Improve workflows
What is repetitive admin costing your business?
Put honest numbers on the recurring admin in your business and see what a proposed change would release, in hours and in capacity value, without a pre-loaded savings percentage.
For: Owners and managers evaluating an operational improvement, a piece of software or an automation project.
- Format
- Working calculator + editable calculation sheet
- Published
- September 9, 2026
- Updated
- September 13, 2026
- Last checked
- September 13, 2026
- Written by
- Dryvn AI editorial
- Edited by
- Dryvn AI editorial
- Reviewed by
- Not yet reviewed by a named person
- Read as
- Editorial (Dryvn's practical method)
Capacity released is not cash saved
When someone says an automation will "save $20,000 a year", ask what that number is. Nine times out of ten it is hours multiplied by a wage. That is a capacity number: time the business gets back. It only turns into cash if the time is sold, moved to work that earns, or taken off the payroll. None of those is automatic, and the third is rarely what a small business wants.
So this calculator is honest about what it measures. It gives you capacity value, the hourly value of the time a change would release, and it makes you enter the cost of the change and the extra checking it will need. It does not add revenue you might recover. If you want to model revenue, do it separately with real numbers from your own sales, not a multiplier from a website. If the choice includes adding staff, use the same measured workload with the office manager or AI decision guide.
What to enter
| Input | What it means | Common mistake |
|---|---|---|
| Occurrences per week | How many times the task happens in a normal week. | Using a busy week. Use a normal one. |
| Minutes per occurrence, today | Total staff minutes for one occurrence, added up across everyone who touches it. | Multiplying by headcount somewhere else. Put the total here and nowhere else. |
| Minutes per occurrence, after | Total staff minutes for one occurrence after the proposed change. | Entering zero. Someone still reads the result, answers the customer or fixes the exception. |
| Extra oversight minutes per week | Checking, exception handling and maintenance the change adds each week. | Leaving it blank. Every automated step needs someone to notice when it fails. |
| Hourly cost or value | What an hour of that person's time is worth to the business. | Using the top rate for everyone. Use the rate of the person actually doing it. |
| Operating weeks per year | Weeks the business actually runs the task. | 52. Most businesses have holidays and slow weeks; 46 to 48 is common. |
| Recurring annual cost | Subscriptions, service fees, licences the change adds each year. | Forgetting the second tool the first one requires. |
| One-time setup cost | Implementation, training, time to set it up, paid or your own. | Counting your own setup time as free. |
The formulas, in full
For each task row i, the calculator computes the following. Everything is kept at full precision until it is displayed.
- Baseline hours per week = occurrences × minutes before ÷ 60
- Proposed hours per week = (occurrences × minutes after + oversight minutes) ÷ 60
- Hours released per week = baseline hours − proposed hours (can be negative)
- Annual capacity value = operating weeks × Σ (hours released × hourly value) across all rows
- Annual net capacity value = annual capacity value − recurring annual cost
- First-year net capacity value = annual net capacity value − one-time setup cost
- Capacity-value payback (months) = setup cost ÷ (annual net capacity value ÷ 12), shown only when annual net capacity value is greater than zero
Illustrative example · fictional
Worked example: re-typing quotes into the calendar and the books
A fictional landscaping company approves about 60 quotes a week in season. Each approval takes ten minutes of staff time in total: the office manager re-types the customer, address and price into the calendar and again into the accounting package, then texts the crew lead. A proposed change connects the quoting tool to the calendar and the books, so the approval takes four minutes of checking instead of ten. The owner estimates an extra hour a week of oversight to catch mismatches. Staff time is valued at CAD 40 an hour. The business runs 48 weeks a year. The change costs CAD 2,400 a year in subscriptions and CAD 3,600 to set up.
| Line | Value | How it is computed |
|---|---|---|
| Baseline hours per week | 10.0 | 60 × 10 ÷ 60 |
| Proposed hours per week | 5.0 | (60 × 4 + 60) ÷ 60 |
| Hours released per week | 5.0 | 10 − 5 |
| Annual hours released | 240 | 48 × 5 |
| Annual capacity value | 9,600 | 48 × 5 × 40 |
| Annual net capacity value | 7,200 | 9,600 − 2,400 |
| First-year net capacity value | 3,600 | 7,200 − 3,600 |
| Capacity-value payback | 6 months | 3,600 ÷ (7,200 ÷ 12) |
Five hours a week sounds modest. Over a season it is six working weeks of an office manager's time. Whether that is worth CAD 6,000 in the first year depends on what those hours go to. If the answer is "nothing in particular", the honest first-year number is a cost of CAD 3,600 plus the subscriptions, and the calculator will tell you that if you set the hourly value to what unused time is actually worth to you.
