The Audit is for you when
- ✓Recurring manual work is visible, but its true cost is not.
- ✓Several automation ideas compete for budget and attention.
- ✓You need evidence before choosing a tool or implementation.
AI & Automation Audit · For SMBs
How much is manual work really costing your business?
Calculate your loss in under two minutes. Then, in two weeks, we deliver a clear map of where you're losing time, automations ranked by return on investment — and, with the Full Audit, a working prototype.
Free 30-minute consultation
No obligation · We reply within 24h
- ✓2 weeks from kickoff to plan
- ✓Fixed-price package
- ✓Grant-eligible
- ✓No obligation
Savings calculator
Estimate the cost of repetitive work.
Use your own numbers to estimate how much capacity may be tied up in recurring manual tasks. This is directional, not a promised result: the Audit replaces assumptions with observed workflow data.
—hours of potential capacity recovered per month
—estimated realized economic value / month
People doing repetitive tasks 4
Include yourself: the owner counts too.
Manual hours / week / person 8 h
Data entry, copy-paste, emails, reports, follow-ups…
Average hourly cost (fully loaded) 40 $
Salary + benefits. For the owner: the value of your time.
Automation scenario
Share of repetitive tasks that can realistically be automated — the audit refines this for your actual processes.
Financial assumptions
Software subscriptions / month 300 $
Overlapping tools — some often consolidate.
Estimated Build investment 6 000 $
Start at $6,000, then adjust to a plausible implementation budget for the selected scope.
Ongoing operating cost / month 0 $
Hosting, support, automation software, and other recurring costs created by the solution.
Economic realization 60 %
Share of recovered capacity that becomes measurable value through avoided hiring, lower overtime, or productive work.
Implementation period 2
Months before the solution begins producing measurable value.
—
hours of potential capacity recovered per month
—
current manual-work cost / month
—
estimated realized economic value / month
—
estimated first-year net value
—
estimated first-year benefit-cost ratio
—
full-time capacity potentially recovered
Realized capacity value—
Estimated software savings—
Ongoing operating cost—
—
estimated payback after launch
—
estimated five-year net value
A payback below one month at the minimum Build investment may indicate that this scope needs a larger implementation budget.
Estimate, not a promise.
Assumptions and method
Recovered capacity is not automatically cash savings. Financial value depends on whether the time avoids hiring or overtime, or supports additional productive work. The estimate uses your Build and operating costs, implementation period, economic-realization input, and 25% software consolidation. The Audit replaces these assumptions with observed data.
What the audit covers
Five common sources of time loss in almost every SMB.
01
Documents
Invoices, purchase orders, receipts — manual data entry and handling.
02
Leads
Leads and follow-ups that slip through the cracks.
03
Emails
Sorting, filing, and routing support requests.
04
Data
Sync between accounting, CRM, and spreadsheets.
05
Reports
Reports built by hand, week after week.
Is the Audit the right first step?
A bounded decision process for a real workflow question.
It is not the right fit when
- You only need a quote for a fully specified implementation.
- No process owner can join the discovery and validate assumptions.
- You expect a production system to be delivered within the Audit fee.
Who participates and what we need
A decision-maker and the people closest to the selected workflow join the kickoff and validation. We ask for representative examples, current tools, volumes, exception cases, and known constraints. Access is agreed in advance and limited to what the Audit requires.
What “working prototype” means
Included only in the Full Audit, the prototype demonstrates one selected workflow with representative inputs. It is evidence for a decision—not a production deployment. Production hardening, monitoring, security review, migration, service levels, and ongoing support belong to an optional Build agreement.
Audit FAQ
Clarifications before you choose a package.
Do both Audit packages take two weeks?
Yes. Both are planned as two-week engagements from kickoff, subject to timely access to participants and agreed inputs.
Can I start with Express and upgrade later?
Yes, but any follow-on scope and fee are confirmed separately. Express does not include a prototype and its fee is not credited toward a Build.
Does an Audit commit me to a Build?
No. The handover may recommend a Build, a smaller operational change, further investigation, or no automation. You own the decision.
Is the estimated opportunity guaranteed?
No. Audit outputs are directional estimates based on observed evidence and documented assumptions. Any contractual target exists only in a separately signed Build agreement.
The process · 2 weeks
From your real-world processes to a plan you can execute.
Free 30-minute consultation · no obligation
First, we assess your situation together and whether an audit makes sense for you. Book online — that's where it all starts. →
1
Discovery workshop · 2 hours
We map your current processes with the people who run them every day.
2
Analysis
We identify where time is lost, what's automatable, and estimate recoverable hours — in black and white.
3
Prioritization
Each opportunity is scored by effort vs. impact. A clear, jargon-free matrix that lets you decide quickly.
4
Prototype · Full Audit
With the Full Audit, we build a real automation flow for the first high-impact case — so you see concrete results before investing further.
5
Handover · 1.5 hours
We present the results, the game plan, and clear next steps.
What you walk away with
Concrete deliverables, not just a slide deck.
- ✓Audit report: a map of your processes and prioritized opportunities.
- ✓Estimates of hours and costs you can recover, for each opportunity.
- ✓A phased implementation roadmap.
- ✓Full Audit only: a working prototype of one high-impact automation.
The audit · pricing
Fixed-price. You know exactly what you're paying.
Express Audit
$1,500
One targeted process — ideal for a smaller SMB or a first step.
- Discovery workshop
- Analysis of one priority process
- Quantified recommendations
Most complete
Full Audit
$3,000
Mapping of multiple processes, plus a working prototype.
- Everything in the Express Audit
- Multi-process mapping
- Prototype of a first automation flow
- Phased roadmap
Credited in full. If a qualifying Build begins within 60 days, the Full Audit fee is credited in full toward it.
What you get in two weeks
1
A map of where time leaks
We track manual work task by task and put a number on it — in dollars and hours.
2
Wins ranked by ROI
Every automation opportunity is prioritized by what it returns, not by what looks shiny.
3
A working prototype (Full Audit)
No theory: with the Full Audit, a real, running automation that demonstrates the selected workflow before you invest further.
Inside an Audit
See how workflow evidence becomes a decision.
This fictional distribution scenario shows the shape of an Audit deliverable. The company, workflow and numbers are synthetic; none of it is presented as client work.
Example — synthetic data, not client work
Northstar Distribution (fictional)
Audit report snapshot
- Observed workflow
- Customer orders arrive by email and are re-keyed into the ERP.
- Synthetic baseline
- 40 manual hours and $1,800 in loaded labour per month.
- Main constraint
- Pricing and inventory exceptions still require an accountable employee.
Example — synthetic data, not client work
Illustrative automation workflow
- 1Receive emailed order
- 2Extract and validate fields
- 3Route exceptions for human approval
- 4Create ERP entry and record the outcome
Example — synthetic data, not client work
Example priority matrix
| Opportunity | Impact | Effort / risk | Decision |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard order entry | High | Medium | Audit now |
| Weekly operations report | Medium | Low | Consider next |
| Pricing exceptions | High | High risk | Keep human approval |
How we measure
We observe a representative baseline, validate frequency and loaded labour assumptions, then score each opportunity for impact, feasibility, data quality, operational risk and dependencies. The recommendation may be automate now, investigate later, or do not automate.
When we recommend not automating
We do not recommend end-to-end automation when the process is unstable, the inputs are unreliable, the volume cannot justify the cost, or a judgement call needs clear human accountability.
Put a number on the loss — then win it back.
Book 30 minutes. We look at your processes together and tell you, concretely, where the time is hiding.
No obligation · We reply within 24h