Most automation business cases fail review for the same two reasons: the hourly rate is too low and the time estimate came from asking someone. Both are fixable in a fortnight, and fixing them is usually what turns an operations project into an approved one.
The formula
Getting the rate right
A fully-burdened rate includes employer taxes, benefits, equipment, software, workspace and management overhead — typically 1.4 to 1.5 times base salary. Spread over roughly 1,700 genuinely productive hours a year rather than 2,080 nominal ones.
A $60,000 salary becomes over $90,000 burdened, which is about $53 an hour — not the $29 an hour that dividing by 2,080 suggests. That difference alone routinely doubles a business case.
Getting the time right
Self-reported times are unreliable in both directions. People underestimate work they do constantly because it feels quick, and overestimate work they dislike. Neither error is random enough to cancel out.
- Shadow the work. One hour per role, watching the actual screens, is worth more than a week of interviews.
- Pull the logs. Ticket systems, CRMs, call platforms and email all carry timestamps that settle arguments.
- Count the interruptions and the re-work. The task takes eleven minutes; the day says otherwise, and the gap is the switching cost.
- Measure the exception path separately. It is a fraction of volume and a large fraction of cost.
The second half of the formula
Error cost is where the real numbers usually are, and where most business cases stop early. A mis-keyed invoice is not a two-minute fix; it is a supplier call, an approval cycle and sometimes a duplicate payment. An expired licence found at an inspection is not admin — it is a stood-down vehicle.
What to do with the number
Two things. First, it sets the value ceiling: no automation should be priced or scoped above the cost it removes. Second, it is the before in your before-and-after, and it has to be measured before you build — a baseline reconstructed afterwards convinces nobody, least of all a finance team.
