Free Tool
Manual Process Cost Calculator
Most teams have never written down what a recurring manual process costs them per year. That number is the baseline every automation decision should be measured against.
Nothing is sent anywhere. The maths runs in your browser and nothing is stored.
How many people touch this process in a typical week.
Time each person spends on this specific work, not their whole job.
Salary plus taxes, benefits, and overhead. Usually 1.25 to 1.4 times base pay.
Time spent fixing errors, chasing missing information, or redoing work.
A figure you choose, not a prediction. Move it to see what a given improvement would be worth before you spend anything finding out.
What this process costs
$41,400
per year, at 920 hours of work
$20,700
value of a 50% reduction, or 460 hours returned
At a 50% reduction the process would still cost $20,700 per year. A build only makes sense if it costs meaningfully less than the value it returns over the period you are prepared to measure, and if the workflow can actually support automation.
How the calculation works
Annual cost is people multiplied by hours per week, multiplied by the fully loaded hourly rate, multiplied by 46 working weeks. Rework hours are added on the same basis. Using 46 weeks rather than 52 allows for holiday and absence, which keeps the figure conservative.
Rework is separated from the main figure because it behaves differently. It is the part of the cost that grows when volume rises or quality slips, and it is often the part nobody has counted. In many processes the rework line is what turns a marginal case into an obvious one.
The reduction slider deliberately does not default to a vendor benchmark. Published research on stalled AI projects consistently finds that unclear success definitions are among the main causes of failure, so a number you have chosen and can defend is more useful than one supplied by whoever wants to sell you the build.
This calculator gives you one side of the comparison. The other side is what a build costs, and that needs scope. If the annual figure here is small relative to a realistic build, the honest answer is to leave the process alone or fix it without software.
Questions about the calculator
How is the annual cost calculated?
People multiplied by hours per week, multiplied by the fully loaded hourly rate, multiplied by 46 working weeks. Rework hours are added on the same basis. The 46 weeks allows for holiday and absence rather than assuming a 52-week year.
What is a fully loaded hourly rate?
Salary plus employer taxes, benefits, software licences, and overhead, divided by working hours. It is typically 1.25 to 1.4 times base salary. Using base salary alone understates the cost of the process.
Does this tell me what I would save with AI?
No. The reduction slider is a figure you choose, not a prediction. It lets you test what a given improvement would be worth so you can judge whether a build is worth scoping. Any real target should come from measuring the actual process.
Why does the calculator not ask what the build costs?
Because a credible build estimate needs scope, and scope needs discovery. This tool establishes the number on the other side of that comparison, which is the one most teams have never written down.