The Audit.

The audit is a fixed-fee, one-to-two-week engagement: we watch how your team actually works, measure where the real time goes, and hand you a written brief — even if you never hire us again.

What actually happens

We sit with the people doing the work, not just their manager, and watch it happen. We’re measuring, not guessing: how many hours a week a task eats, how often it breaks, what an error currently costs when it happens, and what tools are already sitting there unused. By the end of the audit you have a real baseline number, not an estimate — everything that follows gets measured against it.

What you get at the end

A written brief: the baseline we measured, a target if automation is worth pursuing, an honest cost range for getting there, and the reasoning either way. If the answer is “this isn’t worth automating,” the brief says so plainly. You own it regardless — take it to someone else, shelve it, or do nothing, and it’s still yours. If you go ahead with the build, the audit fee is credited against it.

Who it’s for

Best suited to small-to-mid businesses where one or two specific tasks are eating real hours every week — not enterprises after a slide deck, and not anyone hoping the audit tells them what they’ve already decided. If you already know the baseline, the cost, and roughly what “better” looks like, skip the audit and go straight to a build.

Questions people ask

How long does the audit actually take?
Usually one to two weeks from the first conversation to the written brief, depending on how much of the process needs watching and how quickly we can get time with the people doing the work.
Do I need to prepare anything before we start?
No. Bring the problem, not a data export. Most of the audit is watching the work happen and asking questions — clean spreadsheets and tidy documentation help, but they're not a prerequisite.
What if I'm not sure whether I need an audit or just a quick chat?
Send the brief describing the problem. If it sounds like something we can size up in a 30-minute call, we'll say so — no audit fee gets charged just to find that out.
Can the audit cover more than one process?
Yes, but scope is agreed and quoted upfront. A wider audit costs more and takes longer; we'd rather quote it honestly than pad the brief with processes that don't need attention.

Related reading

If you’ve got a suspect inefficiency, send the brief. We’ll tell you plainly whether it’s worth an audit or just a chat.

Start with an audit →