Assess the whole operating route and identify which savings are only modeled.
A cheap subscription does not establish a worthwhile automation
Copying an enquiry takes a few minutes. Automation reduces that task, but someone still reviews the result, handles exceptions, and maintains the connection. Counting only the subscription and eliminated typing compares two different jobs.
Start with a specific workflow and one shared period, such as a month. Record volume, manual processing time, review time after automation, ongoing maintenance, and every additional fee. Describe separately how you would use the released time.
Open the time and cost calculator. It runs locally in your browser without transmitting the inputs. It comes with an assumptions worksheet and completed model.
Compare two complete operating routes
Manual monthly hours equal the number of cases multiplied by minutes per case, divided by sixty. The automated route includes per-case review and monthly maintenance. Include routine corrections in review time; add irregular, demanding exceptions to maintenance or another explicit estimate.
Released capacity is the difference between these totals. A negative result means the proposed route adds work under these assumptions. Do not hide it by rounding the benefit up to zero.
Fees include new subscriptions, additional usage, a required upgrade, and supporting services needed only for this automation. An already licensed tool may have no incremental fee, but its maintainer’s work still counts. For the wider cost structure, see workflow cost.
Twelve hours do not automatically become twelve hours of revenue
The fictional model has 300 cases a month, four manual minutes each, one review minute after automation, and three maintenance hours. The manual route takes 20 hours; the new route takes eight. That releases 12 hours.
A chosen internal value of $60 per hour gives the capacity a modeled value of $720. Subtracting $120 in incremental monthly fees leaves $600. An illustrative $1,200 initial cash expense would balance that modeled value after two months if every assumption stayed unchanged.
This is a capacity model. If salaries remain unchanged and no additional revenue or avoided paid expense materializes, cash savings are zero and the $120 fee increases spending. Cash change is therefore −$120 per month and cash recovery does not occur. The calculator therefore reports cash movement separately. It does not present an internal time valuation as money in the bank.
Test the sensitive assumptions
Record a source and date for each cost: verified time record, a measured trial, a current quote or an explicit estimate. Unknown upkeep is not zero; calculate multiple scenarios.
Try lower volume, longer reviews, and more maintenance. At 60 cases, this model releases zero hours: four manual hours equal one review hour plus three maintenance hours. Modeled monthly benefit then becomes −$120. At a lower volume, capacity itself may be negative. Such a result may favor a simpler process.
Record initial internal work in hours separately from initial cash spending. The calculator values that work at your chosen hourly value for the capacity model. For cash payback, it uses only actual initial cash spending and actual avoided recurring expenses. Do not count the same expense in both inputs.
When a cost or time is unknown, record an assumption and source in the worksheet. A blank input is missing information; zero is an intentional zero value. This model cannot give a recovery period when the monthly benefit is zero or negative.
Decide what the result enables
Choose a route the team can operate and a benefit it can actually use. Released time may support quicker responses, less overload, or additional work. None follows automatically from the arithmetic.
After a short trial in your environment, replace estimates with actual processing time and exception counts. Then compare Make and n8n. The example amounts are chosen model inputs, not vendor prices or measured savings. The US model uses independent dollar assumptions, not converted Czech amounts.