Reports & decisions / GUIDE + WORKSHEET
Is this automation worth maintaining?
Estimate automation payback with an interactive calculator that includes review time, maintenance, software costs, and setup effort.
THE STARTING POINT
Estimate the work removed, then subtract the review and maintenance it creates. Compare the remaining monthly value with recurring software costs and the upfront investment. Treat the result as a scenario to test: hours freed are useful capacity, but they are not automatically cash savings.
Measure the manual work you actually repeat
Count cases over a representative period and sample the minutes spent on each. Include preparation and correction work, but avoid counting waiting time as staff effort. Estimate the share the automation can realistically remove. Some cases may remain manual because their inputs are incomplete or their decisions require judgment. Record that limitation instead of assuming full automation.
Include the work that remains
Reviewing outputs, handling exceptions, updating mappings, and maintaining access all consume time. Estimate those activities separately from software charges. Include internal setup effort in the upfront cost if it matters to your decision. Use the same currency and time basis for every cost so the calculation remains interpretable.
Test a conservative scenario
Lower the expected volume or automated share and increase review effort to see whether the conclusion changes. A fragile result suggests a small pilot before a larger commitment. Decide what useful work the freed capacity will support. After implementation, compare observed effort with the estimate and update the model rather than treating the original number as a promise.
WORKED EXAMPLE / ILLUSTRATIVE
An illustrative monthly scenario
For 300 cases taking eight minutes each, removing 70% of the work frees 28 hours. Subtract five review hours and four maintenance hours: 19 hours remain. At 50 currency units per hour, minus 100 in monthly software, the modeled monthly capacity value is 850. A 5,000-unit setup has a simple modeled payback of about 5.9 months.
| Calculation | Result |
|---|---|
| 300 × 8 ÷ 60 × 70% | 28 hours removed |
| 28 − 5 − 4 | 19 net hours |
| 19 × 50 − 100 | 850 monthly value |
| 5,000 ÷ 850 | About 5.9 months |
TRY YOUR NUMBERS
Automation payback calculator
Use the same currency for every cost. This estimates capacity value, not guaranteed cash savings. Inputs stay in your browser.
Net hours / month
19
Monthly capacity value
850
Simple payback
5.9 months
How the estimate works
Net hours = cases × minutes ÷ 60 × removal share − review hours − maintenance hours. Monthly value = net hours × hourly value − software cost. Simple payback = setup cost ÷ positive monthly value. Negative net hours mean the scenario adds work. Financing, tax, discounting, and unmodeled benefits are excluded.
MAKE IT USEFUL
Payback assumptions
Keep evidence and uncertainty beside the estimate.
Your notes stay in this page and are not sent to Smithers. Download or copy them before leaving; refreshing clears them.
Before you put it to work
- Use one currency consistently.
- Include review and maintenance.
- Distinguish capacity from cash savings.
- Revisit estimates with observed data.
This is a simple operational planning model, not a quote or guaranteed return. It excludes financing, taxes, discounting, and benefits you have not explicitly modeled.
IF THIS LOOKS FAMILIAR
Your tools. Your particular mess.
The worksheet is yours to use. If the difficult part is making it work with the systems you already have, that's the kind of thing we help with.