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Summit Labs

What we analyze

Eight modules. Each one with required inputs, core metrics, and a decision it makes defensible.

Most diagnostics use 3-4 modules. The combination is set during scoping based on the operational picture you describe, then findings are reviewed before anything is published.

Module 01 / Money in / money out

Margin Leak Detection

Revenue is growing, but profit is not following it.

Which pricing rules should change first, and which customers need a pricing conversation.

Data required

  • Invoice export with line items, dates, customer, revenue, discounts, and costs where available
  • Quote or estimate export with original quoted amounts
  • Customer list with tags, trade, segment, or account owner where available

Core metrics

  • Gross margin by customer, job type, and period
  • Discount concentration and variance
  • Quote-to-invoice variance
  • Cost increase not reflected in repeat pricing
  • Underpriced rush or exception work

Signature finding

Repeat customer pricing has not adjusted to material cost increases

Seven repeat customers represent $214K of affected revenue while input costs rose 8.4% over the last 180 days.

Create a quarterly price-floor review for repeat customers in Categories A and C and require manager approval below the floor.

Implementation path

Pricing-rule implementation, quote-template constraints, discount approval workflow, and manager exception reporting.

Module 02 / Money in / money out

Quote-to-Cash Analysis

The business wins work, completes work, and still waits too long to get paid.

Whether the cash problem is sales conversion, invoice delay, customer terms, or collection discipline.

Data required

  • Quote or estimate export with created date, approved date, customer, status, and amount
  • Invoice export with issued date, due date, paid date, customer, and balance
  • AR aging export
  • Job or work-order export with completion date where available

Core metrics

  • Quote turnaround time
  • Completion-to-invoice lag
  • Invoice-to-payment lag
  • DSO and overdue AR concentration
  • Customer-level payment pattern variance

Signature finding

Completed jobs sit 6.4 days before invoice creation

248 completed jobs show a median 6.4-day completion-to-invoice lag, with 23 jobs sitting 14+ days.

Move invoicing from weekly batch processing to a daily completion-triggered workflow and target 90% issued within 24 hours.

Implementation path

Invoice trigger automation, AR escalation cadence, terms enforcement workflow, and quote approval redesign.

Module 03 / Cash + customer dynamics

Working Capital Cycle

Cash feels tight even when revenue and bookings look healthy.

Which terms, collections, or inventory moves release cash without adding debt.

Data required

  • AR aging export
  • AP aging export
  • Invoice export with due dates and paid dates
  • Vendor bill export with terms and paid dates
  • Inventory snapshot if inventory exists

Core metrics

  • DSO
  • DPO
  • DIO where applicable
  • Cash conversion cycle
  • AP/AR terms gap

Signature finding

Cash conversion cycle is 73 days; trade median is about 41

DSO 64 days, DPO 18 days, and DIO 27 days create a 73-day cash conversion cycle.

Move eligible vendors from net-immediate or net-15 to net-30 and pair that with a customer-side DSO push.

Implementation path

Vendor-terms playbook, AR cadence redesign, inventory aging review, and working-capital scorecard.

Module 04 / Cash + customer dynamics

Customer Profitability & Burden

Some customers feel expensive, but the P&L does not show which ones.

Which customers deserve retention investment, repricing, boundary-setting, or exit planning.

Data required

  • Invoice export by customer
  • Gross margin or cost data where available
  • Support, rework, ticket, dispute, or service-touch export where available
  • Payment history or AR aging by customer
  • Job/work-order export by customer

Core metrics

  • Gross profit by customer
  • Service burden by customer
  • Rework or dispute concentration
  • Payment drag by customer
  • Net contribution after operational burden

Signature finding

Five high-revenue customers consume 31% of service touches but produce 9% of gross profit

The five accounts represent $420K in revenue, 31% of logged service touches, and only 9% of gross profit after rework and payment drag.

Move these accounts into a tier reset: new response boundaries, rework billing rules, and contract review before renewal.

Implementation path

Customer-tier model, service-level rules, account review dashboard, renewal pricing process, and support workflow redesign.

