Free tool · ~2 minutes · Private to your browser
Most back-office workflows are never costed. This calculator puts an annual figure on one — the labor it consumes, the rework it generates, and the capacity a governed AI workflow could release — using the same inputs a Workflow Opportunity Map would start from.
Every figure is computed from your inputs, in your browser, with the formulas published below. Nothing you enter is transmitted by the Site. You can copy a local result summary when you are ready. This is an indicative model — not a quote or a promised outcome.
Pick the workflow consuming the most staff time. You can rerun this for others.
Salary plus benefits and overhead, divided by ~2,080 working hours. $50–$75 is a common range for operations and compliance roles; use your own figure if you know it.
Errors, exceptions, and re-touched items. Applied as a modeled multiplier on labor cost.
Your calculator inputs stay in this browser. Copy the summary above, then bring it into the intake form. High-level, non-sensitive context only — do not send regulated data, live records, credentials, or confidential documents.
Method
The model is deliberately simple and fully published — the same discipline we apply to audit evidence. If a number cannot be traced to an input you control, it is not in the model.
people × hours/week × 52 × loaded rate×1.02 (rare) · ×1.04 (occasional) · ×1.08 (frequent) · ×1.13 (chronic). A modeled convention, stated so you can disagree with it.annual labor cost × rework multiplierannual cost × the automation share you set. Released capacity is time your team gets back for higher-value work — it is not automatically a budget-line saving.How to read your result
A first-order estimate of what one manual workflow consumes per year, built from inputs you control and a published formula. It is designed to make the cost of doing nothing visible — the number most automation conversations skip — and to give you a defensible starting point for an internal business case.
Not a quote, a savings guarantee, or an engagement price. It does not know your systems, your exception rates, or your compliance constraints — the things that decide what actually automates. Those come out of a scoped Workflow Opportunity Map, where the economics are validated before anything is built.
FAQ
Nowhere. Every figure is computed locally in your browser, and the Site does not transmit your calculator inputs. The copy button creates a local text summary for you to control.
No. It is your annual workflow cost multiplied by the automation share you chose on the slider — an assumption you control, not a claim we make. Whether a given workflow reaches that share depends on its exception rate, its systems, and its compliance constraints, which is precisely what a Workflow Opportunity Map establishes.
Because we will not publish a generic price and pretend it applies to your workflow. Engagements are scoped against an exposure map, not a rate card. The model prices the problem — what the manual workflow costs you every year — and names its exclusions so the figure stays honest.
Run the Workflow Fit Finder to pressure-test whether this is the right workflow to examine first, then bring the figure into a Workflow Opportunity Map. The map establishes the measured baseline and constraints the calculator deliberately does not model.
Next step
The calculator estimates the problem from your inputs. A Workflow Opportunity Map establishes the measured baseline — actual volumes, exception rate, data boundaries, decision rights, and the evidence requirements for any later work.