How to increase efficiency: 12 ways to save time in business

Published Thursday 12 March 2026

Table of contents

• Why efficiency matters for your business
• 1. Get tight with your customer
• 2. Get clear on what matters
• 3. Set clear goals for efficiency
• 4. Write up your process
• 5. Use technology to automate and streamline
• 6. Find your bottlenecks
• 7. Redesign your process
• 8. Train your staff (and let them train you)
• 9. Improve team collaboration and communication
• 10. Hire or outsource
• 11. Measure and track your efficiency improvements
• 12. Keep improving your efficiency
• FAQs on improving business efficiency

Key takeaways

• Document your business processes with your team to expose bottlenecks and ensure everyone understands their responsibilities, as the act of writing them down often reveals the inefficiencies you need to fix.
• Implement automation tools like cloud accounting software, automated booking systems, and invoicing software to eliminate repetitive tasks and free up 5% to 10% of your team's time for work that grows your business.
• Set SMART efficiency goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound, such as reducing invoice processing time from 30 minutes to 10 minutes within 90 days.
• Track key performance indicators like time saved, cost reduction, and error rates using dashboards in your accounting software to measure whether your efficiency improvements are actually working.

Why efficiency matters for your business

Business efficiency means getting more results from the time, money, and effort you put in. When your operations run smoothly, you spend less on wasted resources and more time on the work that actually grows your business.

An efficient business is generally profitable and peaceful. The steps below help you remove friction and reduce waste, which can free up 5% to 10% of your team's time for work that matters.

1. Get tight with your customer

Understanding your customers is the foundation of efficiency. When you know exactly what your customers value, you stop wasting time on things they don't care about.

Try a brief survey or ask in person about specific parts of your product or service. They may be indifferent about something you work really hard on. Redirect that effort toward what matters most to them.

2. Get clear on what matters

Clarity on priorities is one of the most important steps to improving efficiency. When you know your non-negotiables, you can set daily priorities and make faster decisions about where to invest your time, money, and energy.

Your non-negotiables might be personal service, quality finishes, attention to detail, or outstanding expertise. Make sure you know what defines your business, then make sure employees and contractors know it too.

3. Set clear goals for efficiency

Efficiency goals give you something concrete to work toward. Using performance measures helps you set targets, and without measurable targets, it's hard to know if your improvements are actually working.

Use SMART goals to drive efficiency

SMART goals are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. Here's how to apply them to efficiency:

• Specific: Define exactly what you want to improve, such as reducing invoice processing time.
• Measurable: Attach a number, like cutting processing from 30 minutes to 10 minutes.
• Achievable: Make sure the goal is realistic given your current resources.
• Relevant: Focus on improvements that directly affect profitability or customer satisfaction.
• Time-bound: Set a deadline, such as achieving the improvement within 90 days.

Start with one or two goals. Once you hit them, set new ones.

4. Write up your process

Process documentation ensures everyone knows what to do and how to do it. It also reveals where inefficiencies hide.

Make time to create process documents with your team. Their insights are invaluable, and working together speeds up the process. Use templated documents to capture the same information for each job or process.

These records help everyone understand their responsibilities. The act of writing them down often exposes the bottlenecks you need to fix.

5. Use technology to automate and streamline

Automation removes repetitive tasks that slow you down. According to a report, data collection and data processing are the activities most likely to be automated, freeing you to focus on customers and growth.

Here are the tools that make the biggest difference for small businesses:

• Automated booking systems: Enable customers to self-serve, reducing back-and-forth emails.
• Inventory management: Track stock levels and trigger automatic reorders.
• Cloud accounting software: Simplify record-keeping, reporting, and tax filing with tools like Xero.
• Invoicing software: Speed up billing and automatically chase late payments. This is a common pain point, with research showing that 90% of UK business owners find chasing payments awkward.
• Accounts payable tools: Track bills, monitor cash flow, and schedule payments.
• Payroll software: Calculate wages, deductions, and payslips with automated payroll.
• Project management tools: Centralise tasks and communication, minimise dropped work.
• Time-tracking systems: Share rosters and record hours accurately.

Many of these tools connect to each other. When your systems talk to your accounting software, data flows automatically and you eliminate double-handling.

To check whether an efficiency investment is worth it, talk to your accountant or bookkeeper. They can help you weigh the costs against the time and money you'll save.

6. Find your bottlenecks

Bottlenecks are the points where work slows down or piles up. Finding them is the first step to fixing them.

As you document your processes, notice which tasks stress you out. Stress is a reliable signal that something isn't working well.

