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ROI · what the busywork costs you

Nobody is hired to do these jobs. Everybody ends up doing them.

50 jobs, each broken into the steps a person actually performs, with how long the step takes and how often it repeats. Multiply those out and you get hours per month; price the hours at $25/hr and you get what the job costs you. Click any row to see the work inside it.

$25/hr is a plain wage, not a fully-loaded cost — payroll tax, benefits and overhead typically add 25-40% on top, so treat every figure here as a floor. Each job carries its own assumptions; open them and argue with them. That's what they're there for.

Jobs priced
50
Hours / month
978.7
Cost / month
$24,467
Cost / year
$293,600

Baseline totals — the cost of doing all 50 by hand. Not a savings claim: no single business runs every job on this page, and several overlap (the daily briefing and the weekly KPI report read the same metrics). It is a menu, not a bill. These 50 are examples, not the ceiling.

01
Support inbox triage & replies300× a month · 4 steps · Customer Support
40.8 hrs/mo$1,021/mo$12,250/yr
2 minRead, tag and prioritise each ticket× 300/mo$250/mo
6 minDraft and send the first real response× 200/mo$500/mo
4 minChase and close pending tickets× 80/mo$133/mo
15 minDaily queue review and escalation handoff× 22/mo$138/mo
Assumptions behind this number
  • ~300 tickets/month; two-thirds need a substantive reply, the rest close on a tag or canned answer.
  • Zendesk's handle-time guidance puts a good average at ~6 minutes per email ticket — the number used for every substantive reply here.
  • The industry-average email first response is ~12 hours and only 36% of companies respond within 4 (SuperOffice benchmark), while 89% of customers expect an answer inside an hour. The gap is the queue nobody owns.
  • Angry and complex tickets still escalate to a person; this row prices the routine two-thirds of the queue.
  • Order-status and returns tickets are priced in their own rows — volumes here exclude them.
See the Customer Support department ▸
02
Post-meeting CRM & follow-up40× a month · 3 steps · Sales
40 hrs/mo$1,000/mo$12,000/yr
20 minWrite up meeting notes× 40/mo$333/mo
20 minLog to CRM: contacts, next steps, stage× 40/mo$333/mo
20 minDraft and send the follow-up email× 40/mo$333/mo
Assumptions behind this number
  • 40 meetings/month across the whole team — roughly two per weekday.
  • A full hour of admin tail per meeting, split notes / CRM / follow-up.
  • Cross-checks against Salesforce State of Sales 2024: CRM data entry alone is ~5.5 hrs/week per rep, so two reps clear 47 hrs/month before a single follow-up email is written. 40 hrs/mo is if anything conservative.
  • Excludes the meetings themselves — this is only the admin tail.
  • Meeting count is the most sensitive input in the whole model.
See the Sales department ▸
03
Chasing unpaid invoicesWeekly · 6 steps · Finance & Accounting
40 hrs/mo$1,000/mo$12,000/yr
60 minPull aging report, prioritise overdue accounts× 4/mo$100/mo
90 minDraft and send dunning emails× 4/mo$150/mo
180 minCollection calls to delinquent accounts× 4/mo$300/mo
60 minLog promises to pay, update statuses× 4/mo$100/mo
120 minCash application: match payments to invoices× 4/mo$200/mo
90 minResolve disputes and short-pays× 4/mo$150/mo
Assumptions behind this number
  • Weekly cycle (4x/month), ~10 hrs/week total — about a quarter-time AR person.
  • Scope corrected from v1: collections is not just dunning. Cash application, disputes and short-pay resolution are the same job and were missing entirely.
  • Collection calls are the single biggest line and stay human in every variant — the agent never phones a customer.
  • Counts ONLY hours. The larger prize — cash collected sooner — is a DSO effect this model deliberately does not claim.
See the Finance & Accounting department ▸
04
Data entry between systemsEvery weekday · 4 steps · Operations
34.2 hrs/mo$854/mo$10,250/yr
40 minRe-key completed jobs into the invoicing system× 22/mo$367/mo
25 minSync customer updates from CRM to accounting× 22/mo$229/mo
20 minReconcile mismatched records between systems× 22/mo$183/mo
45 minWeekly error sweep and duplicate cleanup× 4/mo$75/mo
Assumptions behind this number
  • Daily re-keying between systems that do not talk: field app to invoicing, CRM to accounting, plus a weekly error sweep.
  • The best-sourced job on this page: Zapier's knowledge-worker survey has 76% spending 1-3 hrs/day just moving data; HubSpot's agency survey averages 9.2 hrs/employee/week on data entry; McKinsey's SMB automation survey found 6.5 hrs/employee/week recovered by automating it.
  • This model prices ~7.9 hrs/week for the whole company — below the per-employee benchmarks, so conservative.
  • The purest agent job in the ledger: log into both tools, move the data, reconcile the mismatches. Writes to financial systems keep a review gate.
See the Operations department ▸
05
Crew scheduling & dispatchEvery weekday · 4 steps · Operations
33 hrs/mo$825/mo$9,900/yr
30 minBuild and adjust the next-day schedule× 22/mo$275/mo
20 minCall and text crews to confirm assignments× 22/mo$183/mo
25 minHandle mid-day cancellations and reroutes× 22/mo$229/mo
15 minUpdate job records and timesheets after completion× 22/mo$138/mo
Assumptions behind this number
  • Every weekday: build the next-day schedule, confirm crews by call and text, absorb mid-day changes, update records after.
  • Field-service benchmarks put manual schedule management at ~15 hrs/week for an 8-tech operation; MSP managers report 10-12 hrs/week resolving conflicts. This model prices ~90 min/day, the smaller-crew end.
  • The agent drafts, confirms and rebooks; true emergencies still escalate to a person.
  • Only fits businesses that put crews or techs in the field — trades, installers, cleaners, clinics with mobile staff.
See the Operations department ▸
06
Outbound prospecting sequences180× a month · 4 steps · Sales
31.5 hrs/mo$788/mo$9,450/yr
12 minResearch and write a personalised first touch× 60/mo$300/mo
4 minSend follow-up touches, three per prospect× 180/mo$300/mo
15 minHandle replies, bounces and opt-outs× 22/mo$138/mo
30 minWeekly sequence review and copy tweaks× 4/mo$50/mo
Assumptions behind this number
  • 60 new prospects/month at genuine 1:1 personalisation, ~3 follow-up touches each, plus daily reply handling.
