The question "does our business need automation?" usually gets answered on intuition — "I think so, but it is expensive". 30 minutes with a calculator shows numbers, not impression. This audit fits 1-50 person companies, scale values up for larger.
The break-even threshold is lower than most small companies think. Already from 4-6 hours per week of manual work, automation typically pays back in the first quarter.
Step 1: List every repetitive process
Open a sheet. Four columns: process name, who does it, how often, how long it takes once. List everything you or your team does repetitively — checking competitor prices, filling forms, copying data between systems, aggregating reviews, monitoring tender portals.
Hint: if you use the phrase "I have to do this every [week/day/month]" or "someone has to take this on" — that is a candidate. If you do something once a year for inventory — skip.
Step 2: Calculate monthly hours per process
Formula: time × frequency = hours/month.
- Daily: time × 22 working days
- Weekly: time × 4.3 weeks
- Bi-weekly: time × 2
- Monthly: time × 1
- Quarterly: time ÷ 3
Example: checking prices of 12 competitors every 2 days × 30 min = 11h per week of team time = ~47h per month. Filling 5 offer forms monthly × 25 min = ~2h per month. Etc.
Step 3: Multiply by hourly cost
Hourly employee cost = (gross salary + payroll taxes + benefits + share of fixed costs) ÷ monthly hours worked. Typical in EU:
- Junior / assistant: €12-20/h company cost
- Mid-level / specialist: €25-45/h
- Senior / manager: €50-90/h
- Small business owner: €60-130/h (including opportunity cost)
Returning to the example: 47h × €30 = €1410 per month in cost just for price checking. Annually €17k — half a person.
Step 4: Add hidden costs
Manual work has costs not visible in simple math:
- Errors: typically 2-8% of manual operations are errors (mistyped price, skipped row, typo). Fix cost + business risk.
- Delays: weekend, holiday, sickness — the process stalls. Competitor cuts price Saturday, you react Wednesday.
- Burnout: repetitive boring work destroys morale. Team turnover costs 3-6 monthly salaries per departure.
- No scale: 14 competitors = 11h/week. 28 competitors = 22h/week. Manual scales linearly — automation barely scales.
Add 20-30% to the Step 3 number as hidden cost.
Step 5: Compare with automation cost
Typical automation pricing in EU in 2026:
- Small one-off project (e.g. price monitoring 10-30 competitors): €1500-4000 setup + €200-600/month retainer
- Medium project (several pipelines, integrations): €5000-15000 setup + €600-2000/month retainer
- Enterprise: €15k-50k setup + €2k-50k/month opex
Break-even: if manual work costs >€500/month, automation typically pays back in 1-6 months. Under €200/month = stay manual. Between €200-500 = depends on hidden costs.
Step 6: Check if SaaS already solves it
Before commissioning a custom build, check whether an existing SaaS solves it at $30-200/month. Apollo, Hubspot, Zapier, Make.com, Price2Spy, Competera, Linear, ClickUp — for standard workflows they are cheaper than custom. Custom makes sense when: no fitting SaaS exists, you have specific requirements, or SaaS solves 60% of the problem and you need 100%.
The point
The audit takes 30 minutes. If the number comes out above 4-6h per week of manual work per process — consider automating. If below — stay manual. If a SaaS exists at <$100/month covering 80% of needs — buy the SaaS, do not build custom.
Most companies that reach us have 30-80h/month of manual work on processes automatable in 1-4 weeks. That is 2 weeks of a full-time person lost on repetition. The numbers are usually clear — they just need to be calculated.