The SMB Automation Audit

Find the hours your business is losing to manual work. Check every box that describes your business today — each one is a task that can run itself.

How to use this: Go section by section with whoever does the work. Check the box if it's done manually today. Note the hours per week beside each. At the end, add them up — that's your automation opportunity.

01 Email & Follow-ups

The silent time drain — most businesses find 4-6 hours here.

	We manually…	Typical cost
	Send confirmation emails after a purchase, booking, or inquiry	1-2 hrs/wk
	Write welcome emails to every new client	1 hr/wk
	Follow up on quotes and proposals (or forget to)	1-2 hrs/wk
	Notify team members when something needs their attention	1 hr/wk
	Answer the same 5 questions over and over by email	1-3 hrs/wk

02 Invoicing & Payments

Where automation pays for itself fastest — literally.

	We manually…	Typical cost
	Create invoices one at a time from completed work	1-2 hrs/wk
	Chase late payments with awkward reminder emails	1-2 hrs/wk
	Reconcile payments against invoices by hand	1 hr/wk
	Track who's paid and who hasn't in a spreadsheet	30 min/wk
	Wait 30+ days on average to get paid	cashflow

03 Scheduling & Appointments

Every back-and-forth email is a chance for the lead to go cold.

	We manually…	Typical cost
	Go back and forth by email to find a meeting time	1-2 hrs/wk
	Send appointment reminders (or suffer no-shows)	30 min/wk
	Handle reschedules and cancellations by hand	30 min/wk
	Copy bookings into the calendar from another system	30 min/wk

04 Data Entry & Reporting

If someone copies data from one tool to another, check the box.

	We manually…	Typical cost
	Copy-paste information between two or more tools	2-4 hrs/wk
	Build weekly/monthly reports in spreadsheets	1-3 hrs/wk
	Update inventory, price lists, or catalogs by hand	1-2 hrs/wk
	Enter leads from web forms into a CRM or spreadsheet	1 hr/wk
	Not really know our numbers until someone compiles them	visibility

05 Client Onboarding

First impressions, made by hand, under time pressure.

	We manually…	Typical cost
	Send contracts and chase signatures	30 min/client
	Create folders, accounts, and access for each new client	30 min/client
	Send the same kickoff information to every new client	30 min/client
	Collect the same intake information by email, repeatedly	30 min/client

06 Internal Operations

The invisible work that never makes it to a to-do list.

	We manually…	Typical cost
	Assign and track recurring tasks (and things slip)	1 hr/wk
	Post the same updates in multiple places (chat, email, docs)	30 min/wk
	Back up files or export data on a schedule someone must remember	30 min/wk
	Re-type information into payroll, accounting, or HR tools	1 hr/wk

Your score

Count your checked boxes and add up the hours column.

0–8 checksTight ship. Automate your top 2-3 items and you're ahead of 90% of SMBs.

9–17 checksTypical — and expensive. You're likely losing 10-15 hrs/week. Prioritize sections 01-02 first.

18–27 checksYour team is doing robot work. 15-20+ hrs/week recoverable. Start with the section that hurts most.

Want us to run this audit with you — free?

Book a free 30-minute discovery call. We'll go through your checks together and map exactly what to automate first. No pitch, no jargon — you leave with a plan either way.

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