The Automation ROI Math: How Hours Become Lakhs
The simple formula we use to estimate what repetitive work costs a business — and when automation pays for itself.
Automation proposals usually fail for one reason: nobody did the math. 'It'll save time' isn't a business case. Here's the exact formula we use with clients — simple enough to do on a napkin, honest enough to survive your CFO.
The formula
- Weekly hours lost = people doing repetitive work × hours each spends on it per week
- Yearly hours = weekly hours × 48 working weeks (holidays are real)
- Recoverable hours = yearly hours × automation rate (60–75% — never 100%)
- Money recovered = recoverable hours × loaded cost per hour
A worked example
A distribution business: 6 people spend 9 hours a week each on invoice entry, order confirmations and stock updates. That's 54 hours a week — 2,592 hours a year.
At a 65% automation rate, ~1,685 hours come back. At a loaded cost of ₹700/hour, that's roughly ₹11.8 lakh a year in recovered capacity — from workflows nobody would list as a 'problem' because they've always been done by hand.
Why we cap the automation rate at 60–75%
No honest automation removes 100% of a task. Exceptions, approvals, and edge cases stay human — and should. Voice agents answering routine calls can hit ~75%; complex document workflows sit closer to 60%. Any vendor promising 100% is selling you the demo, not the system.
Payback, not just savings
Divide the project cost by monthly recovered value. Most SMB automation projects we build pay back in 2–6 months. If a proposal's payback runs past 12 months, either the workflow is wrong for automation or the price is — walk away, including from us.
Want your numbers instead of our example? Try the calculator on our homepage, or bring your messiest workflow to a free clarity call.
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