Is this process worth automating?
Workflow automation pays back when the hours it returns and the errors it prevents outweigh building and running it. It fails on processes with high judgment, low volume or unstable inputs — and a calculator that ignores those is how automation projects become shelfware.
Computes in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent unless you ask. The link updates with your inputs, so a result can be shared.
Reviewed
Hours that produce something that has to be redone.
Your estimate or quote. Not a Willowark price.
Hosting, model calls, monitoring, small fixes.
Good candidate: payback in about 8 months.
Rule-bound, stable, and enough volume to matter. The next question is where the exceptions go — the design of the hand-off to a person decides whether this stays useful.
Hours returned per year
Of 1,800 spent on the task.
Annual value
Labour plus rework avoided, less running cost.
Payback
Reworks avoided
How this is calculated
Task hours = people × hours/week × 50. Recoverable = task hours × automatable share.
Annual value = recoverable × rate + reworks avoided × rework cost − running cost × 12.
Payback = build ÷ annual value. The failure shapes are named from judgment, input stability, volume and share, independent of the arithmetic — they are why good arithmetic still fails.
Planning numbers, not a quote — a written scope follows a conversation.
How to use it
- 1Enter how many people do the task and for how long each week.
- 2Enter their loaded hourly rate.
- 3Enter the error rate and what a rework costs.
- 4Estimate the automatable share, build cost and monthly run cost.
- 5Read recoverable hours, payback, and where it fails.
These are planning numbers, not a quote — a written scope follows a conversation. We publish no prices.
Asked about this tool
What is the automatable share?
The fraction of the task that follows rules a system can execute without a person. Data entry is near 100%; approving an exception is near 0%. Most real processes are a mix, and the honest share is usually lower than the first guess.
Does 'AI' change this?
It widens what counts as automatable — reading a messy PDF, drafting a reply — but not without limits. High-judgment steps still route to a person, and the model's confidence has to be measured, not assumed.
Why is there a run cost?
Automation is not free once built: hosting, model calls, monitoring, and the occasional fix when an upstream form changes. Leaving it out flatters the payback.
Strategy. Software. Systems.
Bring the number to a conversation.
Describe the line, the part, or the process. An engineer replies within one business day with whether and how we would approach it.
Book a callOr describe it here
One line is enough. A person reads it and replies within a business day.