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Is this task worth
automating?
Estimate the time you could release, count review and ongoing costs, and leave with a clear project brief.
Calculations run in this browser. The starting numbers are a fictional example, not a quote or client result. No AI service receives your notes.
YOUR PLANNING SCENARIO
What changes each month?
- Time released
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- Monthly capacity value after ongoing costs
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- First-year value after setup
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- Modeled payback
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USD planning estimates. Released capacity is not automatically cash savings or new revenue. This is not a project quote.
Your editable project brief
Keep it, edit it, or carry it into our request form. Nothing is submitted until you complete that form and press Send.
Preview the brief and assumptions
Notes stay on this page until you choose an action. “Use in an editable request” stores one temporary draft in this browser tab and carries it to the form. No account is created.
How the calculator works
Monthly hours released = monthly runs × (current minutes − proposed minutes) ÷ 60. Monthly modeled value = hours released × your hourly value − monthly software and maintenance. First-year modeled value = monthly value × 12 − setup cost. Payback = setup cost ÷ positive monthly value; otherwise there is no modeled payback.
For the fictional starting example, 20 runs at 30 minutes take 10 hours. Five minutes of review per run leaves about 8.3 hours released. At $40 per hour, less $25 in monthly costs, the modeled value is about $308 per month. A $750 setup takes about 2.4 months to recover on those assumptions. That is a scenario, not an observed result.
Pick a small first version
Try a weekly report, request tracker, or spreadsheet cleanup. Review our 12 automation ideas and automation tool shortlist. Make sure the result still makes sense with lower volume and more review time.
What this estimate leaves out
Seasonality, adoption, taxes, financing, discounting, downtime, training, and error costs are not separately modeled. Include maintenance and software in ongoing costs, and review in the proposed minutes. Verify the assumptions with a pilot before relying on the result. Negative values remain visible.