By Ben Serunyigo, co-founder of Nimara · Updated October 2026
This free workbook helps your team write down how one piece of work really happens, measure how long each step takes and decide what to fix before you automate anything. The visual guide below walks through it tab by tab, using a fictional volunteer program as the example.
It's free to use and change for your organization, there's no sign-up, and every example inside is fictional. New to workflow mapping? Start with our article on how to map one workflow before you automate it.
This guide walks your team through the workbook, so you can write down how one piece of work really happens, measure how long it takes and decide what to change before anyone buys a new tool.
The whole method, in one line:
Map it, measure it, fix it, then automate it.
Start here
Before you start
Get these five things ready before the first meeting because the map is only as good as the people in the room and the example you bring.
The big picture
The plan
The workbook has seven tabs, and you use them at three moments: one meeting to write the work down, two weeks to measure it and a second meeting to decide what to change.
The detail
The 7 tabs, in order
Each card is one tab in the workbook, and the colour tells you whether you type in it, whether it fills in on its own, or whether the team decides together.
You fill inCells with blue text. Type, pick from a list or change anything.
Fills in on its ownCells with dark text add up the other tabs, so you never type there.
Decide togetherThe team talks it through and picks what to do.
Meeting 1. Write it down
Tab 1You fill inWorkflow cardIn the workbook: 1 Workflow cardName the workflow and its one owner, then agree where it starts and where it truly ends.
→
Tab 2You fill inStagesIn the workbook: 2 StagesBreak the work into big chunks first, like recruit, sign up and close out.
→
Tab 3You fill inStep mapIn the workbook: 3 Step mapWalk your real example one line at a time, and mark the six Yes boxes on each step.
→
Tab 4You fill inExceptionsIn the workbook: 4 ExceptionsWrite down the cases that don't follow the normal path and what happens to them today.
→
Tab 5You fill inPersonal infoIn the workbook: 5 Personal infoFollow each piece of personal information to every place it ends up, copies included.
The next two weeks. Measure it
Tab 6You fill inTime logIn the workbook: 6 Time logEach time someone does a step, they add a line with the date, the step number, who did it and the minutes it took.
→type the step number
Tab 6Fills in on its ownWhat happensIn the workbook: What happens (fills in)The step's name appears from the Step map, so you can check you typed the right number.
Meeting 2. Decide what to change
Tab 7Fills in on its ownDashboard and suggestionsIn the workbook: Dashboard, 7 Findings and fixesTiles, charts, hours a month and a suggestion for every step, all from tabs 3 and 6.
→talk it through
Tab 7Decide togetherOur decisionIn the workbook: Our decisionPick one of six choices for each step, starting with the steps you could remove.
→for every change
Tab 7Before you startOwner and off switchIn the workbook: Owner, How to switch it offEvery change gets an owner, a way to switch it off and a way to know it works.
The Example tabs
Every tab has an Example version filled in with a fictional volunteer program, so keep it open next to yours when you're not sure what to write, and delete the examples when you're done.
Map it as it is today
Write down what really happens, including the workarounds and the sticky notes on someone's desk, rather than how the work is supposed to go.
On the Step map
The six Yes boxes
Every step on the Step map has six Yes or No boxes, and the workbook uses them to suggest what you could do with that step.
Retyped?
Someone types information that already exists somewhere else, like copying a form into a spreadsheet.
Copy-paste?
The same text gets pasted into more than one place, like one volunteer posting on three websites.
Reminder?
Someone has to remember to nudge a person, like the email the night before a shift.
Waiting?
The work sits still until someone else replies, signs or sends something back.
Approval?
A person has to say yes before the work can move on, like a signature on a claim.
Person decides?
Someone uses judgement about a person, like who gets a role, help or money.
How the Suggestion column picks
The workbook asks three questions in this order and stops at the first Yes, so a step where a person decides always stays with a person.
And the Personal info box?
It sits beside the six and doesn't change the suggestion, but it shows you which steps need extra care when you change them.
Between the meetings
Each day for two weeks
Ask everyone who does the work to log each step on the day they do it, since small jobs are easy to forget and they add up fast.
Do the step the way you always doDon't speed up or skip anything because you're being measured, since the point is to see the real work.
Open the Time log tabAdd a new line under the last one, and leave the dark-text column alone.
Type the date and the step numberUse the number from the Step map, and the name of the step fills in on its own.
Add who did it and the minutes it tookA rough count is fine, and five minutes still counts.
