How to Automate the Boring Stuff in Your Business

Let’s be honest, when you dreamed of running your own business, you probably pictured big ideas, happy customers, and maybe even a feature in Canadian Business. What you didn’t imagine? Spending your Tuesday afternoon buried in receipts or manually emailing invoice reminders for the tenth time this month. The good news? There’s a better way. With a few smart tools and some upfront setup, you can automate the repetitive stuff and spend more time doing the work that actually moves the needle (or lets you sneak out early on a sunny Friday).

So what can you automate? Quite a lot, actually. Here’s a breakdown of the most common time-wasters and how to automate them the smart way.

🧠 Note: We’ve recommended Canadian-based companies wherever possible, especially those that understand local regulations like GST/HST and CASL. In cases where there’s no strong Canadian alternative, we’ve included trusted global tools that are widely used by Canadian businesses.

Emails You Send on Repeat

If you're still manually writing every invoice reminder or customer follow-up, it’s time to upgrade. Email automation tools can help you schedule, personalize, and send emails without lifting a finger after setup.

What to automate:

• Appointment confirmations
• Payment reminders
• Welcome emails
• Abandoned cart emails (for e-commerce)

Tools to try:

• Mailchimp (great for newsletters and drip campaigns; widely used by Canadian businesses, but not Canadian-owned)
• QuickBooks Online (for payment reminders and invoices)
• Cyberimpact (A Quebec-based email marketing platform that’s fully CASL-compliant)

🧠 Canadian Tip: Make sure your email marketing complies with CASL (Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation). Always get express consent and offer an unsubscribe option.

Bookkeeping & Expense Tracking

Doing your books manually? That’s the fast track to burnout—and missed write-offs at tax time. Cloud accounting software can automatically import your bank transactions, categorize expenses, and even match receipts.

What to automate:

• Invoicing and payment processing
• Categorizing expenses
• Sales tax tracking (yes, even GST/HST)

Tools to try:

• QuickBooks Online
• Wave Accounting (free and made in Canada!)
• Dext (formerly Receipt Bank – ideal for scanning receipts; is global, but works well with Canadian tax systems)

🧠 Bonus: Automating your books makes it way easier to apply for funding. Lenders like Driven love clean, real-time financials.

Order Management & Inventory

If you sell products, automation can save you major time and prevent those “Oops, we’re out of stock” moments.

What to automate:

• Inventory tracking across multiple locations
• Order confirmations and shipping updates
• Reorder notifications

Tools to try:

• Shopify (great for Canadian e-commerce)
• ShipStation Canada (popular among Canadian Shopify users for shipping automation)
• Zapier (connects systems like Shopify and Google Sheets; U.S.-based, but widely used and no strong Canadian equivalent)

🧠 Canadian Tip: If you're shipping across provinces, make sure your system handles different sales tax rates automatically.

Payroll and HR Admin

Payroll doesn’t have to be painful. Automating it ensures your team gets paid on time, deductions are calculated properly, and compliance boxes are ticked.

What to automate:

• Timesheets and clock-ins
• Direct deposits and paystubs
• T4 slips and CRA remittances

Tools to try:

• Wagepoint (Canadian and CRA-friendly!)
• Rise People (payroll + HR management)
• Ceridian Dayforce (for growing teams)

🧠 Reminder: Even if you automate payroll, make sure you’re keeping up with minimum wage updates and statutory holiday pay rules in your province.

Customer Service (Without Sounding Like a Robot)

You don’t need a call centre to offer great support. Chatbots and helpdesk systems can answer FAQs, track tickets, and route real human help where needed.

What to automate:

• Website chat and contact forms
• Frequently asked questions
• Booking appointments

Tools to try:

• Heyday by Hootsuite (Montreal based chatbot for customer service)
• Calendly (for appointment booking, U.S.-based but still widely used as there are not many Canadian alternatives)
• Gorgias (Headquartered in Toronto, Gorgias is a powerful helpdesk platform designed for e-commerce businesses. It centralizes support tickets from email, chat, social media, and SMS, and integrates seamlessly with Shopify)

🧠 Friendly tip: A little personalization goes a long way. Use automation to start the conversation, but still be human when it counts.

Workflow Glue: Connecting the Dots with Automation Tools

Once you have a few systems in place, it’s time to get them talking to each other. That’s where integration tools like Zapier and Make (formerly Integromat) shine. Keep in mind that they’re not Canadian but are essential tools with no solid Canadian replacement.

Example automations:

• When someone fills out a contact form on your website, they’re automatically added to your CRM and emailed a welcome message
• When a new order is placed, it triggers inventory updates and generates a shipping label
• When a lead is tagged as "qualified," a Slack notification pings your sales team

🧠 Start simple: Even one or two of these "zaps" can save hours each week.

The Bottom Line: Start Small and Build

You don’t need to automate everything overnight. Pick one task that drains your time each week and look for a tool to solve it. Then build from there.

Need capital to invest in the right tools? Driven offers fast, flexible financing designed for Canadian small business owners. Let us help you free up time and grow faster, without doing more of the boring stuff.