AUTOMATION OPPORTUNITY CALCULATOR

Less repetitive work.
A clearer business case.

Explore the time an automation could release—and the assumptions that determine whether it pays back.

A business case starts with the assumptions.
Try a fictional example or enter your own estimates. Values stay in this page, reset on refresh, and are not sent with consultation requests.

LOAD A FICTIONAL EXAMPLE

A fictional team preparing repeatable reports. Recovered time is redeployed, with no cash savings assumed.

01 / MODEL THE WORK

What could change?

All fields are required. Enter plain numbers; use 0 when appropriate. Costs are in US dollars.

Process and adoption

Tasks per month

Total repetitions across the team in a typical month. Count each task once. 0–1,000,000 tasks.

Minutes per task today

Hands-on work, excluding waiting time. Use a measured average. 0–1,440 minutes.

Time reduction per automated task

Net reduction after human review, exceptions, and any new manual work. 0–100 %.

Tasks successfully automated

Share of all tasks that will use the automation successfully. Other tasks retain today’s effort. 0–100 %.

Cost and cash assumptions

Loaded labor cost per hour

Salary plus employer costs. This values capacity; it does not make payroll disappear. 0–10,000 USD.

Upfront cash cost

One-time new spending on setup, external delivery, and training. Internal implementation time is excluded; assess it separately. 0–100,000,000 USD.

Ongoing cash cost per month

Additional licenses, hosting, and paid support. Include ongoing human review in the time-reduction assumption above. 0–1,000,000 USD.

Recovered capacity that reduces spending

Leave at 0 unless you can explain an actual cost reduction, such as avoided overtime or contractor charges. 0–100 %.

02 / TEST THE OPPORTUNITY

Time is capacity.
Cash needs a plan.

Illustrative example estimate · steady-state month

Recoverable time40hours / month

480 hours over 12 months at the same volume and adoption.

Recovered: 40 hRemaining: 26.7 h

From 66.7 hours of current monthly effort. Recovery assumes the time reduction already accounts for human review and exceptions.

Monthly capacity value$1,800

Recovered hours × loaded hourly cost. Time to redeploy, not realized cash savings.

Capacity-based payback3.6 months

Upfront cash cost ÷ $1,650 net monthly capacity value. A planning proxy, not cash payback.

The cash view

You assumed 0% of recovered capacity can reduce actual spending.

Potential monthly cost reduction: $0
Less ongoing cash cost: $150
Net monthly cash change: -$150
Cash payback: Not reached
12-month cash change after upfront cost: -$7,800

No cash savings are assumed. Redeploying salaried staff time alone does not reduce payroll. The modeled cash benefit does not exceed ongoing cost.

Validate the opportunity with a small pilot.

Time a representative set of tasks, include exceptions, and test adoption. Agree who will use the recovered time and how you will measure the benefit.

Discuss this automation opportunity

03 / CHALLENGE THE ASSUMPTIONS

What if adoption changes?

Keep every other input fixed. Lower adoption uses 75% of your entered adoption rate; full adoption assumes every task successfully uses the automation. These are scenarios, not forecasts or confidence bounds.

Monthly estimates · 75% time reduction per automated task · USD
Scenario	Adoption	Recovered hours	Capacity payback	Cash payback
Lower adoption	60%	30	5 months	Not reached
Entered assumptions	80%	40	3.6 months	Not reached
Full adoption	100%	50	2.9 months	Not reached

See the formulas and limits

One repeatable process, one steady-state month.

Current hours = monthly tasks × minutes per task ÷ 60.
Recovered hours = current hours × time reduction % × successful adoption %.
Capacity value = recovered hours × loaded hourly cost.
Net capacity value = capacity value − ongoing cash cost.
Potential cash benefit = capacity value × share that actually reduces spending.
Net cash change = potential cash benefit − ongoing cash cost.
Simple payback = upfront cash cost ÷ the relevant positive monthly net value.
12-month cash change = 12 × net monthly cash change − upfront cash cost.

“Not reached” means the relevant monthly net value is zero or negative. “No upfront cost” means no investment to recover, not that the work is free or beneficial. Payback is measured from steady-state operation; add implementation and ramp-up time. No discounting, financing, tax, inflation, growth, or residual value is modeled. Annual figures assume 12 identical months.