Add a note if something was oddA duplicate, a missing receipt or a long wait is worth a few words.
You're done when you have:
Two weeks of real numbers from everyone who does the work.
The Dashboard and Findings and fixes turn them into minutes per step and hours per month.
Inside the file
What it looks like
These rows come from the Example tabs, so the names and numbers are fictional. Blue text is yours to fill in, and dark text fills in on its own.
The Step map
Tab: 3 Step map · 4 more columns not shown
Step #
Stage
What happens
Who does it
Tool or place
Personal info?
Retyped?
Copy-paste?
Waiting?
Reminder?
Approval?
Person decides?
7
Sign up
Copy each sign-up into the volunteer spreadsheet
Volunteer coordinator
Spreadsheet
Yes
Yes
No
No
No
No
No
8
Sign up
Email each person to say we got their sign-up
Volunteer coordinator
Personal email
Yes
No
Yes
No
No
No
No
10
Screen
Get a police check and send a copy
Volunteer
Police service, email
Yes
No
No
Yes
No
No
No
11
Screen
Call one reference
Volunteer coordinator
Phone
Yes
No
No
Yes
No
No
Yes
The Time log
Tab: 6 Time log
Date
Step #
What happens (fills in)
Who
Minutes spent
Notes
2026-10-16
7
Copy each sign-up into the volunteer spreadsheet
Volunteer coordinator
25
Five sign-ups
2026-10-16
8
Email each person to say we got their sign-up
Volunteer coordinator
15
Five confirmation emails
2026-10-19
7
Copy each sign-up into the volunteer spreadsheet
Volunteer coordinator
20
Four sign-ups, one duplicate
2026-10-20
11
Call one reference
Volunteer coordinator
40
Three reference calls, two call-backs
Findings and fixes
Tab: 7 Findings and fixes · 6 more columns not shown
Step #
What happens
Marks
Times logged
Minutes logged
Average minutes
Personal info?
Suggestion
Our decision
What we'll change
7
Copy each sign-up into the volunteer spreadsheet
1
2
45
22.5
Yes
Good to automate
Automate it
Send form entries straight to the volunteer spreadsheet
8
Email each person to say we got their sign-up
1
2
27
13.5
Yes
Good to automate
Automate it
Send an automatic confirmation from the shared inbox
10
Get a police check and send a copy
1
0
0
Yes
Look at the wait
11
Call one reference
2
1
40
40.0
Yes
Keep with a person
Keep with a person
The suggestion is a starting point for the conversation, and the team always makes the final call.
The worked example
Volunteers, from the first ask to the last thank-you
The Example tabs follow a fictional program, Harbor Community Hub, from the moment a program lead notices gaps in the schedule until each volunteer has been thanked, paid back for mileage and counted in the funder report.
24
steps on the map
13
look good to automate
6
steps where the work waits
17
steps that touch personal information
13.9
hours a month, from 390 logged minutes over 14 days
Where the work really ends
Most maps stop when the shift is over, but the follow-up is where things get missed: the thank-you, the mileage payment and the hours in the funder report.
Where it really starts
The work starts well before the sign-up form, when someone notices the schedule is short and has to ask for help.
Meeting 2
Your six choices
For every step, the team picks one choice in the Our decision column. Try them in this order because the cheapest fix is often a step you no longer need.
Keep with a person
Reference calls, incident reports and anything where someone decides about a person. In the example, that's six steps.
Leave as is
Some steps already work well, like paying the mileage once a claim is approved, so leave them alone and move on.
Before you automate anything, fill in these three:
OwnerHow to switch it offHow we'll know it works
If nobody can switch it off or tell when it stops working, it isn't ready yet, so keep it with a person for now.
Keep it safe
House rules
Map it as it is
Write down how the work really happens today because the workarounds are the point.
Measure, don't guess
Time comes from the log and never from memory, so give it the full two weeks.
People decide about people
Who gets a role, help or money stays with a person, even when the steps around it are automated.
One workflow at a time
Once the first one is working well, map the next one.
Every change has an owner
It also needs an off switch and a way to tell when it stops working.
Shared places for personal info
Keep it out of personal inboxes and downloads folders, and decide how long you keep it.
Next step
Do it yourself, or get help
Do it yourself
You can download the workbook and this guide as a PDF from our website, and the free article there walks through the first meeting in more detail.
This is the work we do at Nimara. We sit with your team, map how the work really happens and connect your tools so it no longer depends on anyone's memory.
