Automation Opportunity Register
A register for the processes you could automate, with the time and value each could save, the effort and risk, and a rank you can explain.
Open to everyone. There is no form and no email step.
What the register works out for you
- A row for each process: its owner, how often it runs, minutes each time, the cost of an hour of that work, and the share an automation could take over
- Hours saved and value each month, calculated from those entries
- Effort to build, risk if wrong and data readiness, each chosen from a list
- A priority score, which is the monthly value divided by the effort and risk numbers, and a rank
- A Settings sheet for your currency and the numbers behind low, medium and high, and marked example rows to overwrite
How to fill it in so the rank means something
- 01
Set the currency and the levels first
Write your currency, and check the numbers behind low, medium and high. They decide how hard effort and risk pull a rank down.
- 02
Ask the person who does the work
Minutes each time and the share that could be automated come best from whoever does the task. A manager's figure tends to leave out the exceptions.
- 03
Read data readiness before the rank
A high rank for a process with no usable data is a plan to build the data first. The readiness column is not part of the score.
Limits
Time saved becomes money only when the time is put to use or the work disappears. The priority score is an aid to discussion. It ignores the work of changing the process, and it counts risk as a level, not as the cost of an error.
On this page
A pattern, worked through
Is the top rank the right first job?
A hospitality group lists the processes it could automate: reconciling supplier invoices, summarizing guest feedback, and updating menu records across its sites.
- The register ranks them. Updating records across sites comes first, because it runs constantly and much of it could be automated.
- The readiness column disagrees. It reads not ready. Site records differ, and nobody owns the differences.
- The plan changes. The first piece of work is agreeing which record wins at each site. The automation follows it.
- The rank is read again. Summarizing guest feedback is ready and carries low risk, so it becomes the first build while the data work runs alongside.
Where it endsThe rank was not wrong. It was incomplete, and the readiness column completed it.
How does a ranked list become a case?
The Automation Business Case Calculator on this site takes one process from the register and tests whether it pays. The Digital Transformation Roadmap Template places the winners in order alongside what stops. Our field note on the process that waits for one person describes what the register cannot see.
What do people ask before using the automation register?
Where do the figures in the automation register come from?
From you. For each process you enter how often it runs, the minutes each time, the cost of an hour of that work and the share that could be automated. Ask the person who does the task, because a manager's estimate tends to leave out the exceptions.
Should I automate the process that ranks first?
Not before reading its data readiness. That column is not part of the score, and a high rank for a process with no usable data is a plan to build the data first. A ready, lower-risk process further down the list may make the better first build.
Are the hours saved in the register real savings?
Only if the time is put to other use or the work disappears. The monthly value multiplies hours by the cost of an hour, so it is a saving only when those hours go to other work or stop existing. Ask your finance partner which will happen first.
What should I set before I start entering processes?
Set your currency and check the values behind low, medium and high on the Settings sheet, because they decide how hard effort and risk pull a rank down. The priority score also ignores the work of changing the process, so treat it as an aid to discussion.
Deciding what to automate first?
Describe what you are weighing in a few lines. A senior practitioner replies with a suggested first conversation.