Measure the baseline
Measure completed transactions, handling time and rework over a representative period. Separate time spent waiting from active employee effort. A shorter cycle does not automatically mean lower labour cost.
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Executive guide
A defensible business case for automation.
A practical framework for evaluating process volume, effort, exceptions and the real cost of ownership.
From saved minutes to a defensible decision
Use a representative period and separate capacity from cash. The following example illustrates the calculation; it is not a customer result.
1 000cases / month
×8 minhandling / case
=133 hbaseline capacity
Before
After
After: 2 minutes of review per case = 33 hours. Released capacity: 100 hours. Operating and exception-handling costs must still be included.
Financial value = usable released capacity × fully loaded hourly cost − recurring costs. Payback = initial investment / positive monthly net benefit.
Apply the framework to concrete decisions.
Account for exceptions
Estimate which transactions can complete without review. Keep human approval for ambiguous, sensitive or high-impact cases. Include the time needed to investigate failed runs.
Calculate the full cost
Include implementation, licences, infrastructure, monitoring and maintenance. Capacity released is not cash saved unless the organisation changes how it uses that capacity.
Define a decision gate
Agree acceptance criteria before building. Compare a pilot with the baseline, examine exceptions and decide whether to scale, redesign or stop.
Readiness check
Do we know the actual volume and handling time?
Have we included review, exceptions and recurring costs?
Who will use the released capacity, and how?