  • Writing a personalised cold email manually runs 10-15 minutes with research (Klenty SDR benchmarks); the Bridge Group's SDR Metrics Report (2023, 365 B2B companies) averages 10.6 touches per cold prospect.
  • 80% of sales require 5+ follow-ups, yet 44% of salespeople give up after one (Brevet Group) — follow-up touches are where the hours and the deals both live.
  • Teams blasting pure templates spend far less and get template-level reply rates. Deliverability management is not counted.
See the Sales department ▸
07
Morning cash-flow & runwayEvery weekday · 3 steps · Finance & Accounting
29.3 hrs/mo$733/mo$8,800/yr
35 minPull balances, AR and AP across accounts× 22/mo$321/mo
25 minRefresh the cash model, categorise, reconcile× 22/mo$229/mo
20 minFlag variances and write commentary× 22/mo$183/mo
Assumptions behind this number
  • Every weekday (22x/month), ~80 min per run.
  • Consistent with FP&A benchmarks putting ~65% of finance hours into data collection and validation rather than analysis.
  • Assumes balances sit across several accounts and the model is a spreadsheet, not a live feed.
  • Agent variant keeps 10 min/day — cash decisions get confirmed by a person.
See the Finance & Accounting department ▸
08
Processing supplier invoicesEvery weekday · 5 steps · Finance & Accounting
29.2 hrs/mo$729/mo$8,750/yr
45 minReceive, code and enter invoices× 22/mo$413/mo
30 minThree-way match, investigate exceptions× 8/mo$100/mo
20 minChase approvals from budget owners× 8/mo$67/mo
60 minPrepare the weekly payment run× 4/mo$100/mo
30 minAnswer vendor status emails and calls× 4/mo$50/mo
Assumptions behind this number
  • ~130 supplier invoices/month, entered daily with weekly exception, approval and payment cycles.
  • Anchored to Ardent Partners' AP Metrics That Matter (2025): $12.88 average cost and a 17.4-day cycle to process one invoice manually. IOFM/Levvel time studies put manual handling at ~12.5 min per clean invoice; exceptions add 15-45 min each.
  • At $25/hr this job prices out near $25 per invoice all-in, inside the published $10-$22 per-invoice range for small businesses (Levvel Research; Goldman Sachs).
  • Scales almost linearly with invoice volume: a 10-person services firm at 40 invoices/month pays roughly a third of this.
  • Three-way matching only applies where purchase orders exist.
See the Finance & Accounting department ▸
09
Job posts & resume screeningEvery weekday · 5 steps · Human Resources
27.7 hrs/mo$692/mo$8,300/yr
60 minDraft or refresh the posting, publish to boards× 2/mo$50/mo
30 minReview inbound applications against requirements× 22/mo$275/mo
30 minSend knockout questions and courtesy rejections× 8/mo$100/mo
60 minRun and log phone screens with the shortlist× 8/mo$200/mo
20 minUpdate the ATS, summarise the shortlist× 8/mo$67/mo
Assumptions behind this number
  • 2 open roles in an active hiring month, ~100-250 applicants each. In months with no open roles this job costs nothing — it averages out only if you hire regularly.
  • The scale of the pile is the story: recruiters average ~23 hours of resume screening per hire (Ideal), against ~250 resumes per posting of which up to 88% are unqualified (Glassdoor). This model prices well under those benchmarks.
  • Keyword screening runs 30-90 seconds per resume and posting a job 20-30 minutes (Stratus HR task-time estimates).
  • Screening criteria are human-approved and logged — disparate-impact risk means the agent filters against stated requirements, never invents its own.
  • Final judgment and senior-role screens stay human.
See the Human Resources department ▸
10
Purchase orders & vendor chasing25× a month · 4 steps · Operations
27.1 hrs/mo$677/mo$8,125/yr
25 minCreate the PO and route it for approval× 25/mo$260/mo
15 minSend the PO, obtain vendor confirmation× 25/mo$156/mo
10 minChase ETAs and backorder updates× 25/mo$104/mo
15 minMatch receipt and invoice to the PO× 25/mo$156/mo
Assumptions behind this number
  • ~25 POs/month, ~65 minutes of organisational touch each: create, send, confirm, chase, match.
  • APQC's Open Standards Benchmarking prices a purchase order at $14-$54 in labor; this model lands at ~$27/PO, mid-band. Companies with automated PO cycles complete them 11 hours faster (APQC via Planergy).
  • Approval thresholds stay human — the agent prepares and chases, a person authorises.
  • 25 POs/month suits wholesale, construction and field services; agencies raise far fewer.
See the Operations department ▸
11
Answering new leads fast40× a month · 5 steps · Sales
25.3 hrs/mo$633/mo$7,600/yr
10 minTriage the new lead, quick research× 40/mo$167/mo
10 minSend the first response or call attempt× 40/mo$167/mo
10 minQualification back-and-forth, two or three emails× 40/mo$167/mo
5 minLog in CRM, route to the right person× 40/mo$83/mo
30 minWeekly lead review with the manager× 4/mo$50/mo
Assumptions behind this number
  • 40 inbound leads/month, ~35 minutes of human handling each plus a weekly review.
  • The famous stats are about speed, not hours: leads contacted within 5 minutes are 21x more likely to qualify (MIT/InsideSales Lead Response Study), yet the average B2B company takes 42 hours to respond and 23% never do (Harvard Business Review audit of 2,241 companies).
  • Hours are only half the story here. The bigger prize is the leads that stop going cold, and this model deliberately does not price that.
  • Scales linearly with lead volume; if most leads are junk, triage time dominates.
See the Sales department ▸
12
Bookings & no-show reminders250× a month · 4 steps · Customer Support
24.8 hrs/mo$621/mo$7,450/yr
5 minHandle booking and reschedule requests× 120/mo$250/mo
2 minSend confirmations and reminder texts× 250/mo$208/mo
4 minPlace reminder calls to unconfirmed appointments× 60/mo$100/mo
6 minBackfill cancelled slots from the waitlist× 25/mo$63/mo
Assumptions behind this number
  • ~250 appointments/month (roughly 12 per business day) with 120 booking/reschedule requests handled by phone, text and email.
