How much is manual work costing you?
Short answer: manual work costs the hours spent on it each year, multiplied by the loaded hourly cost of the people doing it, plus the time lost to fixing mistakes. Add your repetitive tasks below to see the total in hours, working weeks and dollars.
What is manual work costing you?
Add the tasks your team does by hand. The numbers update as you type.
How the numbers work
The calculator uses the same formula as the guide to working out what manual work really costs:
- Hours a year = minutes each time ÷ 60 × times a week × people × 50 working weeks. Forty-eight weeks allows for leave and public holidays.
- Extra time for mistakes is added as a percentage on top, for correcting errors and redoing work.
- Working weeks divides the total hours by a 40-hour week, so you can see it as a share of one person's year.
- Cost a year = hours × your loaded hourly cost.
The "share you could automate" is your own estimate, not a promise. The quickest way to find the real figure is to map the work: here's what that looks like.
A worked example
Here's an illustrative online business with two small, repetitive jobs. The rate is a made-up example of $60 an hour, so swap in your own.
| Task | How often | Hours a year | Cost a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Copy wholesale orders into Xero | 30 minutes, 5 times a week | 138 | $8,250 |
| Update stock in two systems | 45 minutes, 5 times a week | 206 | $12,375 |
| Total | Including 10% extra for mistakes | 344 | $20,625 |
Two jobs that each feel small add up to 344 hours a year, about 8.6 of the 50 working weeks in one person's year. If 70% of that could be automated, roughly 241 hours and $14,437 a year would come back to the team. That 70% is an assumption, which is why the calculator lets you change it.
What counts as manual work?
Look for work that is repetitive, rule-based and moves information between places. Common examples:
- Re-typing orders, invoices or customer details from one system into another
- Using a spreadsheet as the bridge between two tools
- Updating stock, prices or product details in more than one place
- Producing the same weekly or month-end report by hand
- Chasing, checking and correcting data that should have synced
- Anything that only gets done when one particular person is in
Anything that ticks several of these is a candidate. The guide to what manual work really costs has a longer checklist.
Frequently asked questions
How do you calculate the cost of manual work?
Multiply the hours spent on a task each year by the loaded hourly cost of the people doing it, then add the time lost to fixing mistakes. Hours a year is minutes each time, times how often it happens, times the number of people, across about 50 working weeks.
What is a loaded hourly cost?
Wages plus on-costs such as superannuation, leave, payroll tax and equipment. It is higher than the rate on a payslip. If you are unsure, ask your accountant or use wages plus roughly a quarter to a third as a starting point.
Does the calculator include opportunity cost?
No. It covers time and the cost of mistakes only. Opportunity cost, what the same person could have done instead, is real but hard to measure, and is often the largest part. Treat the result as a floor, not a ceiling.
Is my information stored?
The calculator runs in your browser and nothing is saved while you type. If you ask for the emailed report, your email and the numbers you entered are used to send it, and I receive a copy so I can follow up if you write back. You are only added to a mailing list if you tick the box.
Found a big number?
Let's work out whether it can be automated, and what it would take.
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