This example is illustrative. It is not a Dryvn customer result and the figures were chosen to make the arithmetic easy to check. Press "Load the worked example" in the calculator to see them.
Use the calculator
Everything runs in your browser. Nothing is sent to us. "Save on this device" keeps your rows in this browser only, and no figures are put into the page address or into analytics.
Calculator · runs in your browser only
What does the repetitive work cost, and what would a change release?
Enter one row per recurring task. Minutes are the total across everyone involved in one occurrence, so do not multiply by staff count anywhere else. Four fields are required per task; oversight minutes may stay blank (counts as zero). Negative results are shown as they are. Press Calculate to see the scenario.
- Whole-business · Enter at least one task.
Editable calculation sheet
If you would rather work in a spreadsheet, the workbook below has the same model with the formulas already in place, input cells marked, units in every column header and an Assumptions sheet. It contains no macros and no links out. The CSV alongside it is an optional export of the same layout with values only, for tools that do not open workbooks. Input cells and computed cells are labelled. The CSV holds values only, so nothing executes when you open it; the formulas are described in the instructions column and are easy to re-create.
Downloads · no email required
- Download .xlsx
Admin time and automation calculator workbook
Macro-free Excel workbook with the same model as the calculator: yellow input cells, blue authored formulas, units in every header, and an Assumptions sheet. Opens in Excel, Google Sheets or LibreOffice.
- Download .csv
Admin time and automation calculation sheet
Same rows and columns as the calculator, with the worked example filled in and the formula for each computed column written out. Values only; nothing executes on open.
How to use the result
- 01Run it with your worst honest numbersHigher "after" minutes, more oversight, fewer operating weeks. If the scenario still holds, it is worth a bounded trial.
- 02Decide what the hours are forReleased capacity has value only if you have a plan for it: more jobs, faster follow-up, a shorter day. Write the plan next to the number.
- 03Measure the before, then the afterTime three real occurrences before the change and three after. Replace the estimates with what you measured. The prioritization guide shows how to set that baseline.
- 04Re-run at 90 daysOversight minutes are the number most people get wrong. Update it from experience and see whether the scenario still stands.
Questions people ask
- How do I calculate automation payback without exaggerating savings?
- Count total staff minutes rather than per-person minutes, include the oversight the change adds, use a normal week and a realistic number of operating weeks, and treat the result as capacity value rather than cash. Then run a pessimistic version. If both versions pay back, you have something.
- Why is there no "typical automation saves 30%" default?
- Because we have not measured one that applies to your business, and neither has anyone else publishing a default. Every number on this page comes from what you enter.
- Can I model revenue I would win with the freed-up time?
- Not here, on purpose. Revenue recovery needs its own model with your own close rates and prices. Mixing it into a time calculation is how numbers get inflated.
- Does the calculator handle CAD and USD?
- It labels the result in whichever you choose. It does not convert between them. Enter every figure in one currency.
Related resources
- What should I automate first in a small business?Compare recurring work on six practical measures, sort each task into the right lane, and pick one bounded experiment with a baseline.
- Where is work getting stuck between your tools?Find the handoffs in your business that still depend on copying information, remembering follow-ups or chasing people, and get one next action for each gap.
- AI assistant, automation, agent or business software: which do you need?Tell the four categories apart by the job each one does, and pick the right one for a specific task in your business, including the case where what you already own is enough.
- BlogShould You Hire an Office Manager or Use AI? A Decision Guide for Trades BusinessesHire a person when the business needs judgment, relationships, ownership and capacity across unpredictable work. Use software or AI when the work is repeatable, the record is clear and the result can be checked. If the process is not defined, fix that before doing either.
Sources
Dates are when each source was last checked by the editor. Sources support specific claims; they are not endorsements.
- S16Automation ROI calculator · Ease AI · checked September 9, 2026Cited only as evidence that transparent, editable calculators of this kind already exist. It does not validate the formulas on this page, which are Dryvn's own scenario model.
R04 · Published September 9, 2026 · Updated September 13, 2026 · Next scheduled review December 9, 2026 · Teaches process management; not legal, warranty, safety or engineering advice. Examples are fictional unless stated. Part of the Dryvn resource library (17 resources).