  • No-shows are the money line: median no-show rates run 5-7% and range to 30% by specialty (MGMA polls), at $150-$300 of lost revenue each (AAFP). Text reminders cut no-shows ~38% (Imperial College London study); a 29-study systematic review found a 34% mean reduction.
  • Hours are priced; recovered no-show revenue is deliberately not.
  • Benchmarks are healthcare-heavy but the economics transfer to salons, trades, fitness and legal. Healthcare use brings HIPAA obligations.
See the Customer Support department ▸
13
Quotes & orders from email50× a month · 5 steps · Sales
23.5 hrs/mo$588/mo$7,050/yr
10 minParse the request, look up customer and pricing× 50/mo$208/mo
10 minEnter the quote or order into the system× 50/mo$208/mo
5 minSend confirmation, file in CRM× 50/mo$104/mo
10 minChase missing info on incomplete requests× 10/mo$42/mo
15 minCorrect entry errors and rework× 4/mo$25/mo
Assumptions behind this number
  • ~50 quote/order requests arriving by email per month — classic email-to-system transcription.
  • Manual order processing runs 15-30 minutes per order (HumCommerce) at $8-15 of labor per order (Conexiom), with 3-8% of order lines containing entry errors versus under 1% automated.
  • One in five requests arrives incomplete and needs chasing; error rework is its own line.
  • Distributors and wholesalers seeing hundreds of order emails monthly scale this up sharply; configured quotes sit at the hours end, repeat orders at the minutes end.
See the Sales department ▸
14
Social media content & postingEvery weekday · 5 steps · Marketing
23 hrs/mo$575/mo$6,900/yr
60 minPlan the monthly content calendar× 1/mo$25/mo
20 minDraft post copy and hashtags× 16/mo$133/mo
25 minDesign or select the visual× 16/mo$167/mo
10 minSchedule and adapt per platform× 16/mo$67/mo
20 minDaily engagement sweep: comments, DMs, mentions× 22/mo$183/mo
Assumptions behind this number
  • 16 posts/month across platforms plus a daily engagement sweep.
  • Sits inside the surveyed band: 43% of small-business owners report ~6 hrs/week on social (VerticalResponse), and most SMBs land between 3 and 10 hrs/week. Content creation alone eats 40-70% of total social time.
  • A single post takes 30-90 minutes to craft by hand (copy plus visual); 55 minutes is assumed here.
  • Video-heavy strategies (Reels, TikTok) cost well beyond this model. Brand-sensitive replies still get human sign-off.
See the Marketing department ▸
15
Ad spend & conversion watchEvery weekday · 3 steps · Marketing
22.5 hrs/mo$563/mo$6,750/yr
25 minPull spend and conversions per channel× 22/mo$229/mo
20 minCompare to targets, flag anomalies× 22/mo$183/mo
90 minReallocate budget, pause underperformers, adjust bids× 4/mo$150/mo
Assumptions behind this number
  • Daily channel checks (22x/month) plus a deeper weekly reallocation (4x/month).
  • Assumes several channels running continuously; a single-channel advertiser pays far less.
  • Excludes creative production and campaign build — monitoring and reallocation only.
See the Marketing department ▸
16
Sales pipeline hygieneWeekly · 5 steps · Sales
22 hrs/mo$550/mo$6,600/yr
60 minReview stale and rotting deals× 4/mo$100/mo
90 minCorrect stages, close dates, amounts× 4/mo$150/mo
75 minChase reps for missing information× 4/mo$125/mo
60 minRebuild the forecast from clean data× 4/mo$100/mo
45 minPrepare the pipeline review meeting× 4/mo$75/mo
Assumptions behind this number
  • Weekly cycle (4x/month) ahead of the forecast call — 5.5 hrs/week across manager and reps.
  • Pipeline-management research describes review prep as consuming 'several hours every week' at manager level; reps' own hygiene sits on top of that.
  • Assumes a pipeline large enough to rot and more than one seller. A solo founder drops the chase-reps line entirely.
See the Sales department ▸
17
Proposal & quote follow-upTwice a week · 4 steps · Sales
22 hrs/mo$550/mo$6,600/yr
30 minReview which proposals are still open× 8/mo$100/mo
60 minDraft and send follow-ups× 8/mo$200/mo
30 minLog responses and update status× 8/mo$100/mo
45 minRe-quote and revise pricing on request× 8/mo$150/mo
Assumptions behind this number
  • Twice-weekly cycle (8x/month).
  • Scope corrected from v1: re-quoting and pricing revisions were missing and are a real part of the follow-up loop.
  • Assumes a steady flow of open proposals; a quiet month costs less.
  • Like AR, the real prize is deals closed rather than hours saved — not claimed here.
See the Sales department ▸
18
Daily executive briefingEvery weekday · 3 steps · Operations
22 hrs/mo$550/mo$6,600/yr
25 minPull metrics from each tool× 22/mo$229/mo
20 minWrite and format the briefing× 22/mo$183/mo
15 minSend and field follow-up questions× 22/mo$138/mo
Assumptions behind this number
  • Every weekday (22x/month), a full hour per run.
  • Most of that hour is gathering, not writing — metrics live in several systems that do not reconcile with each other.
  • Overlaps with the Weekly KPI Report. If both run, do not treat the savings as additive.
  • Agent variant keeps 8 min/day of human read-through before it goes out.
See the Operations department ▸
19
Policy & benefits questionsEvery weekday · 4 steps · Human Resources
21.7 hrs/mo$542/mo$6,500/yr
40 minAnswer policy, PTO and benefits questions× 22/mo$367/mo
30 minResearch edge cases with the manager or broker× 8/mo$100/mo
60 minUpdate the handbook and FAQ with clarified answers× 1/mo$25/mo
30 minLog recurring questions, flag policy gaps× 4/mo$50/mo
Assumptions behind this number
  • ~40 minutes/day of scattered PTO, benefits and policy questions, answered by whoever gets interrupted.
  • HealthJoy's HR research puts benefits questions alone at more than a quarter of an HR week; CareerBuilder's Harris Poll survey found HR managers without automation losing 14 hrs/week to automatable tasks.
  • 64% of 5-500 person companies spend 11+ hrs/week on HR administration overall (Paychex survey of 600 leaders).
  • Hard boundary: anything touching FMLA, ADA, harassment or terminations escalates to a person, always. The agent answers the handbook, not the law.
