the staff who carry it out. Record each step, who does it and how long it takes, where it waits and where the same information is written a second time. Waste usually shows up in double entry, pending approvals, searching for papers and correcting errors.

Signs of waste to look for

Double entry: An order is written on paper, then in Excel, then sent as a photo on WhatsApp. Every manual transfer adds time and the chance of error.
Waiting: An invoice waiting for a signature, goods waiting for a release note, or a quote waiting for the manager’s approval. Waiting is paid time that produces nothing.
Searching for information: An employee asking a colleague for the latest price or leafing through notebooks for an old invoice. This time repeats every day without anyone noticing.
Rework: Correcting a wrong invoice, preparing an order again or making an apology call to a customer. Every error costs twice: when it happens and when it is fixed.
Dependence on one person: If a process stops when a particular employee is away because only they know the steps or hold the file, that is a serious weak point.

Simple assessment tools

A process map on a large sheet of paper: Draw the steps in order with the name of the person responsible for each, and add a note wherever a delay occurs.
A one-week time log: Ask staff to record the time they spend on repetitive tasks, without holding anyone to account, simply to understand the picture.
Tracking a real transaction: Choose one customer order and follow it through to delivery and payment, noting every delay and its cause.
The extra-step question: Ask of every step: what happens if we drop it? Some steps survive only because they have been there for years.

What makes process assessment different in Syria

Manual currency conversion: Working out a Syrian pound price from a dollar price list for every order is a repeated step that eats time and causes errors if the exchange-rate source isn’t standardised.
Work redone after outages: If a power cut loses unsaved work or halts invoicing, that cost should appear in the assessment.
WhatsApp as the main business channel: Orders that arrive on WhatsApp and are copied by hand into notebooks are often the biggest source of double entry and forgotten orders.

From assessment to choosing the first process

01
Pick three core processes
Such as sales, purchasing and collection, or receiving, preparing and delivering orders, depending on your business.
02
Map each process as it is
Record the current reality, errors and exceptions included, not the ideal process written in internal procedures.
03
Estimate the cost
Roughly multiply the hours lost each month by the cost of an employee hour, and add the cost of errors and lost orders.
04
Estimate how hard it is to improve
Some problems are solved by simply changing the order of steps; others need a new system and training.
05
Start with the costliest, easiest fix
That process gives you a quick result that convinces the team and funds the next step.

Read also

Digital maturity assessment

Frequently asked questions

Do we need special software to map processes?

No. A large sheet of paper and some pens, or a simple spreadsheet, is enough to begin with. What matters is that the people who actually do the work take part.

How many processes should we assess the first time?

Start with one to three core processes. Assessing everything at once drags on and drains the team’s enthusiasm.

What if staff refuse to log their time?

Explain that the aim is to improve the process, not to judge individuals, and make the log anonymous if needed. Trust is a condition for honest data.

Does every process problem need a digital system?

No. Some problems are solved by removing a step, standardising a form or delegating authority. Digitisation comes after simplifying the process, not before.

How do we calculate the cost of lost time?

Multiply the hours lost by the approximate hourly cost of the employee concerned. The figure doesn’t need to be exact; it needs to be realistic enough for comparison.