Put a number on your manual work in twelve questions.
This is the same shape as our Savings Audit, four line items, no jargon. Answer honestly with real numbers and you will have a defensible annual cost for one process, whether or not you ever talk to us.
Labor
Hours times loaded rate is almost always the biggest number.
- 01 How many hours a week does someone spend inside this process? Watch it for one real week, do not estimate from memory.
- 02 What is their loaded hourly cost: wage plus overhead, not base salary? Use the fully-loaded figure.
- 03 How many people touch it, and does the work stall when the main person is away?
Tools
Licenses bought to prop up a manual process count double: cost and complexity.
- 04 Which software licenses exist mainly to support this manual process?
- 05 What do those cost per month, and which are barely used or duplicated?
- 06 Is anyone paying for a tool bought to "fix" this that never got set up?
Errors & rework
The cost that hides best. Count the fixes, not just the failures.
- 07 How often does this process produce an error someone has to catch and redo?
- 08 What does a typical fix cost, in time to correct plus any money written off?
- 09 What is the most expensive mistake it has caused in the last twelve months?
Opportunity
Use this as a cross-check. Add it only when it is separate from labor and genuinely measurable.
- 10 What would your best person do with those hours back that actually moves the business?
- 11 What gets delayed or dropped because this work has to come first?
- 12 If this stopped for a week while someone was on holiday, what would break?
Labor (hours × loaded rate × 52) + Tools (monthly × 12) + Errors & rework (per year) = the annual cost of one manual process.
Do not add opportunity value for the same recovered hours. Add it only when it is incremental, separately evidenced, and agreed by both sides.
If that number is over about $25,000 a year, it is a strong candidate for a Savings Audit. The calculator gives you a rough version in seconds.
Got your number? Let’s check it against your real baseline, free.
20-minute fit check · no obligation · measured audit for qualified processes.