Workflow audit

Where the hours actually go, measured over two weeks.

A written audit of the work your team repeats. I measure where the hours go over two weeks rather than asking people to guess, then rank the ten highest-value automations by hours saved, with what each would cost to build. You get the document whether or not I build anything from it.

Get your free plan Three sizes

The standard size takes: One week
You own: The written audit, yours to act on with anyone
Runs monthly: Only if you choose to pay monthly

No figure appears on this page. Your free plan comes back with the price of every size, and with what the whole job costs together.

What it is

Ask a team where their time goes and you get an honest answer that is usually wrong, because the memorable jobs are the annoying ones, not the frequent ones. Measured over two weeks, the picture changes: the twenty-minute task nobody minds turns out to happen eleven times a week, and the job everyone complains about happens twice a month.

Getting the order right is worth more than getting the first build perfect. The audit ranks by hours saved against build cost, so the first thing built is the thing that pays fastest, and the money is not spent on the loudest complaint. It also names the work that should not be automated at all, which saves more than one build usually costs.

This is for you if

You know there is waste but not where it is
You are close to hiring, and you cannot say what the new person would do all day
Someone has suggested automating things and you do not know where to begin
You have bought software to fix this before and it did not stick

One of these is usually enough. If none of them is true, this is not the first thing I would build for you, and the plan will say so.

Why it comes where it does

Every automation decision made without measurement is a guess, and the guesses are usually wrong. The job that feels worst is rarely the job that costs most.

Nothing has to be built before this one, so it can be the first thing you do. Your free plan still puts it in order against everything else you are considering.

Worth knowingThe document is yours to act on, with me or with anyone else. This is where most engagements start.

Three sizes, by scope

The sizes differ by how much is in them, not by how well it is done. Start at the size that matches the business today; moving up later is normal.

The Essentials

One workflow, measured.

One workflow mapped end to end, with the handovers
Measured hours against each repeated task
The three highest-value automations, with build costs
A written document you own

One week

The usual choice

The Standard

The whole business, ranked. Most businesses choose this.

Everything in the size before, plus:

Every role interviewed and every repeated task measured
Ten automations ranked by hours saved against build cost
The work that should not be automated, named and explained
A walkthrough session on the findings

One week

The Works

The audit plus the plan to act on it.

Everything in the size before, plus:

An automation roadmap of the ten builds, ranked by hours saved
The hours and the roles each build replaces
A budget against each build
A review once the first three builds have shipped

Two weeks

The figure for each of the three sizes is not published here, because it depends on what else you are building at the same time. Build your free plan and the figure for each size comes back with it, along with what the whole job costs together.

How it is built

01
A short session with you on how the business runs and what worries you about it.
02
Two weeks of measurement: what each role repeats, how often, and how long it takes.
03
I map the workflows end to end, including the handovers where work waits.
04
The ten highest-value automations ranked by hours saved against what each costs to build.
05
The written document, delivered and walked through with you.
06
An agreed order of work, if you want one, with no obligation to have me build it.

Before you decide

Three things people get wrong.

They sayWe already know what to automate.

Most businesses know the tasks they dislike. Frequency is what decides value, and frequency is the part memory gets wrong. Two weeks of measurement usually reorders the list.

They sayAn audit is just a sales document for the build.

It is written to stand alone, with costs and an order, and it names the tasks not worth automating. You can take it to anyone, or act on it yourself.

They sayWe are too small for this.

Small businesses have the least slack, so a recovered afternoon a week matters more. A one or two person business gets the short version, which takes a week.

Your options

The alternatives, side by side.

Doing it yourself and hiring it out are both real answers. Here is how the three compare on the things that actually decide it.

Slide the table sideways to read every column.

Option	What it costs	What you own	Time	Outcome
Keep doing it by hand	The hours you cannot currently name	Nothing new	Now	Waste stays invisible
Bring in a consultant or a software vendor	A consulting fee, or a subscription pitched before anything is measured	A slide deck, or a tool you have to fit yourself into	Weeks, then a proposal	Recommendations that suit the seller
This audit	One build, or a monthly fee	The written audit, yours to act on with anyone	One to two weeks	A ranked list of what to fix, in the order that pays fastest

In practice

Ten automations, in order

A map of the repeated work by role, the measured hours against each task, the ten automations ranked by hours saved a month, what each would take to build, and a suggested order. It is written to be readable by the owner, not by a consultant.

Straight answers

Questions I get asked about this.

01Do I have to build anything afterwards?

No. The document is the deliverable, and it is written so you could hand it to another developer or work through it yourself.

02How much of my team's time does it take?

Under an hour each for the interviews, plus a light record of what they do over two weeks. The measuring is designed not to become another admin job.

03What if the answer is that we should hire instead?

Then that is what the document says. Some work needs judgement, and automating it badly costs more than a person. I would rather say so than sell a build.

04Is this the same as the operations retainer?

The audit is where the retainer starts. Most people take the audit first, then decide whether to work the list one build at a time on a retainer or buy the builds outright.

Also in administration

What sits next to this.

Business operations retainer

The admin that runs itself.

Quote and invoice automation

Quotes that follow themselves up. Invoices that chase themselves.

Enquiry handling

Every enquiry answered in minutes, from every channel.

See all of administration

The next move

Workflow audit, priced in context.

The free plan asks a few questions about the business, then comes back with this service at the size that fits, anything that has to come first, and the figure for each part and for the whole job. Nothing is charged and nothing is booked at the end of it.

Get your free plan stuart@sevenlens.co

Get your free plan