The Business Systems Assessment Checklist

Why You Need a Systems Audit

Before you can fix your systems, you need to understand them. A systems audit maps your entire operational infrastructure: what tools you use, how data flows between them, where manual work happens, and where the bottlenecks are.

This checklist is the same framework we use at Syntheco when we start a new engagement. Work through it section by section, and by the end you'll have a clear picture of your systems landscape and a prioritized list of opportunities.

Section 1: Tool Inventory

Start by listing every tool your business uses. Not just the big ones, but everything, including the spreadsheets, the shared drives, and the one-off scripts someone wrote three years ago.

For each tool, document:

• What it does (primary function)
• Who uses it (which teams/roles)
• What data it holds
• What it connects to (integrations)
• Monthly cost
• Contract renewal date

Section 2: Data Flow Mapping

For each major workflow in your business, map how data moves from start to finish. Common workflows to map:

• Lead to customer (sales pipeline)
• Quote to cash (proposal through payment)
• Employee onboarding
• Customer support resolution
• Monthly financial close
• Project delivery lifecycle

For each handoff point, note:

• Is this automated or manual?
• How long does the handoff take?
• What could go wrong?
• How often does it actually go wrong?

Section 3: Pain Point Identification

Survey your team leads with these questions:

• What takes longer than it should?
• What do you have to do twice because systems don't talk to each other?
• Where do errors happen most frequently?
• What information do you wish you could see in real time?
• If you could automate one thing, what would it be?

Section 4: Integration Health Check

For each integration between tools:

• Is it a native integration, third-party connector (Zapier/Make), or custom?
• When was it last updated or reviewed?
• Does it handle errors gracefully?
• Is there monitoring/alerting if it fails?
• Does it sync in real time or on a schedule?

Section 5: Automation Opportunity Scoring

For each pain point and manual process, score it on:

• Impact (1-5): How much time/money does this cost?
• Feasibility (1-5): How technically complex is the fix?
• Risk (1-5): What's the downside if we don't fix it?

Multiply Impact x Feasibility to get a priority score. Start with your highest-scoring items.

Next Steps

Once you've completed this audit, you'll have everything you need to create a systems improvement roadmap. If you want help interpreting the results or building a plan, our free assessment will walk through your findings with an engineer who's done this hundreds of times.