Is this process worth automating?
Enter the hours a manual process eats today and what automating it costs. You get the annual saving, the break-even point in months and the three-year return.
Free, no sign-up, and nothing you enter leaves your browser.
Hours saved per year
386 h
Net saving in year one
€3,260
Break-even point
6.6 months
Your numbers
Not the hourly wage: the total cost including social security.
Rarely 100%: there is always the exception a person reviews.
Licences, API usage, maintenance.
Result
Hours saved per year
386 h
Net saving in year one
€3,260
Implementation and recurring costs already deducted.
Break-even point
6.6 months
- Value of time freed per year
- €9,660
- First-year ROI
- 50.9%
- Cumulative saving over 3 years
- €17,780
How it is calculated
Hours saved = people × hours per week × 46 effective weeks × automatable share. It uses 46 weeks rather than 52 because nobody works 52: holidays and public holidays take the other six.
The value of freed time uses the cost per hour to the company, not the wage. If you do not have it, the employee cost calculator derives it from the annual gross salary.
Break-even divides implementation cost by the net monthly saving, that is, after subtracting recurring costs. If recurring costs eat the whole saving there is no return, and the tool says so instead of showing an impossible number.
The saving is capacity, not cash: freeing 400 hours does not lower payroll, it frees 400 hours for something else. It becomes an accounting saving only if those hours avoid a hire or enable more billing.
Frequently asked questions
What ROI is reasonable to expect from automating a process?
For repetitive administrative processes, a payback of 4 to 10 months is typical when the process consumes more than 5 hours a week across several people. Below 2 or 3 hours a week it rarely justifies the implementation and maintenance cost.
Why should the automatable share not be 100%?
Because exceptions always remain. A well-automated process handles 60% to 85% of cases on its own and routes the rest to a person. Setting 100% inflates the ROI and guarantees the project disappoints.
Should I count my own time during implementation?
Yes, and it is the most commonly forgotten cost. Add the hours your team will spend explaining the process, reviewing outputs and fixing early errors. On a small project that is usually 15 to 40 hours spread over the first weeks.