Module 05 / Process + people

Process Friction Mapping

The team is busy, but work waits in handoffs and no one can see where.

Which workflow constraint should be removed before buying another tool or hiring another coordinator.

Data required

  • Job, ticket, task, work-order, or production status export
  • Timestamped workflow data where available
  • Approval or handoff logs where available
  • Spreadsheet trackers used by the team
  • Interview notes for Plus/Hybrid when systems do not capture the workflow

Core metrics

  • Queue age by workflow stage
  • Handoff wait time
  • Duplicate-entry count
  • Approval delay by owner or role
  • Rework loop frequency

Signature finding

Approval wait time adds 4.8 days to standard jobs before scheduling begins

86 jobs show a median 4.8-day wait between estimate approval and scheduling, concentrated in one manual coordinator handoff.

Replace the coordinator-dependent handoff with an approval-complete trigger, exception queue, and daily aging review.

Implementation path

Workflow redesign, status automation, queue aging dashboard, approval trigger build, and operating cadence reset.

Module 06 / Process + people

Labor Productivity & Utilization

The team is busy, overtime is uneven, and leadership cannot tell which hours produce revenue.

Whether the labor issue is capacity, scheduling, pricing, role design, or utilization discipline.

Data required

  • Time-tracking or payroll export by employee, date, hours, and job code where available
  • Job/work-order export with assigned staff
  • Revenue by job or invoice
  • Schedule or dispatch export where available
  • Target utilization assumptions from leadership

Core metrics

  • Billable utilization by role/team
  • Idle-time clusters
  • Overtime concentration
  • Revenue per FTE
  • Job-cost variance against quoted labor

Signature finding

One crew carries 48% of billable work while two crews carry repeated idle gaps

Four weeks of job and time data show Crew A at 48% of billable hours, while Crews C and D have 23 idle half-days despite open scheduled work.

Add a dispatch-time load-balance check and move three recurring job types from Crew A to underused crews before adding headcount.

Implementation path

Utilization scorecard, dispatch balancing rule, overtime review cadence, quoted-vs-actual labor tracker, and schedule redesign.

Module 07 / Control + leverage

Operational Controls Review

The business has grown faster than its approvals, access rules, and documentation.

Which controls reduce operational risk without slowing down the whole business.

Data required

  • User/access export from core systems where available
  • Approval logs or workflow status export
  • Policy/process documentation if it exists
  • Exception, refund, write-off, or override records
  • Interview notes for Plus/Hybrid where controls are informal

Core metrics

  • Approval coverage by workflow
  • Override concentration
  • Access-role conflicts
  • Missing evidence trails
  • Aging undocumented exceptions

Signature finding

Discount overrides above 12% have no consistent approval evidence

37 discounts above 12% appear in the period; 24 have no attached approval note, and 18 were entered by the same role that created the quote.

Require approval notes for discount overrides above 8% and separate quote creation from override approval for the next pricing cycle.

Implementation path

Approval matrix, access cleanup, audit-evidence capture, exception workflow, and monthly controls review.

Module 08 / Control + leverage

Automation Opportunity Engine

People are still doing rule-based work that systems should handle.

Which automation should be built first, and which should wait because the upstream process is not ready.

Data required

  • Outputs from selected modules
  • Workflow/task exports
  • Manual spreadsheet trackers
  • Known recurring admin tasks from intake or interviews
  • Volume and frequency estimates for each candidate workflow

Core metrics

  • Hours per week by manual workflow
  • Frequency and variance of repeated tasks
  • Error/rework risk by manual task
  • Implementation effort
  • Dependency readiness

Signature finding

Three invoice follow-up tasks consume 11 hours weekly and follow fixed rules

AR follow-up, statement generation, and internal escalation happen 46 times per week and follow consistent date/status thresholds.

Automate the first reminder, statement generation, and internal escalation while keeping final collection decisions manual.

Implementation path

Automation backlog, effort-impact scoring, workflow automation build, exception queue, and handoff documentation.

Scope a diagnostic

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