Administrative tasks – Guide and 15 automation examples

10 minutes
Administrative tasks

Administrative tasks are essential to the smooth running of a company. From processing incoming requests to managing quotations/invoices, archiving, data entry and updating software and spreadsheets, they impact the entire organization. Whether carried out directly by the business or by an administrative assistant, optimizing these tasks is key to a company’s success.

In this article, we’ll share tips and automations that will free your teams from repetitive, time-consuming and off-putting tasks, allowing them to concentrate on what’s most important. These optimizations will simply improve profitability and customer satisfaction.

What are administrative tasks?

Definition Administrative tasks

Administrative tasks are all activities that support business tasks. The main difference is that they have no direct added value for the customer, but are necessary for the smooth running of a company.

For example, document archiving, invoice tracking and payment tracking are not mandatory to satisfy a customer. But without these tasks, an organization could not function efficiently and profitably.

What administrative activities ?

An activity is a set of tasks. These activities may be carried out by an administrative assistant or by business line managers, depending on the organizational context.

Sales administration

  • Quote management
  • Contractualization
  • Invoice management

Relations with social organizations

  • Declaration of activities
  • Declaration of personnel movements
  • Request for subsidies

Personnel administration

  • Personnel file management
  • Managing medical visits
  • Monitoring employment contracts

Management of premises and equipment

  • Maintenance of premises
  • Insurance management
  • Management of maintenance contracts

Human Resources Administration

  • Administrative newcomer
  • Payroll Management
  • Absence and leave management

Other administrative activities

  • Mail management
  • Procurement management
  • Archiving

Examples of processes and their administrative tasks

Supplier invoice management

  • Receipt of invoice
  • Checking with the buyer
  • Allocation
  • Payment to supplier
  • Archiving, dematerialized or not

Processing mail

  • Receiving and sorting
  • Dematerialization (if any)
  • Distribution
  • Treatment
  • Archiving

Payroll management

  • Preparation of pay slips
  • Declaration of social charges
  • Payment of wages
  • Expense claim management

Leave management

  • Vacation requests
  • Validation of leave
  • Communication of validation
  • Entering leave in HR software
  • Pay slip update

Sales administration

  • Billing
  • Payment on account
  • Dunning management
  • Collection of balances
  • CRM and ERP updates

The role of administrative assistant

To help the business perform administrative tasks, a company can call on one or more administrative assistants or administrative operators. Depending on the sector and size of the company, the administrative assistant can take on various supervisory and organizational roles.

What are the advantages of hiring an administrative assistant? ?

Whatever your level (previous experience, training, higher education – Bac Pro, CAP, BTS, DUT…) and skills (technical mastery, software skills, good interpersonal skills, organizational skills…), delegating administrative tasks to an administrative assistant has many advantages.

Efficiency and optimization

An administrative assistant can improve productivity, reduce deadlines and manage time. If trained, they can identify sub-optimizations and help cut costs.

Know-how of the company

It’s true that an administrative assistant can arrive with expertise. But as they are involved in the entire operation of a company, administrative assistants are the source of the company’s know-how.

Simplified information search

One of the roles of the administrative assistant is to keep data and file repositories up to date. They can also set up simplified searches for operational staff.

Why NOT outsource administrative tasks

It can be easy to delegate or outsource administrative tasks to a service provider. The latter will sell you performance gains, cost reductions, process optimizations… In some cases, this may be the right thing to do, but in general, it should be avoided until you have checked a few points (see next section).

Indeed, in most cases, outsourcing does not solve the underlying problem; it’s like putting a band-aid on a wooden leg , maintaining the problem without solving it.

For example, you have an invoice collection problem. You find that your assistant is spending too much time tracking payments and making manual reminders. Your operational objective is therefore to “Centralize payments and eliminate manual reminders”. If you choose to outsource, you’re not solving the problem: the service provider will carry out exactly the same scheme without solving it, whereas simple digitization and automation would have sufficed and cost much less (even if it means outsourcing 10% of the most contentious payments).

A checklist to help you decide whether you’re right tooutsource administrative tasks

  • Does outsourcing solve a problem? If “NO” no need to outsource, if “YES” next question
  • Is the problem a cause or a consequence? If “Consequence” then re-evaluate the problem, if “Cause” continue
  • Will outsourcing really solve this root cause? If “NO” no need to outsource, if “YES” continue with the questions in the next column.
  • Is outsourcing the only solution to this problem?
    • Answer “It was a choice made for lack of time and expertise on other solutions”, so outsourcing is not necessarily the right solution.
    • Answer “We haven’t looked at other solutions”, so outsourcing isn’t necessarily the right solution.
    • Answer “It was the best, simplest and cheapest choice”, so it was the right decision.

7 tips for identifying administrative tasks that can be optimized

When it comes to optimizing administrative processes, and in the day-to-day work of an administrative assistant, we generally identify seven main sources of inefficiency that bring no value to the end customer:

  1. Unnecessary movements: This refers to non-essential movements of people, information or materials. For example, an excessively long and complex purchasing approval process.
  2. Overstock: This is the accumulation of items waiting or being processed. A good example is a pile of pending files.
  3. Unnecessary movements: These are avoidable employee movements due to a poorly designed or ill-equipped work environment. Let’s take the case of an employee who frequently has to use a stapler located at the other end of the corridor because it is shared by several departments.
  4. Idle time: This covers periods of forced inactivity, such as waiting for a meeting, a decision, a document or a colleague to complete a task.
  1. Excess production: This involves producing too much, or too quickly, in relation to actual customer needs.
  2. Excessive procedures: This consists of adding superfluous steps that do not meet customer expectations. An example would be the multiplication of verification phases in the processing of a file.
  3. Errors and defects: These are alterations to a product or service resulting from faulty equipment, lack of maintenance, unsuitable software or inadequate training of personnel.

