Business Services (Finance/Admin): Map procurement, invoicing, and administrative request processes.

Mapping Business Services' Core Financial and Administrative Processes

This critical task within our Phase 0: Discovery & Learning establishes the foundation for implementing Notion as your centralized hub for business services. By methodically documenting procurement, invoicing, and administrative request processes, we'll ensure your Notion workspace accurately reflects how your finance and administration teams operate, communicate, and deliver value.

Why This Process Mapping Is Essential

Before building an effective Notion system, we need to thoroughly understand the unique operational patterns of your Business Services department. This mapping goes beyond documenting current workflows—it identifies opportunities to enhance efficiency, streamline operations, and establish standardized procedures.

This mapping process will reveal:

• Procurement workflows: How purchase requests are initiated, approved, processed, and fulfilled
• Invoicing cycles: How invoices are received, verified, approved, and paid
• Administrative request handling: How various administrative requests are submitted, prioritized, and completed
• Cross-departmental touchpoints: Where Finance/Admin interacts with other departments and where handoffs occur

Our Approach to Mapping Business Services Processes

We'll take a structured yet adaptable approach to documenting your department's core processes:

1. Comprehensive Discovery Sessions

We'll conduct targeted interviews with key stakeholders in Finance and Administration to understand:

• Procurement lifecycle: How purchase needs are identified, requests submitted, approved, and fulfilled
• Vendor management: How suppliers are selected, evaluated, and managed
• Invoice processing: The journey from receipt to payment, including approval workflows
• Budget tracking: How departmental budgets are monitored and managed
• Administrative request fulfillment: How various support requests are handled and prioritized

2. Financial Systems Assessment & Integration Planning

We'll thoroughly evaluate your current financial systems to understand:

• Data structure analysis: How financial information and transactions are currently organized
• Approval hierarchies: The current authorization levels for different transaction types
• Integration touchpoints: How your financial systems connect with other tools in your tech stack
• Reporting capabilities: What financial insights are currently extracted and what additional insights are needed
• Automation opportunities: Where Notion can enhance or streamline finance-dependent workflows

3. Identifying Pain Points and Opportunities

During our mapping process, we'll specifically look for:

• Process bottlenecks: Where are delays commonly occurring in procurement or invoice processing?
• Manual redundancies: Are team members manually transferring data between systems or repeatedly performing tasks that could be automated?
• Compliance vulnerabilities: Where might current processes create risks related to financial controls or documentation?
• Visibility challenges: Do stakeholders have appropriate visibility into the status of their requests?

4. Documenting Cross-Departmental Dependencies

We'll pay special attention to how Business Services interacts with other departments:

• Finance → All Departments: How budget approvals and financial reporting occur
• Admin → Facilities: How workspace and equipment requests are coordinated
• Procurement → Operations: How supply chain and inventory management connect
• Finance → Executive Team: How financial performance is reported and strategic decisions are supported

Expected Outcomes

This mapping exercise will produce several valuable deliverables:

• Visual process maps: Clear diagrams showing information flow, approval points, and handoffs
• Stakeholder responsibility matrix: Who owns which parts of key financial and administrative processes
• System inventory: Current tools used throughout Business Services workflows
• Pain point register: Prioritized list of challenges and inefficiencies to address
• Compliance requirements: Documentation of control points necessary for financial governance

How This Fits Into Your Broader Notion Implementation

This Business Services process mapping is a critical component of our overall analysis phase. It will directly inform:

• Database structure design: Creating the right relationships between purchase requests, invoices, vendors, and budgets
• Workflow automation planning: Identifying where Notion can reduce manual tasks and approval delays
• Form and template development: Standardizing how financial and administrative requests are submitted
• Dashboard requirements: Determining what financial metrics and operational KPIs should be monitored

Time Estimation Breakdown

Below is a detailed breakdown of the estimated consultant hours required to complete this Business Services process mapping project:

Timeline Considerations

This work will be completed over approximately 4-6 weeks, depending on:

• Stakeholder availability: Access to key personnel for interviews and review sessions
• System complexity: Depth and breadth of existing financial systems and procurement tools
• Documentation quality: Availability of existing process documentation to build upon
• Organizational structure: Size and complexity of approval hierarchies and financial controls

We recommend allocating 80-85 hours in your project budget to ensure comprehensive coverage while maintaining flexibility for unexpected complexities that may arise during discovery.

Moving Forward: From Mapping to Implementation

Once we've thoroughly mapped your Business Services processes, we'll integrate these insights with similar findings from other departments to create a holistic view of your organization's workflows.

This comprehensive understanding will enable us to design a Notion workspace that truly serves as your centralized operational hub—standardizing processes, enhancing visibility, and creating a reliable system of record for your financial and administrative operations.

The insights gained during this mapping phase will directly inform our database architecture, page structures, and automation design in the subsequent implementation phases, ensuring that your Notion workspace becomes a strategic asset that enhances efficiency, compliance, and decision-making across your Business Services functions.