Free Operations Audit Worksheet for Service Businesses (Auto-Scored)

Section 01 · The Twelve

The 12 Spreadsheets You're Running

Every service business hits a wall around $500K. The way you know you've hit it: you have these spreadsheets. Check the ones that exist in your business right now.

01Schedule / calendar / capacity planning★
02Customer / client list & lead pipeline
03Quotes / proposals / pricing★
04Invoices / AR / payments tracker
05Team / staff hours, payroll, scheduling
06Vendor / supplier contacts & pricing
07Inventory / assets / equipment tracker
08Customer / project / line-of-business profitability★
09Issue / complaint / escalation log★
10Marketing / lead source attribution
11PTO / time-off / scheduling requests
12Recurring / contract / subscription customer list

0 of 12 checked — 0 of 4 bleeders found

The 4 starred sheets account for ~80% of operational leakage. Schedule chaos costs missed work and double-bookings. Quote tracking gaps cost stalled deals. Profitability gaps mean you can't tell which customers, projects, or lines are bleeding cash. Issue logs missing means complaints compound into customer-loss events.

Section 02 · Bottleneck Test

The Founder Bottleneck Test

Seven yes/no questions. Answer fast. Don't overthink.

1. If you went on vacation for 7 days, would the schedule still get made on Monday morning?
2. Could a new hire be productive in their first week without you sitting next to them?
3. Can you, right now, name the top 3 most-profitable customers/projects of last month — without checking?
4. Would your team know what to do if the Wi-Fi / your main system went down for a day?
5. Is the answer to "who called us last Tuesday?" findable in under 60 seconds?
6. If you got hit by a bus today, could the business still pay payroll on Friday?
7. Are you the integration layer between your tools? (Copy from sheet A to sheet B = yes.)

Section 03 · Map Your Stack

Map Your Operations Stack

List every tool you currently use to run the business. Name it, what it costs per month, and how many manual handoffs it requires.

#	Tool / Software	Used For	$/Month	Handoffs

Tools

$/Month

Handoffs/Week

Most service businesses run 8-14 tools and 12-25 manual handoffs every week. Each handoff is a leak. Each leak is a margin point.

Section 04 · The Math

The $9,100 Calculation

Plain arithmetic. Fill in your own numbers. The benchmark: 5 hrs x 52 x $35 = $9,100/year. Most businesses underestimate hours by 2-3x.

01Hours/week your team spends on copy-paste, re-entry, hunting for info

02Your blended labor cost per hour ($) (salary + tax + overhead / hours)

03Total hours/year (auto-calculated)

04$/year recovered (auto-calculated)

Section 05 · Quick Wins

3 Fixes You Can Do This Week

Before you spend a dollar on software — custom or otherwise — try these. They cost nothing.

01 — The 60-Second Inbound Log

Every inbound contact (call, email, DM, walk-in) gets logged in one place — even if that place is a shared Google Form bookmarked on every device. Whoever takes it fills 4 fields: who, what they want, channel, when promised. Once you do this for 30 days, you'll see exactly how many leads or issues are slipping.

Cost: $0Time: 1 hr to set upTool: Google Forms

02 — The Friday End-of-Week Walk

Every Friday at 4pm, walk your workspace (office, shop, site, virtual whiteboard, whatever it is). Take pictures of: anything written on a wall, sticky notes, printouts, whiteboards, the open browser tabs. Save them to a single folder. After 4 weeks, you'll have a visual record of every recurring problem. Patterns emerge fast.

Cost: $0Time: 15 min/weekTool: Your Phone

03 — The 5-Number Daily Standup

Stand-up meeting (in person or async). 8 minutes. Every weekday. Same 5 numbers — pick what matters for your business: new work in, work completed, customer issues raised, money collected, anything on fire. Write them where everyone sees them. Force yourself to stare at the trends for 30 days.

Cost: $0Time: 8 min/dayTool: Whiteboard or Slack

Section 06 · Decision Tree

When Custom Software Actually Makes Sense

Custom isn't always right. Off-the-shelf SaaS is fine for many businesses. Here's how to tell.

Do you have at least 1 workflow nobody else's software handles cleanly?

Custom is on the table.

An off-the-shelf SaaS purpose-built for your industry is probably your move (it'll be faster and cheaper than a custom build).

Are you paying $400+/mo total in SaaS subscriptions today?

A one-time $6K-$15K build pays back in 18-24 months and you stop the bleeding.

Wait until your stack grows. Custom isn't urgent yet.

Will you be in this business in 3+ years?

Owning the asset matters. Custom wins on long timelines.

Don't build. Rent.

Do you have a workflow that would let you charge clients 20% more if it worked?

Custom is a revenue lever, not just a cost-saver. Build it.

Optimize ops first. Custom can come in phase 2.

Can you describe the tool you wish existed in plain English in 2 paragraphs?

You're build-ready. Scope it.

Do the worksheet pages 1-4 again. Custom needs clarity.

You did the worksheet. Now what?

Three paths. All of them are fine.

File It

Keep the worksheet. Use it next quarter. We'll be here.

Fix It Yourself

Take the quick wins on page 5. Run them for 30 days.

Build It With Us

Book a 30-min Snapshot. We map your ops and tell you straight.

Send My Results to Cornerstone

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