  • The handbook must be current, or the agent confidently repeats stale policy — upkeep is priced in.
See the Human Resources department ▸
20
Weekly company KPI reportWeekly · 4 steps · Operations
21 hrs/mo$525/mo$6,300/yr
120 minGather metrics from each system× 4/mo$200/mo
90 minBuild and refresh the report× 4/mo$150/mo
60 minReconcile numbers that disagree between systems× 4/mo$100/mo
45 minWrite commentary and distribute× 4/mo$75/mo
Assumptions behind this number
  • Weekly (4x/month), ~5.25 hrs per cycle.
  • Gathering dominates: FP&A benchmarks put ~65% of finance hours into collection and validation. Reconciling numbers that disagree between systems is its own line item.
  • Overlaps with the Daily Executive Briefing — same underlying metrics, different cadence.
See the Operations department ▸
21
Phone answering & messages130× a month · 3 steps · Customer Support
20.7 hrs/mo$517/mo$6,200/yr
5 minAnswer or return the call, handle or take a message× 130/mo$271/mo
2 minLog the message, route with context× 130/mo$108/mo
15 minMorning triage of overnight messages and callbacks× 22/mo$138/mo
Assumptions behind this number
  • ~130 overflow and after-hours calls/month answered, returned or taken as messages, plus a morning triage pass.
  • Businesses with 1-50 employees miss 20-35% of calls even during stated hours, and ~85% of callers who hit voicemail never call back (small-business telephony statistics, vendor-compiled — treat as directional).
  • The safer anchors: a full-time receptionist runs $32k-$45k/year in salary alone, and answering services charge $200-$1,500/month plus per-call fees. Call-handling itself averages ~6 minutes (Call Centre Helper industry standard).
  • For true after-hours coverage the honest frame is avoided answering-service spend and saved deals, not staff hours; the hours priced here are the business-hours overflow a team absorbs today.
See the Customer Support department ▸
22
Blog & SEO contentWeekly · 5 steps · Marketing
20.3 hrs/mo$508/mo$6,100/yr
45 minKeyword and topic research, outline× 4/mo$75/mo
150 minDraft the post, ~1,400 words× 4/mo$250/mo
45 minEdit and fact-check× 4/mo$75/mo
40 minImages, formatting, internal links, meta× 4/mo$67/mo
25 minPublish and distribute× 4/mo$42/mo
Assumptions behind this number
  • 4 posts/month at ~5 hours per post including research, publishing and distribution.
  • Orbit Media's Annual Blogger Survey (2024): the average post takes 3 hrs 48 min to WRITE — research, images, formatting and publishing sit on top, which is why this model prices above the writing-only number.
  • Bloggers spending 6+ hours per post are far more likely to report strong results; 5 hours is the honest middle.
  • SEO payoff lags by months. The value claimed here is hours, not traffic.
See the Marketing department ▸
23
Interview scheduling & comms12× a month · 5 steps · Human Resources
19.7 hrs/mo$492/mo$5,900/yr
45 minCollect availability from candidate and panel× 12/mo$225/mo
15 minSend invites, confirmations and prep materials× 12/mo$75/mo
40 minHandle reschedules and no-shows× 4/mo$67/mo
10 minSend day-before reminders× 12/mo$50/mo
15 minSend next-steps, advance and rejection notes× 12/mo$75/mo
Assumptions behind this number
  • ~12 interviews/month across two open roles, each coordinated across candidate plus panel.
  • Yello's nationwide recruiter survey: 67% say scheduling a single interview takes 30 minutes to 2 hours, and another 17% say 2-5 hours. This model uses 45 minutes, the low end.
  • GoodTime's Hiring Insights Report found recruiting teams spend ~42% of their time on scheduling alone.
  • Candidate experience is brand-sensitive: speed and tone matter, which is exactly why the ping-pong gets dropped when a human is busy.
See the Human Resources department ▸
24
Meeting notes & action items30× a month · 4 steps · Operations
19.5 hrs/mo$488/mo$5,850/yr
20 minDraft minutes and decisions summary× 30/mo$250/mo
5 minDistribute and file the minutes× 30/mo$63/mo
10 minLog action items with owners in the project tool× 30/mo$125/mo
30 minWeekly action-item chase and status roll-up× 4/mo$50/mo
Assumptions behind this number
  • ~30 minuted meetings/month plus a weekly action-item chase.
  • The standard write-up benchmark is ~15 minutes per meeting; this model prices 20 for minutes plus decisions. Atlassian counts ~31 hours/month per employee in unproductive meetings — the notes are how the productive ones stay productive.
  • 62% of professionals using an AI meeting assistant report saving 4+ hours/week (Otter.ai survey) — the same work priced here by hand.
  • Recording consent varies by state and client; sensitive meetings opt out.
See the Operations department ▸
25
Bank & card reconciliationEvery weekday · 5 steps · Finance & Accounting
19.1 hrs/mo$477/mo$5,725/yr
30 minMatch the daily bank feed to the ledger× 22/mo$275/mo
30 minInvestigate unmatched and uncategorised items× 8/mo$100/mo
120 minReconcile monthly card statements× 1/mo$50/mo
20 minAsk staff to identify unknown transactions× 4/mo$33/mo
45 minMonth-end reconciliation review and sign-off× 1/mo$19/mo
Assumptions behind this number
  • Daily feed matching across 2-4 accounts plus a monthly card-statement pass.
  • Pay.UK research puts SMB payment reconciliation at 3.6 hrs/week (~15.6 hrs/month); this model lands just above that once card statements and staff chasing are counted.
  • Corpay's card-reconciliation guidance adds 30-45 min per card account per month for gathering and matching alone.
  • Businesses on live bank feeds (QBO/Xero) sit at the low end; reconciling from PDF statements costs far more.
  • 'Whose charge is this?' messages to staff are their own line — unknown transactions are chased by a person today.
See the Finance & Accounting department ▸
26
Team calendar & scheduling40× a month · 4 steps · Operations
18.7 hrs/mo$467/mo$5,600/yr
15 minCollect availability, propose times× 40/mo$250/mo
5 minSend invites, links and agendas× 40/mo$83/mo
12 minHandle reschedules and conflicts× 20/mo$100/mo
20 minWeekly calendar review and cleanup× 4/mo$33/mo
Assumptions behind this number
  • ~40 coordinated meetings/month across the team, a quarter of which get rescheduled.
