Manuh Collective collaborated with Ed Cross Gallery on a volunteer initiative to enhance operational efficiency by streamlining management systems and reducing costs—particularly those related to external accounting services and Office 365—while maintaining business continuity.

 

Through three in-person meetings and ongoing email communication, Manuh Collective conducted a comprehensive review of the gallery’s sales, invoicing, and communication processes. This included mapping the full sales lifecycle, identifying system dependencies and inefficiencies, and highlighting opportunities for resource optimisation.

 

Key outcomes included transitioning from Dropbox to Google Drive to enhance collaboration and reduce costs, adopting the free version of Google Workspace for internal operations, and implementing workflow automations to boost productivity. Zoom was retained for video meetings. While the existing Artlogic-to-Xero invoicing process was maintained, future updates from Artlogic were identified as a potential solution to streamline financial reconciliation, which the gallery is considering for 2025 implementation. 

 

During in-person process reviews, Ed identified the need for a centralized sales forecasting system to manage fragmented lead information—ranging from in-person conversations and business cards to emails, notes, and WhatsApp messages. Collaborating with Priyanka, Ed and Emily developed an Excel-based tracker that consolidated and categorized leads, employing color-coding to differentiate buyer types and levels of interest. This approach aligns with best practices in lead management, where color-coded statuses enhance visibility and organization. The gallery adopted the free version of monday.com to organize prospects and leads, aligning with the categorization framework developed by Director Emily in collaboration with Manuh Collective. This setup enabled efficient lead tracking within the platform's limitations, such as a maximum of three boards and 200 items.

 

As of 2025, Ed Cross Gallery streamlined its digital tools by discontinuing paid features from Google Workspace and Microsoft 365. The gallery retained Zoom for meetings, utilized the free version of Google Workspace for internal operations, and maintained Office 365 solely for its email domain. To further enhance efficiency, the gallery is evaluating a transition from Artlogic and Xero to QuickBooks, aiming to reduce the time spent reconciling invoices between platforms. This change is under consideration for implementation in 2025.

 

Ed Cross Gallery, founded in London in 2009, showcases established and emerging artists from across and beyond the African diaspora, including Eric Pina and Wole Lagunju. 

🔗  [edcrossfineart.com](https://www.edcrossfineart.com/).