An automation audit is a scoping exercise. It tells you where your team’s time goes, which of those places are worth fixing, and roughly what each fix would cost and take. Done well, it stops you paying for work you don’t need. Done badly, it’s a slide deck telling you transformation is possible.

A common worry is that an audit is a paid way of being told to spend more. That’s fair, so here’s what a proper one involves.

What gets reviewed

The audit starts from a list of recurring tasks, ideally from the people who do them: the things they do more than once a week that feel like they shouldn’t need a person. Not a strategy document, and not a process map.

Before suggesting anything, I map what the firm already uses (CRM, providers, platforms) and who owns each part. Then I sit next to the people doing the work where I can, because what someone describes in a meeting is rarely the whole of what they do. From there, each task gets looked at for four things.

Volume. How often does it happen? Twice a year isn’t worth touching. Forty times a week probably is.

Consistency. Does it follow the same steps each time, or does it need judgement? Automation handles the first well and the second badly. A task that’s 80% routine and 20% judgement is usually still worth it, because you automate the routine part and route the rest to a person.

Current tooling. What software is already in use? The cheapest fix is nearly always one that works inside tools the firm already pays for: a prompt, a template, a setting nobody knew existed.

Knock-on effects. If the task is slow or error-prone, what does that cause further along? A slow invoice approval isn’t only an accounts payable problem. It affects supplier relationships, cash flow forecasting and the finance manager’s time spent chasing sign-offs.

What the output should look like

The deliverable is an itemised report listing each automation and AI opportunity with its costs and benefits, so management can decide what to take forward. It should also include a recommendation on the quick wins: the low-effort, high-reward ones.

The question it answers isn’t “could this be automated?” Almost anything could. It’s whether it should be, and what kind of fix it needs. Each opportunity falls into one of three levels:

  • Level 1, education. The fix already exists inside a tool the firm has. Someone needs showing how.
  • Level 2, integration. Two or more tools need connecting, through something like n8n, Make or Zapier. Configuration work rather than engineering.
  • Level 3, custom build. Real engineering and custom logic. Only worth it when the problem needs it.

Quite often the answer isn’t a new tool at all. It’s getting what the firm already has to work together better, because integration sits at the core of nearly all of this.

How long it takes and what it costs

An audit usually takes anywhere from a couple of days to a couple of weeks, depending on how complex the firm is. A lot of it can be done remotely, but sitting with the team in person is usually worth the trip.

Whatever the fee, it should be agreed up front for a defined scope, and it shouldn’t commit you to anything further. The roadmap should be good enough to hand to any competent builder. If a consultant won’t give you a fixed price for the audit itself, notice that.

The under-an-hour version you can do yourself

You can find your top few automation opportunities without a consultant.

Sit down with whoever runs day-to-day operations and ask two questions. What do you do every week that involves copying and pasting information? What do you regularly chase people for?

Write down every answer without filtering. Then star anything that happens more than ten times a month, and note which software each starred item involves.

If a starred item means moving information between two tools you already use (from an email into a spreadsheet, from a form into a CRM), it’s almost certainly a Level 2 fix. If it’s something inside one tool that takes longer than it should, search that tool’s help pages for “automate” or “workflow”. The answer may already be there.

For most firms the honest result is two or three things worth looking at properly. You now know where to focus, and it cost you an hour.

What an audit isn’t

An audit isn’t a commitment to more work, or a discovery process designed to justify a big project. It’s a short, specific answer to “where should we start?”

If you come away with a clear picture of a handful of opportunities and a rough cost for each, it’s done its job. If you come away with a presentation about digital maturity, ask for your money back. (Here’s how our audit runs, if you want the detail.)