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Automation Scorecard

Should you automate this process?

A business process is worth automating when it is high-volume, rule-based, uses structured digital data, rarely changes, and is prone to human error. The scorecard below rates any process on these factors in under a minute, returning a 0–100 automation-suitability score and an estimate of the hours and cost you could save each year.

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Your automation-suitability score updates live as you answer.

Est. hours saved / year
recoverable through automation
Est. cost saved / year
labor value, before build cost

What's driving your score

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How the automation score works

The scorecard combines seven signals that automation specialists use to triage candidate processes. Each answer becomes a 0–100 sub-score, and the sub-scores are combined using the weights below into a single suitability score.

Frequency (20%) and time spent (15%) capture volume — the raw amount of work automation can absorb. Rule-based consistency (20%), input digitization (15%), and process stability (15%) capture feasibility — how cleanly a bot can execute the steps without constant rework. Error-proneness (10%) captures quality upside, and system complexity (5%) nudges the score down when too many disconnected apps make a build brittle.

A worked example

An accounts-payable team keys 12 hours of invoices a week, at a $32 loaded hourly cost. The steps are consistent, the data is semi-structured (PDF invoices), and the process is stable.

Weekly hours12
Annual labor value (×52)$19,968
Suitability score~69 / 100
Realistically automatable share~55%
Estimated annual recovery≈ $11,000

That recovered figure is before the cost to build and maintain the automation — but at ~$11k/year, most rule-based back-office tasks pay back a well-scoped build inside the first year.

Frequently asked questions

What makes a business process a good candidate for automation?
A process is a strong automation candidate when it is high-volume, rule-based with consistent steps, uses structured digital inputs, rarely changes, and is prone to human error. The more of these traits it has, the higher the return on automating it.
How is the automation score calculated?
The scorecard weighs seven factors: frequency (20%), rule-based consistency (20%), input digitization (15%), process stability (15%), time spent (15%), error-proneness (10%), and system complexity (5%). Each answer is converted to a 0–100 sub-score and combined into a single weighted suitability score.
What kinds of processes should NOT be automated?
Processes that change constantly, rely on human judgment or empathy, run only occasionally, or depend on unstructured paper inputs are usually poor candidates. Automating an unstable or low-volume process often costs more to build and maintain than it saves.
How much can automating a process actually save?
Savings depend on volume. A rule-based task taking 10 hours a week at a $30 loaded hourly cost represents about $15,600 a year in labor; automating 70–80% of it typically recovers most of that, minus build and maintenance cost. This scorecard estimates the recoverable hours and dollars for your specific process.
What is the difference between RPA and full automation?
RPA (robotic process automation) uses software bots to mimic the clicks and keystrokes a person performs across existing applications, without changing those systems. Full automation may re-engineer the process or integrate systems directly via APIs. RPA is faster to deploy for stable, rule-based, screen-based tasks.

This scorecard gives a directional estimate for planning purposes only, based on the inputs you provide. Actual automation ROI depends on build complexity, exception rates, and maintenance. It is not financial advice.