D5 Consulting is a small grant-writing business that was founded two years ago by Dion Davenport. Since then, Dion has performed a wide range of activities, including business development, grant writing, and invoicing. Because D5 began as a home-based business, with only a few clients, Dion has been generating simple invoices using Microsoft Word. He then uses a manual process to follow up on invoices to ensure they are being paid in a timely manner. Over the last two years, however, DS Consulting has grown significantly. The company now works with more than 50 clients on a variety of jobs ranging from small, simple projects to larger, more complex projects requiring multiple invoices. As the company grew, Dion found himself spending as much time creating and tracking down invoices as he did generating billable hours. As a result, he has been putting in very long hours to keep up with the work. DS also now has several contractors doing work for the firm. Each contractor submits submit monthly invoices for their work, which means Dion has even more administrative tasks to keep track of. In the last several months, Dion has been late paying a few of the contractors because he has gotten behind processing their invoices or because he did not realize that they had Jer not submitted their invoices in a timely manner. Dion is frustrated with the inefficiencies in the business and fears that it will cither result in lower client satisfaction or him exiting the business due to the long work hours.
Review Questions
What functions would a TPS need to perform in order to alleviate the issues at DS Consulting?