Most calculators multiply hours by salary, which understates it by roughly a third. An hour of someone's time costs the business their salary plus employer National Insurance plus pension, divided across the weeks they actually work rather than all fifty two.
Add a row per role. Someone on £55,000 doing four hours costs considerably more than someone on £28,000 doing the same, and that difference is usually where the problem is.
Automation rarely removes all of it. Extraction, joining and formatting go; review, judgement and chasing whoever has not submitted their numbers do not. Eighty per cent is a realistic assumption for most reporting work. Adjust it if you disagree.
Anything under eighteen months is a straightforward case. The cost is one off, the saving is not.
The £5,000 above is a placeholder. Our build estimator asks five questions about what you actually need and gives you an itemised range, with a reason against every line, plus a written brief you can take anywhere.
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Employer National Insurance and pension rates are those applying in England for 2026/27 and are simplified. Pension is calculated on full salary rather than qualifying earnings, which slightly overstates it for higher earners. This is a management estimate, not a costing exercise.