  • Doodle's State of Meetings report prices manual meeting organisation at ~30 minutes each; Calendly's research counts 7.3 emails to schedule a single meeting. This model uses 20 minutes of coordination per meeting, under both.
  • Teams already on booking links have compressed the propose-times step but keep the reschedule and conflict churn.
  • External scheduling (clients, candidates, patients) costs more per meeting than internal.
See the Operations department ▸
27
Customer health & churn watchWeekly · 4 steps · Customer Support
18 hrs/mo$450/mo$5,400/yr
90 minPull usage and engagement per account× 4/mo$150/mo
60 minScore accounts and flag at-risk× 4/mo$100/mo
60 minReview at-risk list with account owners× 4/mo$100/mo
60 minDraft outreach plan for at-risk accounts× 4/mo$100/mo
Assumptions behind this number
  • Weekly review (4x/month), 4.5 hrs per cycle.
  • Assumes usage and engagement data already exists to pull. If it does not, this job costs far more than modelled.
  • Includes the internal review with account owners — v1 missed it and priced this as a solo desk exercise.
  • Only monitoring is counted, not the save conversation itself.
See the Customer Support department ▸
28
Creating & sending invoicesWeekly · 5 steps · Finance & Accounting
17 hrs/mo$425/mo$5,100/yr
60 minGather billable data: time, orders, deliveries× 4/mo$100/mo
90 minDraft invoices in the accounting software× 4/mo$150/mo
30 minInternal review and approval of drafts× 4/mo$50/mo
30 minSend invoices and confirm receipt× 4/mo$50/mo
45 minRework disputed or corrected invoices× 4/mo$75/mo
Assumptions behind this number
  • Weekly billing cycle, ~60 outbound invoices/month assembled from time, orders and delivery records.
  • Manual invoice workflows run 15-30 minutes each including verification, approval and filing (industry benchmarks via Resolve); SCORE surveys put small-business owners at 20+ hrs/month on financial admin including invoicing.
  • Fixed-subscription billing costs near zero; time-and-materials professional services cost well above this.
  • Collections on these invoices is its own row (AR Collection) — this is only getting the bill out the door.
See the Finance & Accounting department ▸
29
Email newsletter productionWeekly · 6 steps · Marketing
16.3 hrs/mo$408/mo$4,900/yr
45 minGather content and offers, outline the issue× 4/mo$75/mo
75 minWrite copy and subject-line variants× 4/mo$125/mo
60 minBuild the layout and images in the email tool× 4/mo$100/mo
30 minProof, render-test, send test emails× 4/mo$50/mo
20 minSegment the list, schedule, monitor the send× 4/mo$33/mo
15 minReview opens and clicks, log learnings× 4/mo$25/mo
Assumptions behind this number
  • Weekly issue (4x/month), ~4 hours per issue end to end.
  • Litmus' State of Email Workflows reports the average marketing email takes two weeks of elapsed production time, with 62% of teams needing two weeks or more — the four hours here are the active work inside that pipeline.
  • 54% of small businesses send at least weekly (AWeber), which is the cadence priced.
  • Promotions and pricing claims get owner approval before send; deliverability setup is one-time and not counted.
See the Marketing department ▸
30
“Where is my order?” inquiries100× a month · 4 steps · Customer Support
16.3 hrs/mo$408/mo$4,900/yr
4 minLook up the order and carrier scan history× 100/mo$167/mo
3 minReply with status and next steps× 100/mo$125/mo
8 minInvestigate stuck or lost shipments with the carrier× 20/mo$67/mo
15 minSend proactive delay notifications× 8/mo$50/mo
Assumptions behind this number
  • ~100 'where is my order?' inquiries/month plus 20 genuinely stuck shipments.
  • WISMO runs ~18% of ticket volume for Shopify brands (Gorgias platform data) and 30-40% across DTC e-commerce in normal weeks, spiking past 50% at peak (Salesforce commerce research).
  • Every answer is a lookup a person does today: order system, carrier scan history, reply. The agent has both systems open.
  • Only applies to businesses that ship physical goods, and volume is strongly seasonal — Q4 can double it.
  • Counted separately from general ticket triage; the volumes do not overlap.
See the Customer Support department ▸
31
Returns & refund processing60× a month · 5 steps · Customer Support
16.3 hrs/mo$408/mo$4,900/yr
4 minValidate the request against policy and the order× 60/mo$100/mo
4 minIssue the RMA and return label× 60/mo$100/mo
5 minTrack receipt, trigger the refund or exchange× 60/mo$125/mo
6 minHandle disputed and edge-case returns× 20/mo$50/mo
20 minWeekly returns log reconciliation× 4/mo$33/mo
Assumptions behind this number
  • ~60 returns/month — consistent with 350-600 orders at the retail-typical 10-17% return rate (NRF puts 2025 returns at 15.2% of US retail sales).
  • Customer-service labor alone runs $5-$10 per return inside a $21-$46 all-in processing cost (Optoro/NRF reverse-logistics research).
  • Refunds are money: the model assumes approval thresholds, with a person confirming anything above the routine.
  • Physical receiving and restocking are excluded — this is the paperwork, tracking and customer loop.
See the Customer Support department ▸
32
Month-end close prepWeekly · 5 steps · Finance & Accounting
16 hrs/mo$400/mo$4,800/yr
240 minDraft accruals, prepayments, recurring entries× 1/mo$100/mo
240 minReconcile balance-sheet accounts× 1/mo$100/mo
120 minUpdate fixed-asset and supporting schedules× 1/mo$50/mo
45 minChase missing documents and explanations× 4/mo$75/mo
180 minDraft financials, flux review with the owner× 1/mo$75/mo
Assumptions behind this number
  • One close per month plus weekly document chasing through the cycle.
  • APQC's survey of ~2,300 organisations puts the median close at 6.4 days; Robert Half found 73% of accounting staff work overtime during close, averaging 11 extra hours per cycle.
  • Excludes bank and card reconciliation hours — those are priced in their own row. Do not count them twice.
  • Inventory-carrying businesses add several hours for stock counts and COGS tie-out.
