You know your team wastes hours every week on repetitive work. Copy-pasting data between apps. Sending follow-up emails manually. Building the same report every Monday morning. You've heard "automation" can fix it, but you don't know where to start or what to prioritize.
That's exactly what an automation audit is for. It's the step between "we should automate something" and actually building a system that saves real time and money.
I offer this as a standalone service for $750. Here's exactly what's included, what the deliverable looks like, and how to know if it's worth it for your business.
What an Automation Audit Actually Is
An automation audit is a structured analysis of how your business operates day-to-day -- specifically the repetitive, manual processes that eat up your team's time. The goal is to identify what can be automated, estimate how much time and money each automation would save, and rank them by impact so you know exactly where to start.
It's not a sales pitch disguised as a report. It's a working document your team can execute from -- with me or without me.
How It Works
Step 1: Discovery call (30 minutes)
We get on a call and I ask about your current workflows. What tools does your team use? Where do things slow down? What tasks make you think "there has to be a better way"? I take detailed notes and ask follow-up questions about volume, frequency, and who's involved.
Step 2: Process mapping (1-2 hours, async)
I map your current workflows step by step. Every tool, every handoff, every manual touchpoint. This alone is valuable -- most businesses have never seen their processes laid out visually. Bottlenecks become obvious.
Step 3: Opportunity analysis (1-2 hours, async)
For each manual process, I evaluate: Can this be automated? How complex is the build? What's the estimated time saved per week? What's the ROI based on your team's hourly cost? I score and rank every opportunity.
Step 4: Deliverable (delivered within 5 business days)
You get a structured document with process maps, a prioritized list of automation opportunities, ROI estimates, and a recommended build roadmap. I walk you through it on a 20-minute review call.
What You Get: The Real Deliverable
This isn't a generic "you should automate more" PDF. Here's exactly what's in the audit document:
1. Process Maps
Visual diagrams of your current workflows showing every step, tool, and person involved. These make it obvious where time is being wasted and where handoffs create delays.
2. Automation Opportunity List (Prioritized)
Every automation opportunity identified, ranked by a combination of:
- Hours saved per week -- the direct time reclaimed
- Dollar value of time saved -- based on who's doing the work
- Build complexity -- how long each automation takes to build
- Dependencies -- what needs to happen first
3. ROI Estimates
For each opportunity, I calculate the estimated monthly value of the time saved versus the cost to build it. Most businesses find the top 3 automations alone would save 10-20 hours per week -- that's $2,000-$5,000/month in labor costs at typical rates.
4. Recommended Build Roadmap
A phased plan for implementing the automations in order of impact. Phase 1 is always the highest-ROI, lowest-complexity opportunities -- the quick wins that start saving time immediately.
5. Tool Recommendations
Specific recommendations on whether to use n8n, Zapier, Make, or custom code for each workflow. I'm not locked into one tool -- I recommend whatever makes the most sense for your situation.
Who This Is For
The audit works best for small-to-mid-size businesses ($2M-$20M revenue) that have enough operational complexity to benefit from automation but haven't invested in it yet. You probably recognize some of these signs:
- Your team copies data between tools by hand (spreadsheets, CRMs, email, project management)
- Someone spends hours every week building the same report
- Lead follow-up is manual and inconsistent -- some leads get a response in 10 minutes, others fall through the cracks
- Invoicing, client onboarding, or status updates require someone to remember and do them manually
- You're paying for Zapier or Make and the bill keeps growing, but you're not sure if there's a better option
Who This Is NOT For
Full transparency -- the audit isn't right for every business:
- Very small operations (1-2 people) where the manual work is manageable and automation wouldn't save enough to justify the cost
- Businesses with no clear repetitive processes -- if your work is mostly creative or strategic with little repetition, automation won't move the needle
- Companies that need enterprise IT integration -- if you're running SAP, Oracle, or legacy ERP systems, you need a systems integrator, not a solo automation consultant
Is $750 Worth It?
Here's the math. Most audits identify 10-20 hours per week of automatable work. If the people doing that work cost $30-$60/hour (fully loaded), that's $1,200-$4,800/month in labor being spent on tasks a system could handle.
If you do hire me to build the automations, the $750 audit fee gets credited toward the first project. So the audit is effectively free if we move forward together.
What Happens After the Audit
Three paths:
- You take the roadmap and execute internally. You have a technical team member who can build n8n workflows or Zapier automations from the specs. Great -- the audit gives them everything they need.
- You hire me to build phase 1. I build the top-priority automations from the roadmap ($3,000-$7,500 depending on complexity). The $750 audit fee is credited toward this project.
- You decide not to automate right now. That's fine too. The audit document doesn't expire. When you're ready, the analysis and recommendations are there.
No pressure, no hard sell. The audit stands on its own as a useful deliverable.
A Real Example
I ran an audit for a small agency that was spending 15 hours a week on manual lead management -- tracking inquiries in a spreadsheet, sending follow-up emails from memory, and building a weekly pipeline report by hand.
The audit identified 3 automations:
- Lead capture pipeline -- form submission to CRM to personalized email in 30 seconds (was taking 45+ minutes per lead)
- Follow-up reminders -- automatic daily digest of who needs a follow-up call (was getting missed 40% of the time)
- Weekly pipeline report -- auto-generated PDF emailed every Monday at 7 AM (was taking 2 hours to build manually)
Total time saved: 12-15 hours per week. Total build time: about 16 hours. The system paid for itself in the first week.