Three versions of the same day
The counter's notebook, the spreadsheet and the bank statement disagree, and reconciling them takes the evening.
Services
Digital transformation
The invoice book is still at the counter and the spreadsheet is still open on the accountant's laptop, because nobody can afford the week where the old way stops before the new way works. That week is the whole risk of this kind of project, and it is a planning problem before it is a software problem. We move one site, one process or one department at a time, run both side by side until the numbers agree, and only then take the paper away.
Who it is for
- Businesses where the record of a sale exists on paper, in a spreadsheet and in someone's memory.
- Owners who tried a system once and went back to the old method after a bad month.
- Groups adding a branch, a warehouse or a second company and needing one set of numbers.
Problems it solves
The switch is planned as one weekend
Everything changes on a Monday. By Wednesday two people have gone back to the notebook, and now the system and the notebook each hold half the truth.
Finished means paid
The supplier is paid and the project is declared complete, while three processes are still on paper and nobody wrote down what complete was supposed to mean.
Use cases
One branch first
The smallest site, or the one with the calmest manager, runs the new system for a month. What it teaches is applied to the next one, and the paper is retired there before the rollout continues.
Parallel running with a daily comparison
Paper and system side by side for an agreed period, with two totals compared at the end of each day. The cut-over happens on a written rule, not on a feeling.
Migrating what is still open
Customer balances, supplier balances, current stock and open orders are migrated and checked against a printed control total. Last year's invoices stay readable as an archive; they are not needed to run tomorrow.
A named owner in each department
One person per department who can answer questions and can say no, trained before the rollout reaches their team, and able to stop a step that is not working.
What is in scope
Fixed scope. Fixed price.
Agreed in writing before anything is built. You approve before we start.
- A map of what is on paper today, department by department
- A phased plan naming the first site and the date it stops using paper
- Migration of open balances, stock and open orders, with control totals
- A parallel-running period with a written cut-over rule
- Training per role before each phase, and a written procedure per role
- A written definition of done, and the report that shows it was reached
How it is delivered
- 01
Start with the person holding the book
Every paper process has someone who knows where the exceptions go. That person's routine is the specification; the form on the wall is only a summary of it.
- 02
Run the smallest phase in parallel
One site, both methods, the same totals checked daily. Problems show up in days here, not in the third month of a large rollout.
- 03
Fix, then extend
The next branch gets the corrected version. A phase that fails is repeated, not hidden under the one after it.
- 04
Retire the paper on a date
The old book is taken away, the report that replaces it is printed where the book used to sit, and the person who kept the book checks the first week's output.
FAQ
Questions about this service.
What owners usually ask before requesting a quote for it.
Do we have to stop working during the switch?
No, and a plan that requires it is the wrong plan. The parallel period exists so the business keeps running while the new system proves its totals.
How much history do we migrate?
Open balances, current stock and open orders: what is needed to run tomorrow. Old invoices are archived and searchable, not retyped.
What if part of the team keeps working on paper after go-live?
It happens, and it usually means a step is slower in the new system or that the person was not in the training. We compare the two records for a week, fix the step or the training, and set the date again. A parallel period with no end date is how these projects die.
What does done mean here?
A named list: which processes no longer use paper, which reports come out of the system, who can do their job without asking us. When the list is true, the project is done. Until then it is running, whatever the contract says.
Start a project
Want this scoped for your business?
Send the brief. It comes back as a written scope and a fixed quote before anything is built.