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There are little things we do at work every day, over and over. While it may only take a couple of seconds each time, if you repeat it dozens of times, the task wastes time — and time is money. I've watched small teams waste hours each week on repetitive admin tasks that could easily be automated.
This is why it’s crucial to streamline repetitive tasks by automating them.
Automation apps give team members a simple way to increase the functionality of their workflow. By removing time-wasting recurring tasks, you can increase employee productivity, as they can spend their time on tasks that progress toward team goals. In my years managing agency teams, I've found that automation is often the difference between a profitable project and one that barely breaks even.
Let’s talk about task automation software tools, the types of tasks that you can automate, and our favorite automation apps. This article will help you understand how to use automation tools to handle mundane tasks. You'll free up your team so they spend less time on busy work and can focus on the work that matters the most!
What is task automation?
Task automation is using technology to complete tasks instead of manually handling them. Modern technology lets you automate many types of business processes. Automating time-consuming and repetitive tasks increases the workflow’s productivity and stops team members from spending valuable time on unimportant tasks.
Benefits of task automation
When implemented effectively, task automation provides a range of benefits that impact both productivity and profitability. In my experience managing agency teams, these advantages genuinely transform how work gets done. The most significant benefits include:
Increased productivity
By eliminating time-consuming manual tasks, your team can focus on higher-value work that requires human creativity and strategic thinking. I've watched my teams tackle more strategic client work after we automated basic reporting tasks, giving us back hours every week.
Reduced errors
Automation dramatically decreases the likelihood of mistakes that commonly occur with repetitive, manual tasks. Even my most detail-oriented team members would occasionally make mistakes on repetitive tasks before we implemented automation solutions.
Lower operational costs
With more work completed in less time and with fewer errors, your business achieves greater ROI and reduced operational expenses. Our agency's administrative overhead noticeably decreased after automating client onboarding processes.
Greater team satisfaction
When freed from tedious tasks, team members can focus on meaningful work that adds value and creates purpose. I've seen firsthand how team morale improves when people spend less time on mundane tasks and more time on work that challenges them.
Improved scalability
Automated workflows allow your business to take on more clients and projects without proportionally increasing administrative overhead.
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Examples of tasks that can be successfully automated
There are some impactful benefits of task automation at work only if you choose the right tasks to automate. When deciding which manual tasks are the best ones to automate, focus on the ones that are frequent, repetitive, and simple. These are more likely to suck time away from your team’s workday without adding anything positive to your main objectives. I've found that the best automation candidates are tasks that don't require creativity, problem-solving, or strategy.
Let’s dive into six types of different tasks that are best left to automation.
Daily & weekly tasks that are repetitive
Once you start thinking about every aspect of a process, you'll most likely pinpoint several areas of repetitive actions that you could easily automate. Everyday tasks should be the first place to start when you’re trying to automate tasks to save your team time and improve efficiency. These are the ones that, although they may only take a bit of time from day to day, cause your team to waste a lot of time due to their frequency. When I audit team workflows, I'm always surprised by how much collective time is spent on simple daily tasks like status updates and file organization.
Daily & weekly task automation examples:
Scheduling social media posts using a platform like Social Champ or Hootsuite, or blog posts using a content management system like Wordpress
Sending payroll for processing
Backing up files
Sending reminder emails
Completing data entry using natural language processing (NLP), robotic process automation (RPA), or artificial intelligence (AI)
Tasks that don’t require complex details
Tasks that don’t require any brain power are good ones to automate. These can be “set it and forget it” tasks that must be done but aren’t problems and don’t require original responses to be properly addressed.
Simple task automation examples:
Setting up notifications to automatically send when a status has changed in the project management tool
Creating a new ticket from an email or form
Assigning tasks to team members within Slack or other communication tools
Consolidating data for analytics, reports, and dashboards
Recurring monthly tasks
Using workflow automation to handle your team’s recurring monthly tasks is another productive way to return valuable time to everyone’s calendar.
While your team probably completes some repetitive tasks daily or weekly, some tasks must be handled monthly. While these are required less often, it’s wise to automate them if possible. Monthly billing and reporting tasks are perfect automation candidates that have saved our team hours of administrative time.
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Recurring monthly task automation examples:
Scheduling an automated reminder to clients who haven’t paid their previous invoice
Scheduling payments to vendors
Sending out open job descriptions to multiple job sites for recruiting and onboarding
Bill payments
As nice as it would be not to see them, some bills arrive every single month. As we mentioned above, once-a-month tasks such as paying bills offer a great opportunity to automate tasks and save time.
