Did it actually pay off?
Claim a savings figure for an automation — hours saved × rate — then audit your own number. The deduction ledger subtracts what the headline always leaves out: error rework, the human review time it really takes, and tooling cost. Claimed and measured sit side by side, and they rarely match. Runs entirely in your browser (0 uploads, works offline).
How to use it
- Enter the claimed win: hours saved and the fully-loaded hourly rate.
- Add the reality: error/rework rate, the review hours a human actually spends, and tooling cost.
- Read the X-ray ledger — it names which of the three silent costs ate the win.
What this clears up (the fundamentals)
- Automation ROI measurement — a saving isn't real until you subtract the cost of getting it. "Hours × rate" is the gross claim, not the net.
- Claimed vs. measured — the headline number is almost always the gross; the honest number is what's left after audit.
- Error-rate accounting — every wrong output the automation produces costs a human's time to catch and redo, quietly clawing back the win.
- True cost of ownership — review time and tooling/API spend are recurring costs that belong in the same ledger as the savings.
Where it's used
A Business companion for proving an automation paid for itself, and a manager-portal ROI sanity-check. It's a miatz build-lab concept playable — learn to build it yourself.
FAQ
How do I measure automation ROI honestly?
Start from the gross claim (hours saved × fully-loaded rate), then subtract the real costs: rework for errors, the human review/supervision time, and tooling. What remains is the measured ROI. This page does that subtraction live.
Why is my measured saving so much lower than the claimed one?
Because the claim usually counts only the hours removed, not the hours added back — reviewing outputs, fixing errors, and paying for the tool. Those three are the culprits behind nearly every inflated ROI number.
Is anything I type uploaded?
No. The whole calculation runs in your browser and nothing is transmitted or stored — turn off your Wi-Fi and it still works. Your cost figures never leave your device.
Can an automation actually lose money?
Yes. If review time and tooling cost more than the hours saved, the measured saving goes negative — the audit shows that plainly.
Limits
An estimate to pressure-test a claim, not accounting. The error-rework model treats errors as a share of the claimed win; for a precise figure, use your real per-error rework hours.
Related
Part of the Demystify Playgrounds. Explore the rest from the Playgrounds home.
Bookmark this page (Ctrl+D, or ⌘D on Mac) — it works offline the next time you need it.