What is the manual work actually costing you?

Most owners have a feeling that admin is eating the week, and no figure. This turns the feeling into a number using tasks you will recognise, and shows the arithmetic so you can argue with it.

Which of these happen in your business?

Turn off anything that does not apply. Rough numbers are fine; adjust the ones you recognise.

Typing the same details into another systemA customer, order or job re-entered somewhere it already exists
Minutes each time
minutes
Times per week
per week
Chasing payments, documents or repliesWorking out who has not responded, then messaging them one by one
Minutes each time
minutes
Times per week
per week
Answering where are we up toA call or message asking for status you have to look up
Minutes each time
minutes
Times per week
per week
Producing quotes, invoices or reports by handCopying last time's document and editing the values
Minutes each time
minutes
Times per week
per week
Making two systems agreeExports, tie-outs, or the hour before a meeting spent matching numbers
Minutes each time
minutes
Times per week
per week
Looking for information that should be findableHunting through folders, mail or a spreadsheet for one record
Minutes each time
minutes
Times per week
per week

What does an hour of that time cost you?

Use the fully loaded cost of whoever does the work, or what an hour of your own time is worth spent on winning business instead.

Currency

Cost per hour

What this is costing you

13
Hours per week: 587
Hours per year: $17,618
Cost per year

(minutes x times per week) / 60 = hours per week
hours per week x 46 working weeks x $30 = cost per year

Where it is going, worst first

This ordering is the useful part. The top row is where to start, and it is rarely the task that annoys people most.

Producing quotes, invoices or reports by hand123 h
Fixed by documents$3,680
Typing the same details into another system115 h
Fixed by integration$3,450
Making two systems agree104 h
Fixed by integration$3,105
Chasing payments, documents or replies92 h
Fixed by automation and ai$2,760
Looking for information that should be findable81 h
Fixed by custom software$2,415
Answering where are we up to74 h
Fixed by client portals$2,208

This is your own arithmetic, not a prediction. Automation removes most of a task like this rather than all of it, and there is a cost to building it. Both of those are things we would put in writing before you spent anything.

How to make this figure more honest

Two adjustments make a real difference. First, trace one recent customer or job through every system their details were typed into, and count the systems rather than guessing. People consistently underestimate that multiplier.

Second, use a fully loaded hourly cost rather than a salary divided by hours. If the person doing the work is you, use what an hour of your time is worth spent on winning business instead. That is the real comparison.

The longer method adds the costs this calculator deliberately leaves out: errors, key-person risk, and the growth that did not happen because admin scales with volume.

Bring your number to the conversation.

We will tell you which of these tasks is worth automating first, and which we would leave alone. Free, in writing, no obligation.

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