Digital solutions for administrative tasks

3 ways to computerize administrative tasks

Tasks : Doc checklist, digital workflow and automation

Document to do list

These are written documents in digital format (e.g. PDF), stored on a computer, cloud or specialized software.

However, there is a real risk that these documents will quickly become obsolete or be forgotten in the meanders of your storage system.

Digitized tasks

This approach goes beyond the simple static document. It integrates the entire sequence of administrative tasks into specialized software, making the procedure truly functional for employees. This method uses a combination of interactive elements such as input forms, approval circuits, notification and reminder systems, as well as tracking tools. Typically, these solutions are developed in no-code.

Partial automation of administrative tasks

This step goes one step further than simple digitization. It aims to free employees from certain repetitive and time-consuming tasks.

This can include eliminating multiple entries of the same information in different systems, automating the search and display of information from different sources, or automated alert management.

This approach is based on the interconnection of the various tools already used in the company, such as CRM, ERP, HRIS, management software or spreadsheets…

15 examples of how to automate administrative tasks

Centralization of incoming requests

Whether it’s telephone requests, e-mails, website forms or letters, automation reduces the amount of information input by an administrative assistant. All requests are automatically formatted, prioritized and dispatched to the right business contact. Automatic replies can also be sent.

Accounting controls and audits

In collaboration with your chartered accountant or accounting department, these automated processes enable you to perform bank reconciliations, archive accounting and tax documents, monitor cash flow and track invoices. You can also manage data processing for financial reporting and dashboards.

Partially automated collections

The administrative tasks of monitoring payments and payment deadlines can be partly automated. Reminders, alerts, document and file generation can be handled by dedicated software. Admittedly, this won’t cover 100% of all disputes, but it will greatly facilitate the work of the administrative assistant.

Produce and validate documents

Administrative assistants are often responsible for producing various documents. They also “often physically” lead the file validation and archiving circuits. Automated processes generate most, if not all, documents. Validations are pushed automatically at the right time, to the right person, and archiving is done simply by connecting to a storage space.

Sales follow-up and administration of sales and invoices

A sales process inevitably contains tasks that can be automated, such as costing, entering and updating data in the CRM, creating automated quotations, sending e-mails and following up prospects… 30% of staff time can easily be freed up to concentrate on more value-added tasks.

Automatic responses to certain complaints

Some requests or complaints do not concern your company or are recurrent. To communicate your position or refusal, automatic responses can be sent. This will improve response time and the quality of your after-sales service.

Automated document archiving

The administrative tasks involved in filing, renaming and archiving documents on your cloud or storage space can be easily automated.

Find out more in our article on process automation

Automated tasks

Scheduling appointments and meetings

Appointment scheduling software allows you to easily organize an appointment by connecting your calendar and digital agenda. This solution takes into account your availability, the time between meetings…

Recruitment process management

Writing job offers, automated responses and announcements to applications, reception of CVs and cover letters, initial qualification, organization of interviews, validation circuit… Many recruitment-related administrative tasks can be automated.

Onboarding and integrating new arrivals

With automation software, you can create integration circuits including the collection of identity documents, the organization of training courses, the ordering and transmission of IT equipment, the provision of a vehicle…

Purchasing and order management

All procurement, validation, approval and supplier selection processes can be managed through intelligent task sequences. No more stock-outs, overstocking or multiple software entries.

Steering and monitoring the progress of a file or project

The administrative tasks involved in coordinating activities and projects, such as organizing meetings, communicating, planning, monitoring progress and reporting, can be automated in just a few clicks.

Managing a call for tenders

Contacting the relevant suppliers, communicating a request, collecting their offers and annexes, leading an approval circuit, receiving and paying the invoice… Assistants can be freed from all these administrative tasks.

Software and spreadsheet updates

No more annoying software updates or having to enter the same information in multiple programs. With Lapala, you can say it just once, without having to use convoluted, complex software.

Contract creation

Automation software enables you to customize your contractual process: contract editing, validation, iteration, signature, archiving, reminders and automatic alerts.

Choose a customizable, flexible, back-office automation solution that connects to your existing software.

With so many different digitalization and automation tools available, it’s crucial to define your needs clearly:

  • Are you looking for a dedicated application or a more general-purpose solution?
  • What are the limits of your budget and technical infrastructure?
  • Do you prefer rapid implementation with the possibility of gradual evolution, or do you envisage full deployment from the outset?
  • What compatibility with your existing software (CRM, ERP, HRIS, EDM, etc.)?

Feel free to explore different options. Some software publishers, such as Lapala, offer free, time-limited trial versions for a defined volume of tasks. These offers allow you not only to evaluate the tool, but also to benefit from support in implementing your first use cases.

By adopting this methodical approach, you’ll optimize your chances of success, while making it easier for your employees to adapt.

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