Software is being written every day that can lower your cost of operation. It’s wise to stay on top of what is available to your small business.

We’re all know the expression “time is money.” Time is what binds and limits businesses and controls what they can do and how much they can achieve. The more that businesses can get done in a given period of time the more successful they will be.

This is why we see a wave of automation sweep across businesses. We do not just see it in factories – we see it in accounting firms, dental practices and clothing retailers too. It’s something that is becoming universal across the business spectrum.

Today, there are some prime candidates for automation in business. Is your business automating these functions yet?

Human Resources automation

HR is typically thought of as a people-heavy part of your business operation. But the truth is that a lot of the work that goes on in HR departments is repetitive and doesn’t require a human to do it. Smaller companies, like legal firms, often don’t have the resources to employ somebody to do their HR for them.

Thanks to new software, many HR functions that used to be carried out by people can now be done with bots. Bots can do compliance, insurance, taxes and payroll. They’re also increasingly able to manage more complicated matters, like employee benefits. This frees up HR and allows them to get back to their job of focusing on the customer. It also helps your business save enormous sums of money in the long term.

Sales and returns

If you’re a clothing retailer, processing and sorting out returns can be a time-consuming process. Doing it manually is nearly impossible and will put you at a cost disadvantage. You need to do everything you can to automate the process. Thanks to enterprise resource planning, automation is becoming a distinct possibility. Clothing ERP software now allows retailers to manage and track their returns and sales ordering. This means that retailers can cut out a lot of wasted time in the returns process. It also means that they can afford to be more liberal in their returns policy and chop and change their terms. New, more flexible systems allow them to react to market conditions better.

Data backup and recovery

Retail giants know how important it is to keep their customer data safe. It’s these data that allow retailers to plan and predict what it is that a client will want to purchase and how to advertise. Data, therefore, are precious and need to be backed up. Until now, backing up your company data was a time-consuming process. Businesses had to go into their systems, get external hard drive racks, and make copies of all their data. But there were a number of problems with this.

For starters, businesses often forgot to backup their data on a regular basis. They rarely kept to their schedules. Companies also frequently ran out of space to make backups and constantly had to buy new storage. And finally, many businesses struggled to recover their data anyway, thanks to incompatible systems. Now, though, services like Dropbox, allow companies to automate the backing up process.

These examples are only the tip of the iceberg regarding how automation is changing how businesses operate. More money saving automation solutions will be coming along soon. Every small business owner should make sure to stay on top of these developments. You can be sure competitors will be doing so, and you don’t want to be at a disadvantage when it comes to the cost of operating your business.