See the Finance & Accounting department ▸
33
CRM enrichment & dedupEvery weekday · 5 steps · Sales
15.7 hrs/mo$392/mo$4,700/yr
20 minEnrich new and incomplete records× 22/mo$183/mo
45 minWeekly duplicate review and merge× 4/mo$75/mo
30 minProcess bounces and job-change updates× 4/mo$50/mo
20 minFix ownership and routing errors× 4/mo$33/mo
120 minMonthly stale-record sweep× 1/mo$50/mo
Assumptions behind this number
  • Daily enrichment pass plus weekly merge/bounce/routing cycles and a monthly stale-record sweep.
  • B2B contact data decays 22.5-30% per year (ZoomInfo/Marketing Sherpa); typical CRMs carry 10-30% duplicate records against a sub-5% benchmark.
  • 32% of reps report spending an hour or more per day on manual data entry (HubSpot) — this row prices only the shared hygiene work, not each rep's own typing.
  • Distinct from Pipeline Hygiene: that row is deals and forecasts, this one is the contact and account data underneath them.
  • A first-time cleanup of years of hygiene debt is a much bigger one-off project than this monthly run-rate.
See the Sales department ▸
34
Inventory & reorder alertsTwice a week · 4 steps · Operations
15.7 hrs/mo$392/mo$4,700/yr
90 minWeekly count reconciliation and spot checks× 4/mo$150/mo
45 minKey count results into the system× 4/mo$75/mo
30 minCheck levels against reorder points, flag shortfalls× 8/mo$100/mo
20 minDraft reorder alerts and the low-stock summary× 8/mo$67/mo
Assumptions behind this number
  • Weekly count reconciliation plus twice-weekly reorder-point checks.
  • 43% of US small businesses track inventory with pen-and-paper or spreadsheets, or not at all (Wasp Barcode State of Small Business) — and even the best typist errs once per 300 keystrokes on manual keying.
  • Physical counting stays human; the agent covers the reconcile-monitor-alert layer on top.
  • The real payoff — stockouts avoided and dead stock caught — is not priced here.
See the Operations department ▸
35
Backup checks & uptime watchEvery weekday · 5 steps · IT & Security
15.7 hrs/mo$392/mo$4,700/yr
15 minDaily check of backup job status across systems× 22/mo$138/mo
10 minDaily uptime and monitoring review, log anomalies× 22/mo$92/mo
45 minWeekly test restore of sample files× 4/mo$75/mo
30 minInvestigate and re-run failed backup jobs× 4/mo$50/mo
90 minMonthly full restore drill with documented results× 1/mo$38/mo
Assumptions behind this number
  • Daily status checks, weekly test restores, a monthly full restore drill.
  • Honest framing: most SMBs do NOT spend these hours today. Acronis telemetry shows 82% of backup rules have restore testing set to 'never', and Kaseya finds 50% of restores fail when finally attempted. These are the hours it takes to do it right.
  • The price of skipping it: 31% of businesses fail to recover data from backups after ransomware.
  • Restore drills that touch production systems run with guardrails and a human on the approval.
See the IT & Security department ▸
36
Contract & renewal tracking10× a month · 5 steps · Sales
13.8 hrs/mo$346/mo$4,150/yr
30 minWeekly renewal calendar pass× 4/mo$50/mo
20 min60/30-day outreach to renewing customers× 10/mo$83/mo
30 minPrepare the renewal quote and terms× 10/mo$125/mo
15 minChase signatures and confirmations× 10/mo$63/mo
60 minMonthly renewal review with the owner× 1/mo$25/mo
Assumptions behind this number
  • ~10 renewals/month (about 120 contracts/year) tracked on a weekly calendar pass with 60/30-day outreach.
  • World Commerce & Contracting research puts the cost of poor contract management at 9.2% of annual revenue, with nearly half of organisations failing to track at least some contracts.
  • 35% of organisations report at least one significant unplanned auto-renewal in the past year (vendor survey data) — the misses, not the hours, are the expensive part.
  • Pure-subscription businesses on autopay spend less; notice-window contracts (the 60-day kind) cost the most attention.
See the Sales department ▸
37
Payroll prep & timesheetsWeekly · 5 steps · Finance & Accounting
13.5 hrs/mo$338/mo$4,050/yr
45 minChase and collect missing timesheets× 4/mo$75/mo
150 minVerify and approve timecards× 2/mo$125/mo
90 minPrepare the pay run, PTO and deduction changes× 2/mo$75/mo
45 minReview and release payroll, fund the account× 2/mo$38/mo
60 minPost the payroll journal, check tax remittances× 1/mo$25/mo
Assumptions behind this number
  • Biweekly pay cycle (2 runs/month) for ~25 people, most hourly.
  • Intuit QuickBooks surveys put small-business payroll admin near 5 hrs per pay period; the American Payroll Association estimates ~6 minutes of staff time per manual timecard with a 1-8% error rate.
  • The agent preps and verifies; a person reviews and releases every run. Final payroll approval and tax filings stay human.
  • Weekly payroll roughly doubles the run-prep hours; salaried-only firms drop the timecard lines.
See the Finance & Accounting department ▸
38
Expense report processingWeekly · 5 steps · Finance & Accounting
13 hrs/mo$325/mo$3,900/yr
30 minChase employees for overdue reports and receipts× 4/mo$50/mo
75 minReview reports against policy and receipts× 4/mo$125/mo
45 minCorrect errors and re-query submitters× 4/mo$75/mo
30 minRoute approvals, schedule reimbursements× 4/mo$50/mo
60 minPost to the ledger, reconcile the reimbursement run× 1/mo$25/mo
Assumptions behind this number
  • ~15 reports/month on a weekly processing cycle.
  • Anchored to the GBTA Foundation/HRS study: 20 minutes and $58 of resources to process one expense report; 19% contain errors, each costing another 18 minutes to correct. Old (2015) but still the most-cited benchmark in expense management.
  • Chasing late submitters is counted separately — the reports that don't arrive cost as much attention as the ones that do.
  • Travel-heavy field teams can double this; a desk-bound 10-person firm filing 5 reports/month pays about a third.
