NUMBERS & JUDGMENT / FREE EXCEL TOOL
Time saved is not automatically money saved.
A practical AI & Automation ROI Calculator that separates cash savings from staff capacity—and makes the assumptions behind both visible.
6 workbook tabs · Editable formulas · Fictional worked example · No macros
Free Excel download. No sign-in or email signup required. Open the Start Here tab before editing the inputs.
The decision
Will this workflow change reduce spending, release useful capacity, or both—and will the benefits justify its costs? Enter task volume, adoption, handling time, review time, rework, labor cost, and the share of released time that can actually translate into lower cash spending.
Inside the workbook
A Start Here guide, Inputs, Model, Sensitivity, Dashboard, and Methods. The dashboard shows recurring net cash benefit, first-year cash impact, retained capacity, and cash payback. The sensitivity table tests adoption against the cash-realization share rather than treating every hour as cash savings.
The worked example: capacity is not a budget saving
The fictional example produces $8,380 in recurring annual net cash benefit and 972 retained staff hours per year before internal training time. After $17,000 in upfront cash costs, the first-year cash impact is negative $8,620. Those are three different answers—not one inflated ROI number.
Use it in three steps
- Replace the fictional workflow inputs with measured task volumes, times, and fully loaded hourly costs.
- Document what would actually reduce cash spending: avoided overtime, contractor costs, or another specific budget change. Leave the remaining benefit as capacity.
- Test lower adoption and higher review or rework. Review first-year cash impact separately from steady-state benefits.
Important boundaries
Cash payback assumes the entered steady-state adoption from the start; it is not a ramp-up simulation. Internal training hours are shown as capacity consumed, separate from training cash payments. A slower workflow is shown as additional work, not automatically as a cash expense. The model does not assess privacy, information security, output quality, or regulatory suitability.
Free educational model. No email gate. All examples are fictional. Verify assumptions and seek appropriate professional review before relying on the results.
