FORMULA 01
Monthly manual hours
Weekly occurrences × minutes ÷ 60 × people × 4.33
The 4.33 factor converts an average week into an average month.
Free planning tool
Estimate the value of one automated workflow.
Model repeated work, potentially recovered hours, implementation cost, and first-year capacity value. Every assumption is visible and editable.
Business automation ROI calculator
Change the assumptions. See the model update.
Start with observed workflow data when you have it. If you do not, use conservative estimates and replace them with a measured baseline before making an investment decision.
Updated estimate: 13.5 hours potentially recovered per month, with $474 in monthly capacity value.
Illustrative estimate
Estimated workflow capacity
Recovered time has value only when the business can redeploy it. These figures are a planning model, not a savings or revenue guarantee.
- Manual hours per month
- 27.1
- Hours potentially recovered
- 13.5
- Monthly capacity value
- $474
- After monthly management
- $275
First-year investment
$3,888
First-year net capacity value
$1,795
Illustrative first-year ROI
46.2%
Upfront-cost payback: 5.5 months. This simple payback uses estimated monthly capacity value after management cost.
Transparent math
How the calculation works.
The model values recovered employee capacity. It does not assume that every recovered hour reduces payroll, creates revenue, or becomes billable work.
FORMULA 02
Monthly capacity value
Manual hours × expected reduction × loaded hourly cost
This values potentially recovered time. It is not automatically cash in the bank.
FORMULA 03
First-year net capacity value
12 × monthly capacity value − setup − 12 × monthly cost
Illustrative ROI divides that net value by the same first-year investment.
Turn an estimate into evidence
Baseline. Test. Compare.
A calculator can screen a workflow. Only a real test can show what changes in your business, with your systems and team.
- 01
Baseline the current workflow
Observe real volume and hands-on time before changing the process. Separate waiting time from employee work time.
- 02
Choose a conservative target
Estimate only the steps automation can reasonably reduce, with human review and exception handling included.
- 03
Measure after launch
Compare the same inputs over an agreed observation window, then decide whether the workflow earned expansion.
What this estimate leaves out
Results do not include adoption time, implementation disruption, error or exception costs, financing, taxes, opportunity cost, revenue lift, customer retention, or the value of faster response. Add those factors to your business case only when you can support them with your own evidence.
Free 20-minute workflow audit
Pressure-test the workflow behind the estimate.
We'll map the trigger, systems, manual steps, controls, and success measures for one candidate workflow. Bring your assumptions; no calculator result is treated as a promise.
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