CyberFreezeDev
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Enter task time, hourly cost and build cost to see monthly saving, payback and one-year net.
The starting figures are placeholders, not our prices. Replace every one with your own.
Choose a narrow task like typing bills into Tally, not a whole department.
Typing supplier bills into Tally, replying to WhatsApp price enquiries, building the Monday sales report. A narrow task gives numbers you can check; operations does not.
Have the people doing it log start and stop times for five days.
Ask the people who do it to note start and stop times for five working days. Guesses are usually off, and in both directions.
Divide yearly cost to company by hours actually worked, not salary alone.
Take yearly cost to company (salary, PF, insurance, a share of rent and equipment) and divide by the hours actually worked in a year. Using salary alone understates it.
Count only steps a system does alone, leaving out checks and exceptions.
Count only the steps a system can do without a person: reading the document, copying fields, sending the standard reply. Leave out exceptions, approvals and the minutes someone spends checking outputs.
Build cost goes in once; every recurring cost goes in monthly running cost.
Put the one-time build in build cost. Put everything that recurs in monthly running cost (see the table below). If a cost is yearly, divide it by 12.
Hours freed times cost per hour, minus running cost, gives the monthly saving. Build cost divided by that gives payback in months.
hours freed per month = hours per week × people × share automated × 52 ÷ 12
net monthly saving = hours freed per month × cost per hour − monthly running cost
payback in months = build cost ÷ net monthly saving
12-month net = net monthly saving × 12 − build cost
52 ÷ 12 (about 4.33) converts weeks to an average month. If the net monthly saving is zero or negative, the build never pays back at those figures and the tool says so rather than showing a meaningless number.
| Cost | Examples | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Hosting | A cloud server or VPS for the workflow and its database | Small workflows often share a server you already pay for. |
| AI model usage | Per-token API charges from model providers, or electricity and upkeep for your own GPU server | Grows with volume: estimate from a real month's document or message count. |
| Workflow tool | n8n self-hosted or n8n Cloud, Zapier, Make | Self-hosted n8n has no licence fee for the community edition; Zapier and Make bill by plan and usage. See n8n vs Zapier. |
| Messaging | WhatsApp Business API conversation or template charges, SMS | Meta bills per message for templates; check the current rate card for your country. |
| Upkeep | Fixing a workflow when a supplier changes their invoice layout or an app changes its API | Budget some engineer time every month, even for a stable workflow. |
Hours freed only become money if they go to paid work, overtime cuts or avoided hires.
Hours freed become money only if they go to other paid work, cut overtime or avoid a hire. If they do not, the honest saving is lower.
Setup, testing and team training time is not counted.
Setup, testing with real documents and training the team take time that the formula does not count.
Real gains, but hard to price, so the calculator leaves them out.
A wrong GST figure or a lead answered next morning has a cost too. Those gains are real but hard to price, so the calculator does not include them.
Saving grows with volume; rerun the numbers at next year's expected volume.
If the task grows, the saving grows with it while a person's time would not. Rerun the numbers at next year's expected volume.
Start with the task that has the clearest inputs and the most hours; our automation work usually begins with one such task.
Start with the task that has the clearest inputs and the most hours. Our AI workflow automation work usually begins with one such task, and many are built on n8n so you can see and change each step. Tasks that need judgement across several tools may need an AI agent. If you are still choosing between several candidates, an AI strategy consultation ranks them against the same formula used here.
There is no single right number. Compare it with the other uses of the same money, and with how long the task will exist in its current form. A payback that runs past the point where the process will change is a warning sign.
A year has 52 weeks and 12 months, so an average month has about 4.33 weeks. Multiplying by 4 instead would understate the saving by about 8 percent.
List the steps of the task and mark each one a system could do without a person. The share of time spent on those steps is your figure. If you are unsure, run the calculator at a low and a high value and see whether the decision changes.
No. It runs in your browser and makes no network requests. Nothing is saved when you close the page.
No. It is an estimate from your own inputs. For a real build cost, book a consultation and bring the task and the hours you measured.
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