How to calculate the return on automating a process

Before automating anything, it's worth putting a number on the table. You don't need a financial model: you need honesty about four variables.

The maths

• How many times the task repeats per month.
• How many minutes it takes each time, interruptions included.
• The hourly cost of whoever does it today.
• How much of it can genuinely be automated, which is almost never a hundred per cent.

Multiply repetitions by minutes, convert to hours, and multiply by the hourly cost. Then apply the realistic automation percentage. That's your estimated annual saving, which you can now compare against what it costs to build and maintain.

The benefit that isn't in the maths

Some returns aren't hours: replying faster, not losing enquiries, avoiding costly mistakes and no longer depending on one person. They're often worth more than the time saved, but harder to justify, so it's worth naming them explicitly.

When not to automate

• When the process is badly designed: automating it just makes it fail faster.
• When it happens four times a year and is different every time.
• When the human touch is exactly what the customer is paying for.

Automating a broken process doesn't fix it: it multiplies it.