Automation ROI Calculator: what does the process yield?
Five inputs are enough to see whether automating a process pays off: freed-up hours and full-time positions, annual savings, payback period and 3-year ROI. Deliberately conservative - a figure you can defend.
By Michael Kaiser, founder of ArkeonTech Last updated:
Your figures
All people working the process combined.
Fully loaded rate: wage + social costs + overhead share. Typical: 40-70 €.
Share of the process that is eliminated - rarely all of it, as special cases remain manual work.
Analysis, build, integration. Orientation: a simple process 3,000-8,000 €, complex integrations more.
Licences, operation, adjustments.
Your calculation
- Freed-up hours per yearat 46 working weeks
- 276 h
- Equivalent full-time positionscapacity at 40 hours per week
- 0.15
- Savings per yearincl. a 30 % deduction for time that cannot be used productively
- €10,626
- Running costs per year
- -€1,800
- Net savings per year
- €8,826
- Payback
- 10.9 months
- 3-year ROI
- 231 %
- Cumulative gain after 3 years
- €18,478
The link contains your five inputs so others see the same calculation.
The calculation is conservative: it assumes 46 working weeks a year, because holidays and public holidays are deducted, and counts only 70 % of the theoretical savings, because freed-up time rarely turns into productive work one to one and no process automates without losses.
All figures stay in your browser - nothing is sent or stored.
How the calculator works
The formula is deliberately simple: weekly hours times 46 working weeks give the annual effort - 52 weeks minus holidays and public holidays. The chosen automation level is eliminated from it; multiplied by the internal hourly rate this yields the theoretical saving. This is rated at 70 %, because freed-up time is rarely fully productive. Running costs are deducted; the remainder is the net saving against which the one-off investment pays back. The calculator also converts the freed-up hours into full-time positions.
Why the calculation is conservative
Proposals often calculate with 100 % automation and the full hourly rate. Both rarely hold: a process with exceptions, free text and special cases keeps residual effort, and an hour saved by AI does not automatically become an hour of revenue. Deciding on conservative figures yields a positive surprise later instead of a recalculation.
When automation does not pay off
Three cases remain critical even after the calculation: very low-volume processes (an integration rarely pays off there), processes that change weekly (every adjustment costs operation), and processes nobody internally understands - what is not documented cannot be automated. In that case the process work itself comes first.
Further reading
Read the article: what AI automation costs in 2026Frequently asked questions
The internal fully loaded rate: gross wage plus employer contributions plus overhead share, divided by productive hours. For skilled staff in SMEs realistic values range between 40 and 70 euros - not the hourly wage alone.
Because freed-up time rarely converts fully into productive work and no process automates without losses - residual cases, review and exceptions remain. The deduction makes the figure defensible in a budget meeting.
Because a process only occurs in working weeks: after holidays and public holidays about 46 weeks a year remain. With 52 weeks the savings would be about 13 % too high - too much for a figure that has to survive a budget meeting.
It converts the freed-up hours into capacity: 6 hours a week correspond to 0.15 full-time positions. Freed up does not mean cut - usually it is time for tasks nobody can be hired for in a tight labour market.
The range is wide: a bounded process with standard integration runs about 3,000 to 8,000 euros one-off, complex ERP or CRM integrations more; running costs between 50 and 300 euros a month. Calculate with your offer, not with the range.
Yes, the model is the same: hours bound in the channel, the automatable share, the internal rate, the cost of the solution. For the phone assistant the hours correspond to availability and answering work, for the chatbot to routine written enquiries.
No. The calculator runs entirely in your browser - nothing is transmitted, stored or analysed.
Not the whole back office at once, but one bounded process with a high rule share: it carries the integration, proves the benefit and produces the figures with which the second process is decided.
Matching ArkeonTech service
The figure stands - now bound the first process
We calculate with your real numbers: free process analysis, fixed-price offer with a documented ROI calculation, first process live in weeks rather than months.