Every order meant work in four systems
An order passed through the CRM, the accounting software, the shipping software and a central spreadsheet. Integrations already existed, but the team still had to check and complete a lot by hand. Processing an invoice took two to four minutes, according to the team: waiting for the existing bot, refreshing the screen and checking that the right email address and payment attachment were included. Putting together a shipping label took about five minutes, sometimes longer for bigger orders.
For purchase orders, the same data was entered again in QuickBooks and the master tracker. The team also checked daily which shipments had not left yet and emailed suppliers for an update. That work piled up as soon as more orders came in. Speed mattered too: just before the shipping cutoff, a few minutes could decide whether an order still went out the same day.
One intelligence layer between sales, administration and shipping
Together with leadership, operations and finance, Pretrain mapped the full order flow. We then connected the existing systems. Invoices are created from the order data, purchase orders are prepared per supplier and shipping data is ready in the shipping software. Tracking statuses are checked automatically, so the team no longer has to follow up on every parcel one by one.
We introduced the automation step by step, one sales pipeline at a time. Checks cover customer details, products and amounts, among other things. When data is missing or deviates, the process stops for review. Sending invoices, making stock decisions and buying shipping labels stay with a person. The repetitive work disappears without the team losing control.
What it delivered
- Roughly 1.5 FTE of administrative work won back, an estimated $80,000 to $120,000 a year. The team said they use this room to grow without hiring more people.
- Orders processed in seconds instead of sometimes hours, when staff were briefly unavailable.
- Fewer mistakes and fewer things falling through the cracks. Data is no longer retyped, partial orders are recognized and nothing slips through silently: when data is missing or deviates, the process stops for review instead of carrying on.
- Purchase orders prepared within 5 minutes and checked against available stock. That reduces double entry and helps prevent unnecessary orders, which saves money.
- More orders still shipped the same day.
This is great. It saves us a lot of time, and that's nice.Bucanna Labs
