Automation time and cost savings calculator
Automation saves the time a task takes now, minus the time people still spend on it afterward. Enter how often a task happens, how long it takes, and how much of it automation can handle to see the hours and money saved each year, and whether it makes a good first pilot.
Saved per year$11,200
See detailsHow the calculation works.
Occurrences per year are the times each person does the task per week, multiplied by the number of people and 48 working weeks. Hours spent now are those occurrences multiplied by the minutes each one takes.
After automation, the share you choose is handled automatically but still needs the review minutes you enter. The rest is done by hand as before. Hours saved are the difference, and annual savings are the hours saved multiplied by the loaded hourly cost.
If you enter an implementation cost, payback is that cost divided by one month of savings. The result does not include ongoing hosting, licensing, or maintenance, so treat payback as a lower bound.
What makes a good automation pilot.
- It happens often
- Frequent tasks produce enough examples to measure a pilot quickly. This calculator calls a task a good candidate when it happens at least 10 times a week across the team and saves at least 200 hours a year.
- The inputs are consistent
- Tasks that start from similar forms, emails, or documents are easier to automate reliably than one-off requests that need judgment every time.
- The output is easy to check
- A person should be able to confirm quickly whether the result is right. If checking takes as long as doing the work, automation saves little.
- Mistakes are caught early
- Start where an error is caught in review before it reaches a customer, a payment, or a permanent record.
- Someone owns it
- A named owner reviews exceptions, tracks the results, and decides whether the pilot should expand, change, or stop.
- Payback is reasonable
- With an implementation cost entered, a payback longer than 18 months lowers a strong result to possible. A smaller first scope often shortens it.
Common questions.
Multiply how often the task happens in a year by the minutes it takes to get the hours spent now. Then work out the time left after automation: the share still done by hand, plus review time for the share that is automated. The difference is the time saved.
It is what an hour of an employee's time costs the business, including wages, payroll taxes, benefits, and overhead, not just the hourly wage. The calculator starts at $45 per hour; replace it with your own number.
It depends on how consistent the inputs are. Rule-based steps with structured data can often be automated almost entirely, while tasks that need judgment usually keep a person involved. Start with a conservative share and measure the real number during a pilot.
Automated output, especially from AI, should be checked until it has proven reliable. Review is real work, and leaving it out overstates the savings.
A pilot automates one task for a limited period, measures time saved and error rate against the current process, and keeps a manual path available. The results show whether to expand, adjust, or stop.