Getting sign-off on automation investment requires a clear financial case. Here are the frameworks and real examples that make it.
The automation ROI calculation has three components: time recovered (hours per week of manual work eliminated, multiplied by the hourly cost of the person doing it, multiplied by 52 weeks); tool consolidation (SaaS subscriptions that the custom automation replaces); and error reduction (cost of mistakes in the current manual process). Add these up and divide the build cost by the monthly total. That is your break-even in months.
Example 1: A marketing agency manually assembles client reports every Monday — 4 hours across 3 people, 12 hours total. At £40 per hour fully loaded: £480 per week, £24,960 per year. Automation build cost: £6,000. Break-even: 3.7 months. Example 2: An e-commerce business reprices 500 SKUs manually twice per week — 6 hours per reprice. Automation build: £4,000. Break-even: 2.8 months on labour alone, before accounting for improved margin from faster repricing.
When presenting the case for automation investment: lead with the time number, not the technology. Quantify the cost of the current process in hours and pounds. Present the break-even as months, not percentage return. Include the risk cost — what happens when the manual process has an error. And include the opportunity cost — what the team could be doing with the recovered hours.
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