Use these exercises to identify where bottlenecks occur:

• Process flowcharts: Map each task and its dependencies visually to see where delays happen.
• Critical Path Method (CPM): Allocate time frames to each task to understand why things take as long as they do.
• Resource distribution: Analyse how much each person needs to work to complete their tasks.
• The 5 Whys: For each step, ask why it has to happen that way, then ask why again until you reach the root cause.

Try one or two of these techniques. The insights will help you create a roadmap for improving efficiency across the business.

7. Redesign your process

Process redesign means fixing the problems you've uncovered. Start with quick wins to build momentum, and tackle the harder fixes too. They often deliver the biggest gains.

For each problem, consider which of these solutions could help:

• Better tools or resources: Upgrade equipment or software that slows people down.
• Clearer roles: Define who does what so tasks don't fall through the cracks.
• Redistributed workloads: Balance work more evenly across the team.
• Tighter scheduling: Set realistic deadlines and stick to them.
• Resequenced steps: Change the order of tasks to reduce waiting time.
• Improved communication: Remove confusion with clearer handoffs and updates.

8. Train your staff (and let them train you)

Ongoing training reduces mistakes and frees you from micromanaging. Check that employees know how to use tools and complete tasks, even if you've explained them before. Training is an ongoing process.

Time spent training staff pays back quickly. As employees gain experience, they'll spot inefficiencies you've missed. In one case of employee empowerment, a temporary worker found a way to eliminate 50% of the waste from a process. Keep the conversation open, as their insights will help you continue improving operations.

9. Improve team collaboration and communication

Strong collaboration prevents duplicated work and missed handoffs. When your team communicates clearly, tasks move faster and fewer things slip through the cracks.

Here's how to improve collaboration in a small business:

• Define roles clearly: Make sure everyone knows who's responsible for what.
• Hold regular check-ins: Brief daily or weekly meetings keep everyone on the same page.
• Use shared tools: Cloud-based software lets the team access the same information from anywhere.
• Delegate effectively: Match tasks to skills and give people the authority to complete their work.
• Keep communication channels open: Make it easy for staff to flag problems before they escalate.

Even small improvements in how your team works together can save hours each week.

10. Hire or outsource

Outsourcing or hiring makes sense when skilled people are stuck on tasks that don't need their expertise. If you're spending hours on something a specialist could finish quickly, that's a sign to get help.

Consider outsourcing for tasks that don't need to happen in-house, like bookkeeping, payroll, or marketing. Consider hiring when you need someone dedicated to your business full-time. Either way, freeing up your time for more important work is often worth the cost.

11. Measure and track your efficiency improvements

Tracking results tells you whether your changes are working. Measurement gives you certainty.

Focus on a few key performance indicators (KPIs) that matter to your business:

• Time saved: How long do tasks take now compared to before?
• Cost reduction: Have your operating expenses decreased?
• Error rates: Are mistakes happening less often?
• Customer satisfaction: Are customers happier with response times or service quality?
• Revenue per employee: Is each team member contributing more to the business?

Use dashboards in your accounting software to monitor these numbers in real time. Review them monthly and adjust your approach based on what the data shows.

12. Keep improving your efficiency

Efficiency is an ongoing mindset. It's a continuous, systematic process of evaluation and improvement. Keep a running list of things you can't fix immediately but want to address. This is a place to capture genuine improvement opportunities. It's an honest way to capture your team's insights and plan future improvements.

You have the motivation. Take the next step toward a more profitable and peaceful business.

Cloud accounting software like Xero can automate many of the time-consuming tasks holding you back. Get one month free and see how much time you can save.

FAQs on improving business efficiency

Improving efficiency raises practical questions about where to start, what to prioritise, and how to measure success. Here are answers to some of the most common questions.

How do I know which efficiency improvements to tackle first?

Start with changes that are low-cost and high-impact. Quick wins build momentum and free up resources for bigger projects. If you're unsure, ask your team which tasks frustrate them most.

What are the different types of efficiency in business?

The main types are operational efficiency (how well you use resources), cost efficiency (minimising expenses for the same output), and time efficiency (completing tasks faster without sacrificing quality).

How long does it take to see results from efficiency improvements?

Small changes like automating invoices can show results within days. Larger process redesigns may take weeks or months to fully implement and measure. Set 90-day checkpoints to review progress.

Can small businesses afford to invest in efficiency improvements?

Yes. Many improvements cost little or nothing, like documenting processes or clarifying roles. Software subscriptions often pay for themselves within weeks through time saved.

How can accounting software improve business efficiency?

Accounting software automates data entry, bank reconciliation, invoicing, and reporting. It reduces manual errors, speeds up financial tasks, and gives you real-time visibility into cash flow and profitability.