Automation ROI Calculator: Saving and Payback

Description

Free tool Automation ROI Calculator

Is a task worth automating? Enter the hours it takes, what those hours cost, how much of it can be automated and what the automation costs to build and run. The yearly saving and the payback period appear on this page. No email needed.

1 · The task today

Hours per week on the task per person

Number of people doing it

Loaded hourly cost (₹) per hour

Salary plus employer costs, divided by hours worked.

Working weeks per year

52 is the calendar year. Lower it for leave and holidays.

2 · The automation

Share of the task it can take over %

Your own estimate, from 0 to 100.

One-off cost to build it (₹)

Cost to run it per month (₹)

Hosting, licences, usage fees, maintenance.

Enter every amount in the same currency. The ₹ sign is a label and nothing is converted. The calculator runs in your browser and does not submit what you type.

Net yearly saving

Fill in all seven fields to see the yearly saving and the payback period. Use 0 where a cost does not apply. The share must be 0 to 100 and the weeks no more than 52.

Request a project estimate Arithmetic on your own numbers, not a forecast or a promise.

The formula

hours freed per year = hours per week × people × working weeks × share automated

value of those hours = hours freed per year × loaded hourly cost

net yearly saving = value of those hours − (monthly running cost × 12)

payback period in months = build cost ÷ (net yearly saving ÷ 12)

If the net yearly saving is zero or negative there is no payback period, because the automation costs as much to run as it saves. The calculator says so instead of showing a number.

Every input is yours

The calculator starts empty. It does not suggest how much of a task can be automated, what an hour of your team's time costs or what an automation should cost, because none of those can be known without looking at the task. The only prefilled value is 52 working weeks, which is the calendar. Lower it for leave and holidays.

Two inputs deserve care. The loaded hourly cost is salary plus the employer's other costs for that person, divided by the hours they work. Take-home pay understates it. The automatable share is the part of the task a system can do without a person. Exceptions, approvals and checking the output stay with people, so estimate the share by listing the steps of the task and marking which ones a system could do, not by feel.

What the result does and does not mean

Hours freed are a saving only if they are used. If the team spends the time on other useful work, or overtime and hiring fall, the figure is real. If the hours disappear into the week, it is not.

It counts time and nothing else. Fewer errors, faster turnaround and room to handle more volume may matter more to you than hours. They are not in the sum.

The cost of change is not included. Time spent specifying, testing and learning the new process is real. Add it to the build cost if you can estimate it.

The build cost is your figure. For a custom build it should come from a quote, not a guess.

It is a snapshot. Volumes, salaries and running costs change. Rerun it when they do.

When not to automate

A long payback period usually means the task is too small, too varied or too rarely done to justify a build. An off-the-shelf tool, a simpler process or leaving the task alone may be the better answer, and the comparison of Zapier, n8n and custom automation covers the cheaper routes. When the numbers do hold up, WavX builds business process automation and AI workflow automation , each quoted after a look at the actual task. The guide to AI automation cost in India covers what such builds cost.

Frequently asked questions

How do I calculate automation ROI?

Multiply the hours per week spent on the task by the number of people, the working weeks in a year and the share that can be automated. That gives hours freed per year. Multiply by the loaded hourly cost, then subtract the yearly cost of running the automation to get the net yearly saving. The build cost divided by the monthly net saving is the payback period in months.

What is a loaded hourly cost?

The full cost to the business of an hour of someone's time: salary plus employer contributions, benefits and any overheads you attribute to the role, divided by the hours actually worked in a year.

What payback period is good enough?

That is a business decision the calculator cannot make. Compare the payback period with how long you expect the task to exist in its current form, and with what else the same money could do. A payback longer than the task's likely life is a reason not to build.