Automation ROI calculator
Is this workflow worth automating?
Estimate the time you could recover, account for implementation costs, and see what would make the investment worthwhile.
Free, no signup. Every result below is calculated from your inputs and the assumptions shown.
Illustrative scenario · edit any field
Team hours per week
All people combined, not per person.
Loaded hourly cost
Pay plus benefits, taxes and overhead.
Costs, review and maintenance
Cash savings you believe are realizable (optional)
Leave this empty unless automation would genuinely remove cash cost — contractor spend, overtime, an outsourced service, a retired tool. Recovered employee hours are capacity, not cash.
How this is calculated
- Net hours returned = weekly hours × working weeks × addressable share − review hours × working weeks − maintenance hours × 12.
- Annual capacity value = net hours returned × loaded hourly cost. This is the value of time, at the rate you entered. It does not reduce payroll or produce cash by itself.
- Capacity benefit less costs is a modeled capacity-based figure, not cash profit and not cash ROI.
- First-year cash ROI = (12 × monthly cash savings − 12 × monthly operating cost − setup) ÷ (setup + 12 × monthly operating cost). Cash payback = setup ÷ (monthly cash savings − monthly operating cost), assuming steady benefits after launch.
- Conservative and optimistic assumptions are illustrative planning scenarios, not statistical confidence intervals. Financial estimates are indicative planning scenarios based on your assessment inputs and WhereAI's stated assumptions. They are not guaranteed outcomes.
Illustrative · Invoice processing
This does not clear its costs in year one
Hours do come back, but the capacity they represent is worth less than the setup and running cost in the first year. Planning estimate from your inputs and the assumptions shown — not guaranteed savings.
Annual hours potentially returned
120
after 48 review and 24 maintenance hours
Annual capacity value
$5,400
Ongoing cost / year
$2,400
One-time setup
$12,000
Capacity benefit less costs (year 1)
−$9,000
What would have to change
- Additional hours to return per year to break even
- 200 hrs
- Minimum addressable share to break even
- 82%
- Highest setup cost this would still clear in year one
- $3,000
Capacity value is the worth of time returned. It is not cash saved, and recovered hours do not automatically reduce payroll. “Capacity benefit less costs” is a modeled capacity-based benefit, not cash profit or cash ROI.
Cash view
Add estimated realizable monthly cash savings to see cash ROI and payback. They stay separate from capacity value.
This estimates one workflow. WhereAI helps you decide whether it is the best place to start. Your workflow name, hours and hourly cost carry over — review and edit them there. Assumptions and cost inputs stay here, because the assessment models the addressable share itself.
Straight answers before you commit
How is automation ROI calculated?
Weekly hours × working weeks gives the annual load. The addressable share is the gross portion automation could remove. Residual review hours and monthly maintenance are subtracted once, giving net hours returned. Net hours × loaded hourly cost gives annual capacity value. Setup and software costs are shown separately, never blended into that figure.
Are time savings the same as cash savings?
No. Recovered employee time does not automatically reduce payroll or create cash. It creates capacity that can be redirected. Cash ROI and payback appear here only when you enter an amount of monthly cash savings you believe is genuinely realizable — and they are kept separate from capacity value so nothing is counted twice.
Which implementation costs should I include?
One-time setup — vendor or build cost plus the internal time to define, test and roll out the workflow — and ongoing monthly software, usage and support costs. Maintenance effort belongs in the maintenance hours field so it reduces hours returned rather than being counted twice as cash.
When might automation not be worthwhile?
When the residual review and maintenance consume most of the hours removed, when the work varies so much it cannot be described as a repeatable process, when the data lives somewhere nothing can read reliably, or when the setup and ongoing cost outweigh a modest benefit. This calculator keeps negative results negative for exactly that reason.