Tool
What it costs to keep this on a person
A repeating task costs money every day; the invoice just never arrives. Enter four numbers and see the yearly price and the payback period. If automation does not pay for itself, the calculator says so.
Pays back quickly
Less than a year to return the investment. Waiting costs more than doing it.
- 403
- hours a year on this task
- 241,920
- dollars a year as things stand
- 193,536
- dollars a year of net gain
- 3.7
- months to earn the investment back
- 6.7
- hours a month still left to people
Link to this calculation. The page address carries the numbers you entered, so you can pass it on.
What this calculation does not know
- Freed hours turn into money only if the person has something else to do. If they stay on payroll doing nothing else, this is redistribution, not saving.
- The cost of manual mistakes is not in here. One wrong digit in an order can cost more than a year of this task.
- Budget and timeline are an estimate made before the conversation. After the task is understood they move in both directions.
- The maths is linear. If you have several similar tasks, count them together: the shared part is built once.
How to count without fooling yourself
The method, the usual counting mistakes, and what to do with a "does not pay back" answer.
Read the article →If it pays back
Tell us about the task and we will say what comes off the person and what has to stay.
Discuss the task