Ascend Automation Agency

Automation ROI & Payback Calculator

Estimate what automating one repetitive process is worth: payback period, ROI, and the break-even point. Honest math, no email required.

Start from an example

Use fully loaded cost: salary plus benefits and overhead, roughly salary × 1.3

Advanced costs

Key results

Pays back in 3.1 months. Annual benefit: $5,850 before build cost.

Payback (months)

3.1

12-Month ROI

290%

Net Monthly Benefit

$487

Annual benefit (before build cost)

$5,850

Cumulative cash flow, months 0 to 12

What if the estimates are off?

ScenarioPayback (months)12-Month ROI
How This Is Calculated
  • Runs per month: daily frequencies assume 260 business days per year spread over 12 months, weekly frequencies use 52 weeks over 12 months, and monthly counts are used as entered.
  • Savings per run: manual minutes minus the minutes still needed after automation, valued at your hourly rate.
  • Monthly savings: savings per run times runs per month.
  • Ongoing costs: the monthly support/maintenance cost plus the monthly software cost.
  • Net monthly benefit: monthly savings minus ongoing costs.
  • Upfront investment: build cost plus one-time onboarding hours at your hourly rate.
  • Payback: upfront investment divided by net monthly benefit.
  • ROI window: the chart and the ROI figure cover twice the payback period, snapped up to 12, 18, 24, or 36 months and capped at 36 (a conservative useful life). The minimum window is 12 months.
  • ROI over the window: net monthly benefit times the number of months, minus the upfront investment, divided by the upfront investment.
  • What we leave out on purpose: discount rates, projected growth, and success-rate guesses. Simple math you can check by hand.

Want help capturing $5,850 per year?

We build automation like this for small businesses, scoped to a defined payback before work starts.

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