See the Finance & Accounting department ▸
39
New-hire onboarding paperworkTwice a month · 6 steps · Human Resources
12.5 hrs/mo$313/mo$3,750/yr
90 minSend the offer and e-sign packet, collect I-9/W-4/deposit forms× 2/mo$75/mo
90 minCoordinate accounts and equipment with IT and vendors× 2/mo$75/mo
60 minEnter the hire in payroll and HR systems, run benefits enrollment× 2/mo$50/mo
45 minSchedule orientation and required trainings× 2/mo$38/mo
60 minChase incomplete documents, verify I-9 deadlines× 2/mo$50/mo
30 minFile records, run the 30-day check-in× 2/mo$25/mo
Assumptions behind this number
  • 2 hires/month at ~6.25 hours of admin each — conservative against SHRM benchmarking data showing 9.25 hours of admin saved per hire by automating onboarding.
  • Sapling's onboarding research counts an average of 54 activities per new hire, 41 of them administrative.
  • Hiring managers alone burn 4-6 hours per hire on access requests, equipment and paperwork chasing.
  • I-9 physical-document rules and benefits elections keep humans in the loop at two specific points; everything around them is checklist work.
  • In no-hire months this costs nothing.
See the Human Resources department ▸
40
Review monitoring & replies25× a month · 5 steps · Marketing
12.3 hrs/mo$308/mo$3,700/yr
15 minDaily sweep of Google, Yelp and Facebook× 22/mo$138/mo
8 minDraft and post responses× 25/mo$83/mo
15 minEscalate negative reviews internally× 4/mo$25/mo
30 minSend review requests to recent customers× 4/mo$50/mo
30 minMonthly reputation summary× 1/mo$13/mo
Assumptions behind this number
  • Daily sweep across Google, Yelp and Facebook, ~25 reviews handled per month.
  • BrightLocal's Local Consumer Review Survey: 88% of consumers would use a business that replies to all its reviews, versus 47% for one that replies to none; 81% now expect a response within a week.
  • The average business takes 2.7 days to respond to a Google review — mostly because nobody owns the checking, which is exactly the daily sweep priced here.
  • Manually crafting one response runs 5-10 minutes. Negative and legal-adjacent responses get human review before posting.
  • Review volume varies wildly by industry; restaurants live at multiples of this, B2B services below it.
See the Marketing department ▸
41
FAQ & knowledge-base upkeepTwice a week · 4 steps · Customer Support
11.5 hrs/mo$288/mo$3,450/yr
30 minMine resolved tickets for missing or wrong answers× 8/mo$100/mo
45 minDraft the new or updated article× 6/mo$113/mo
20 minPublish and wire into helpdesk macros× 6/mo$50/mo
60 minMonthly stale-content audit× 1/mo$25/mo
Assumptions behind this number
  • Twice-weekly mining of resolved tickets, ~6 new or updated articles/month, one stale-content audit.
  • 61% of customers prefer self-service for simple questions (Salesforce State of Service), but the median org takes 5-10 business days to update a knowledge article (Umbrex benchmark) — so the answers rot.
  • A Forrester study of integrated knowledge bases saw handle time drop from ~20 minutes to 5 — the deflection payoff this row enables but does not claim.
  • Published answers on policy or legal topics get human review before going live.
See the Customer Support department ▸
42
Ad creative drafting & testingWeekly · 5 steps · Marketing
11 hrs/mo$275/mo$3,300/yr
45 minConcept and hook brainstorm from performance notes× 2/mo$38/mo
60 minWrite headline and copy variants× 2/mo$50/mo
120 minDesign image variants, resize per placement× 2/mo$100/mo
45 minLoad variants and the A/B structure× 2/mo$38/mo
30 minWeekly winner and loser creative review× 4/mo$50/mo
Assumptions behind this number
  • Two creative refresh cycles per month plus a weekly winners/losers review.
  • Creative production for a typical campaign refresh (2-3 ad sets, 2-4 creatives each) takes 3-6 hours of copy, design and resizing (AdLibrary production analysis); campaigns typically burn 2-3 revision cycles.
  • Strictly the creative side — spend monitoring and budget reallocation are priced in their own row.
  • Video ads exceed this scope. Offer claims and brand imagery get owner approval.
See the Marketing department ▸
43
Permits, licenses & COIs12× a month · 5 steps · Operations
10.7 hrs/mo$267/mo$3,200/yr
45 minWeekly expiration sweep of the tracker× 4/mo$75/mo
15 minRequest and chase updated certificates× 12/mo$75/mo
15 minReview certificates against requirements× 10/mo$63/mo
10 minUpdate the tracker and file documents× 10/mo$42/mo
30 minPrep license and permit renewal filings× 1/mo$13/mo
Assumptions behind this number
  • ~40 tracked subs/vendors plus the business's own licenses and permits, on a weekly expiration sweep.
  • Manual processing of a single certificate of insurance runs ~15 minutes (Certificial); insurance compliance teams average 11.5 hrs/week on manual certificate management — this SMB-scale model prices well under that.
  • Spreadsheet-based COI tracking achieves only 60-70% compliance versus 90%+ automated; the misses are lawsuits, not minutes.
  • Coverage-adequacy judgment calls (limits, additional-insured wording) go to the owner or broker.
See the Operations department ▸
44
Software & vendor auditMonthly · 4 steps · IT & Security
9 hrs/mo$225/mo$2,700/yr
120 minPull all charges from statements and cards× 1/mo$50/mo
180 minMatch each charge to an owner and a system× 1/mo$75/mo
120 minChase owners to confirm the tool is still used× 1/mo$50/mo
120 minFlag duplicates and unused, chase cancellations× 1/mo$50/mo
Assumptions behind this number
  • Runs once a month — 9 hrs per pass.
  • Matches published SaaS-management guidance: 4-6 hrs discovery (finance records, cards, SSO) plus 2-3 hrs usage review and cancellation decisions at a ~50-person company.
  • Chasing owners for 'do we still use this?' is its own line — v1 folded it into matching and undercounted.
  • Hours are the wrong measure here: the payoff is cancelled subscriptions, not time saved.
See the IT & Security department ▸
45
Website updates & upkeepWeekly · 4 steps · Engineering
9 hrs/mo$225/mo$2,700/yr
45 minContent edits: hours, staff, services, banners× 4/mo$75/mo
30 minRun CMS and plugin updates, verify nothing broke× 2/mo$25/mo
30 minSweep for broken links, dead forms, mobile issues× 2/mo$25/mo
60 minCoordinate and chase changes with the web vendor× 4/mo$100/mo
Assumptions behind this number
  • Weekly content edits, twice-monthly CMS updates and health sweeps, plus the vendor back-and-forth most non-tech SMBs live with.
