It took me 3 minutes to produce this graphic using my Sharpies, 1 minute to scan it, 2 minutes to get it to be the right size for this post…. that is ok, it is a one-off. However, I watch in horror as I see clients spending more time correcting data and formatting it for presentation than it took to assemble the data to start with. This would be acceptable if these were one-off reports; they need time to digest and look right, but this is less acceptable if the document is produced regularly. Sometimes every hour or so. I am thinking of quotes and invoices being adjusted in Word and Excel. After the data entry and automated error checking, formatting could be a time-waster that could be dropped. What would gaining a third of your time back save you? What would adding a further third by automated error checking do? If you watch your staff do this – or worse still, are having to do it yourself – it may be time to get a system in place.