CSP Labs cuts invoice preparation to under five minutes

01 / The challenge

Every invoice meant another round of lookups.

CSP Labs has provided analytical testing services for more than 30 years. Its catalog includes hundreds of services, with different prices, add-ons, and ways of recording the work.

Preparing an invoice meant piecing that work together. The billing specialist started with an order in the laboratory information management system, or LIMS, then opened the test reports to check what had actually been performed. Tests ordered and tests completed did not always tell the same story. Sample counts, additional tests, subcontracted work, and data points could all affect the bill.

Next came the pricing: a Google Sheet for the price list and another for customer-specific discounts. The invoice was then prepared in Xero.

Each invoice took 15–20 minutes to prepare. At roughly 20 invoices a day, those repeated lookups consumed a substantial part of the specialist’s working day.

02 / The solution

One screen brings the billing details together.

Delta Adaptive Systems built Order Details Fetcher, a custom tool that gathers the information needed to bill an order into one screen inside the Delta Adaptive Systems portal.

The specialist opens an order and reviews:

• Order details. Samples, sample types, tests, add-ons, and subcontracted work from the LIMS.
• Work performed. Information from the test reports, including additional work and data-point counts.
• Pricing and discounts. The relevant rates and customer discount schedules from the existing Google Sheets.
• Accounting context. The matching customer information from Xero.

The specialist can review the assembled information and prepare the invoice in Xero, with far less time spent switching between records and spreadsheets.

Built around the way the lab already works

Decades of services and working conventions made a broad process overhaul a much larger undertaking than the billing problem itself. The tool worked with CSP Labs’ existing LIMS, spreadsheets, and accounting system. The lab kept those systems and the way its testing work was recorded.

Delta Adaptive Systems developed the tool through a handful of iterations with the billing specialist. Reviewing prototypes against actual orders revealed which information was missing, where it belonged, and what the specialist needed to see together. That feedback shaped the finished workflow.

03 / The results

An estimated 87.5 hours returned each month.

CSP Labs reports that invoice preparation now takes under five minutes, down from 15–20 minutes. Using the midpoint of the previous range and five minutes afterward, that is roughly a 71% reduction in preparation time.

At 20 invoices a day and 21 working days a month, the estimated saving is 87.5 hours per month. That gives the billing specialist more capacity for work that needs their attention and judgment.

Estimated monthly value of time recovered

$3,600

Monthly subscription for this tool

$400

Estimated value relative to subscription cost

9×

CSP Labs estimates the value of that recovered time at $3,600 per month, against a $400 monthly subscription. The estimated value is nine times the subscription cost, or $3,200 per month after the subscription. These figures describe the value of staff time made available, rather than a measured reduction in payroll costs.

For CSP Labs, a focused tool closed the gap between the systems it already used and the information its billing specialist needed every day.