Value of time freed each year
- Hours freed per year
- 1,248
- Full-time equivalent
- 0.7
- Net first-year value
- $17,680
- Payback period
- 6.4 months
Based on 52 working weeks and 1,800 hours per full-time employee. Freed time only becomes savings if it replaces hiring, overtime or temp staff, or goes to higher-value work. Treat this as a starting estimate, not a promise.
Check these numbers with usHow to get a realistic number
Measure one task, not a department
Pick a single, repeatable process such as entering supplier invoices or keying customer orders. Estimates for "admin work" in general are too vague to act on.
Use loaded cost, not salary
The real hourly cost of an employee includes benefits, payroll taxes, equipment and overhead. Multiplying the hourly wage by 1.25 to 1.4 is a reasonable starting point.
Be conservative about the share automated
Automation rarely removes 100% of the work. Someone still reviews exceptions and handles unusual cases. For document-heavy processes, 50% to 80% is typical once that is accounted for.
Count benefits the calculator does not
Fewer errors, faster billing, quicker customer responses and the ability to grow without hiring are often worth more than the hours. They are harder to estimate, so they are left out here.
Freed time is not automatically saved money
Time saved only reduces costs if it avoids a hire, reduces overtime or temporary staff, or is redirected to work that earns more. Decide which of those applies before presenting the number.
A worked example
Illustrative numbers for supplier invoice entry at a mid-sized business.
| Input | Value |
|---|---|
| Invoices per month | 1,200 |
| Minutes per invoice today | 6 |
| Hours per month | 120 |
| Loaded hourly cost | $40 |
| Monthly cost of the manual work | $4,800 |
| Share automated after exceptions | 70% |
| Value of time freed per month | $3,360 |
| Build cost | $25,000 |
| Running costs per month | $300 |
| Simple payback | About 8 months |
Payback = build cost ÷ (value freed − running costs). Illustrative only; your figures will differ.
Common questions
What is a good payback period for an automation project?
Many businesses look for payback within 12 to 18 months. Well-chosen document and data-entry automations often pay back faster, but it depends on volume and how much of the work is genuinely repetitive.
How accurate is this calculator?
It is a structured estimate based on your inputs. The automation assessment replaces those inputs with measured numbers from your actual process.
Should we include error costs?
If you can estimate them, yes, but keep them separate. Credits, rework and late-payment penalties are real costs, but they are harder to measure than time, so present them as additional upside.
Why are the amounts in US dollars?
Most of our project pricing is quoted in USD. The calculation works the same in any currency: enter your costs in the currency you use and read the results in it.
Replace these estimates with measurements
Our assessment measures the real volumes, time and exception rates in your process and gives you a fixed price to automate it.