Bill-paying task automation examples:
Paying bills that are due at the same time every month
Paying bills that are the same amount every month
Linking specific accounts to specific creditors
Coordinating payments through mobile apps
Data management tasks
Automating how you access, organize, and review information makes getting the data you need easier. Since data is necessary for every workflow and project, this one is a huge priority for many companies. Automation software tools can dramatically increase data optimization, which saves time and facilitates better decisions.
Data management task automation examples:
Converting emails into documents that can be stored and retrieved later
Converting forms into records and adding them to a CRM (for sales efforts)
Creating projects or tasks for when deals change
Syncing data across the different apps the company uses for uniform information
Communication and collaboration tasks
Achieving successful communication and collaboration is crucial for teams. Even so, there are certain portions of these tasks that can be automated without losing any effectiveness.
By using automation tools, you can streamline both team and client communication and ensure that everyone has access to the information they need when they need it. Additionally, you can increase the ease of collaborating, which brings about better ideas and helps problem-solving.
Communication and collaboration task automation examples:
Sending follow-up emails to clients
Generating offer letters to new hires and other human resources use cases (onboarding, benefits administration, etc.)
Sending task approvals to team members to keep them informed
Tagging people in tasks through automatic triggers
Sharing asynchronous information as a single source of information
💡 Pro tip: It's easy to automate tasks with Teamwork.com. You can set custom automations such as triggers and conditional logic, integrate with third party tools like Slack and Microsoft Teams, use our custom built task list templates or build your own. Teamwork.com allows project managers to minimize repetitive tasks, reduce errors and focus more on strategic activities.
The business case for task automation: ROI and additional impact
For service-based businesses juggling multiple projects, task automation isn't just a convenience—it's a strategic advantage that directly impacts your bottom line. I've helped several agencies build their automation business case, and the ROI numbers are consistently compelling.
Calculating the true cost of manual tasks
Manual tasks cost far more than you might think. To accurately measure their impact:
Track direct labor costs: Multiply hours spent on repetitive tasks by hourly rates—you'll be surprised by the annual figure.
Consider opportunity costs: Every hour spent on administrative work is time not spent on billable activities.
Factor in error costs: Manual processes inevitably lead to mistakes that require additional time to fix.
Identify bottlenecks: Manual handoffs and approvals create delays that extend project timelines.
Measuring task automation ROI: Key metrics to track
To demonstrate real returns from automation initiatives, monitor these essential metrics:
Time savings: Compare task completion times before and after automation
Resource utilization: Track the shift from non-billable to billable work
Project profitability: Measure whether profit margins improve with reduced administrative overhead
Error reduction: Quantify quality improvements through fewer revisions
Team capacity: Calculate how much additional client work your team can handle without expanding headcount
By focusing on these tangible outcomes, you'll build a compelling case for automation that resonates with decision-makers and demonstrates clear business value.
Step-by-step guide for automating tasks
Creating efficiency and cutting down on team waste may be a big objective for your team — this aids in project planning, resource allocation, and time management. If so, ensure that you’re automating the right tasks. Let these four steps guide you in increasing your automation in actionable ways that make sense.
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Not seeing the project outcomes you want? It could be down to planning. Make your project planning more impactful with Teamwork.com.
1) Create a thorough list of all your organizational tasks
The first step is to get a clear picture of how your business is handling the tasks now. Lay out a complete list of tasks your company handles across all departments. These include large, complex tasks, new tasks, old tasks, and small, simple tasks.
I recommend gathering your team for a brainstorming session with sticky notes—it's remarkable how many hidden repetitive tasks emerge when everyone contributes to the audit.
2) Categorize your list into two buckets: Tasks that CAN be automated and tasks that CANNOT be automated
Go back over your master list and separate each action by whether you can automate it or not. Think about each one carefully. For example, some tasks may seem like they can’t be automated, but they actually can. By considering each individual task and its characteristics, you should have quite a few of them on your “can be automated” list.
3) Use a task automation tool (such as Teamwork.com)
Once your list is complete, it’s time to find an app that can automate tasks for you. A tool like Teamwork.com lets you optimize your task management, plan your workload, and track your progress.
Task automation tools make it simple to set your tasks up in it and avoid manual, time-consuming work.
4) Start automating your tasks
I always start with a pilot approach—automating one process completely before moving to the next. This gives us time to test, gather feedback, and refine before rolling out widely.
By automating tasks this way, you can keep a handle on which ones are live and which ones are in production. This also avoids overwhelming your team with too many changes at once.
Important features when choosing your automation apps
The success of automating your repetitive, time-consuming tasks and making your teams more effective hinges on the tools you choose to help you make it happen.