  • Clutch's SMB survey found owners spend ~4.2 hrs/month just CHASING website changes from their web provider — before any change is actually made. HubSpot-cited studies put owner time on site updates at 2-5 hrs/week.
  • The agent edits the CMS directly, which removes the chase line entirely — the single biggest saving in this row.
  • Customer-facing copy changes get owner preview before publish. Blog writing is priced in its own row.
See the Engineering department ▸
46
Sales-tax filing prepMonthly · 5 steps · Finance & Accounting
8.3 hrs/mo$206/mo$2,475/yr
150 minPull and reconcile sales data by jurisdiction× 1/mo$63/mo
90 minVerify rates, nexus thresholds, exemption certificates× 1/mo$38/mo
150 minPrepare returns, file in portals, schedule remittance× 1/mo$63/mo
45 minReview and approve filings and payments× 1/mo$19/mo
60 minHandle notices, registrations, rate changes× 1/mo$25/mo
Assumptions behind this number
  • Monthly filing cycle for a 1-3 state filer.
  • Avalara's 2024 independent-retailer survey: 54% spend 1-10 hrs/month on sales-tax activities; this model sits mid-band at ~8 hrs.
  • Avalara/Potentiate's compliance study prices ALL tax-management activity at 131-163 hrs/month for SMBs — that covers every tax type, so only the filing-prep slice is claimed here.
  • E-commerce sellers with economic nexus in 10+ states run 3-5x this; single-state quarterly filers fall below it.
  • A person reviews and approves every filing and payment before it goes out.
See the Finance & Accounting department ▸
47
Password resets & IT helpdeskTwice a week · 4 steps · IT & Security
8.1 hrs/mo$202/mo$2,425/yr
15 minHandle password resets and lockouts× 8/mo$50/mo
20 minProcess access requests with an approval trail× 6/mo$50/mo
25 minTier-1 troubleshooting: apps, email, logins× 8/mo$83/mo
15 minEscalate unresolved issues with context, log tickets× 3/mo$19/mo
Assumptions behind this number
  • ~25 tickets/month for a ~25-person org — MetricNet's benchmark of roughly one ticket per seat per month.
  • Forrester prices a helpdesk password reset at ~$70; Gartner attributes 20-50% of all helpdesk volume to password resets and expirations.
  • In a non-tech SMB this time hides inside the office manager's or owner's day — it is real but never appears on a budget line.
  • Identity verification before any reset is the sensitive step and follows a fixed procedure. Hardware problems stay human.
See the IT & Security department ▸
48
Google Business Profile upkeepTwice a week · 5 steps · Marketing
7.3 hrs/mo$181/mo$2,175/yr
45 minWeekly profile post with photo or offer× 4/mo$75/mo
15 minAnswer questions and messages× 8/mo$50/mo
15 minMonitor suggested edits and duplicate listings× 4/mo$25/mo
45 minCitation consistency check across directories× 1/mo$19/mo
30 minMonthly insights review: calls, clicks, directions× 1/mo$13/mo
Assumptions behind this number
  • Weekly GBP post plus Q&A monitoring, rogue-edit checks and a monthly citation pass. Single location; multi-location scales linearly.
  • Businesses posting weekly on their profile see 28% more website clicks and 42% more direction requests than monthly posters (BrightLocal).
  • The market prices this work at $125-$475/month per location for outsourced management (Merchynt pricing guide) — 5 to 19 hours of $25/hr labor, bracketing this estimate.
  • Direct hours-spent survey data is thin here; the agency-pricing proxy is the strongest anchor.
See the Marketing department ▸
49
Account setup & offboardingTwice a month · 5 steps · IT & Security
6.8 hrs/mo$169/mo$2,025/yr
60 minCreate accounts across core apps for each hire× 2/mo$50/mo
45 minAssign role-based groups, licenses, permissions× 2/mo$38/mo
30 minSend credentials, enforce MFA, first-day access check× 2/mo$25/mo
90 minOffboard the departing user across every app× 1/mo$38/mo
45 minTransfer files and email, reclaim licenses× 1/mo$19/mo
Assumptions behind this number
  • 2 hires and 1 departure in an average month across a 10-50 person team.
  • BetterCloud's State of SaaSOps: manual onboarding averages ~6 hours per new hire and offboarding ~7 at 200+ employee orgs; this model scales down to ~2.25 hours per event for an SMB running fewer apps.
  • 33% of teams take more than 24 hours to complete an offboarding, leaving live sessions and licenses exposed — the risk is the story, the hours are the price.
  • Offboarding needs a verified app inventory or accounts get orphaned; the agent maintains that list as it works.
See the IT & Security department ▸
50
Domain, SSL & license renewalsWeekly · 5 steps · IT & Security
6.5 hrs/mo$163/mo$1,950/yr
30 minWeekly expiry sweep: domains, certs, DNS, licenses× 4/mo$50/mo
45 minExecute renewals and re-issues that come due× 2/mo$38/mo
30 minVerify deployment after each renewal× 2/mo$25/mo
20 minReconcile payment failures and registrar notices× 2/mo$17/mo
20 minUpdate the tracker, notify stakeholders× 4/mo$33/mo
Assumptions behind this number
  • Weekly expiry sweep across registrars, certificate dashboards and license portals.
  • The smallest job on this page by hours, priced for its downside: 81% of companies suffered at least one certificate-related outage in the past year (Keyfactor-lineage survey data via Sectigo), and cert outages cost 31% of orgs $50k-$250k.
  • Only ~36% of organisations use dedicated certificate tooling; the rest run spreadsheets and calendar reminders — the exact system that forgets.
  • Renewals that involve payment go through the standard approval gate.
See the IT & Security department ▸
How these numbers are built
One formula, everywhere
(minutes ÷ 60) × times per month × hourly rate. Every step on this page, no exceptions, no fudge factor.
Organisational hours, not one desk
These jobs get touched by reps, a bookkeeper and a manager reviewing. The cost is the sum of everyone who touches it.
Anchored to published benchmarks
Salesforce State of Sales, APQC, Ardent Partners, BrightLocal, Doodle, BetterCloud, Zendesk, NRF — cited inside each job's assumptions.
What we deliberately don't count
Cash collected sooner, deals closed, no-shows recovered, outages avoided. Real, and bigger than the hours — but not labor cost, so not mixed in here.

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