There are hundreds of apps on the market that tout automation. While some of them provide a varying range of features and benefits, you’ll want to look for these five must-have features:
Drag-and-dropfunctionality
A way to identify new automation opportunities
A wide choice of integrations and/or an open API to expand automation opportunities
Customizable workflow templates for fast implementation
Highly scalable for handling task volume
And another thing...
The biggest implementation challenge I've faced isn't technical—it's getting team buy-in. I find sharing specific examples of how much time individuals will save on their most tedious tasks is far more effective than discussing abstract benefits.
The 4 best task automation apps
Keeping those five features we just covered in mind, we narrowed down a list of some of the top tools on the market. The tools on our list are the ones we believe best help companies (from large corporations to small businesses) automate their tasks, streamline their processes, and create more efficiency for their teams.
1) Teamwork.com
Simple setup and a high level of customization makes this app a winner and a must for automating team tasks and streamlining your workflows. This easy-to-use app gives your team more productive hours by wiping out the manual work involved in their projects. By focusing on high-value, strategic tasks, Teamwork.com helps your project teams be more streamlined and efficient than ever.
Try Teamwork.com task management software today to help your team stay on track toward goals.
Key features:
A wide choice of customizable automation templates
Event-based and time-based triggers help you easily create customized workflows
Integrations with many popular apps to keep users happy and focused on essential work (instead of mucking through busy work)
Time tracking for better estimation of future projects
Kanban boards for visual workflows and easy process automation
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2) Zapier
Zapier is a powerful app that gives users robust task-automating choices. Companies using Zapier are privy to many features that help increase their efficiency, all without having to write any code.
Key features:
Ability to connect and integrate with a mind-boggling 5,000+ apps
Automated workflow templates and their running log automation history
No-code Zap Editor automates even the most customized processes
Ability to choose a “trigger” that brings about the automated action
3) Jotform
You can use this app to create forms that save tons of time and improve your team's efficiency. Use conditional logic, accept payments, generate reports, and automate workflows with Jotform. You can arrange forms to create automated workflows that ease your team’s load and keep them focused on the important stuff.
Key features:
Drag-and-drop interface
Thousands of customizable, pre-built templates
Thorough tracking features offer information on fill forms
Ability to view all metrics in a spreadsheet in real time with Jotform Tables
4) Microsoft Power Automate
The ultimate in task automation, you can use this tool to create automation workflows between your favorite apps and services. Synchronize files, collect data, and get live notifications with this tool — ensuring everyone on the team is as up-to-date as possible.
Key features:
Hundreds of pre-built connectors and no-code guidance
Cloud-based data loss prevention to protect your private company information
Trigger search to add intelligence to your processes
Scaling task automation as your business grows
Growing pains are real for small to mid-sized businesses, especially service-based agencies handling multiple clients. As your project complexity increases and your team expands, the manual processes that once worked can quickly become bottlenecks. Task automation that scales with your business is the key to maintaining efficiency without proportionally increasing overhead costs.
When scaling task automation across your growing organization, focus on these strategic approaches:
Start with critical workflows first: Identify the highest-impact processes where manual work is slowing down delivery. Client onboarding, approval processes, and resource allocation typically offer the biggest immediate returns when automated.
Build modular automation systems: Create automation workflows that can be replicated and modified across different departments or client types. This modular approach allows you to scale without starting from scratch each time.
Implement progressive automation: Rather than attempting to automate everything at once, adopt a phased approach. Begin with simple triggers and actions, then gradually build more complex automated workflows as your team becomes more comfortable with the technology.
Document your automation framework: Create clear documentation of your automated processes, including triggers, actions, and dependencies. This documentation becomes invaluable as you onboard new team members and expand to new departments.
The most valuable lesson I've learned is that automation isn't a one-time project but an evolving system that should mature alongside your organization. This mindset has allowed us to handle increasingly complex projects without the administrative burnout that used to plague our teams.
By progressively scaling your task automation, you create a foundation for sustainable growth that allows your team to focus on high-value client work rather than administrative busywork.
Automate your tasks easily with Teamwork.com
Teams must always strive to be the most efficient, productive animal they can be — or they risk becoming obsolete and losing their competitive edge. One of the ways the time gets sucked away from strategic initiatives is with menial, repetitive tasks.
Smart leaders should always search for ways to increase their team's efficiency and reduce busy work: Your team’s time is better spent on initiatives that move the needle and progress the business forward. Finding tools to automate these tasks can increase your team’s performance and, most likely, their job satisfaction.
Are you searching for the best tools to help you automate team tasks and successfully manage your processes? Teamwork.com can help you easily and seamlessly automate tasks and customize your workflows. Find out more about how Teamwork.com can improve your project workflows today.
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