Recurring manual work is easy to absorb into a team's day. People copy information between systems, assemble the same report, or route exceptions to someone who knows how to handle them.
The cost is already in the budget, usually as staff time. Understanding how much of that time a change could recover takes a closer look at the process.
We use “operations tax” as shorthand for that recurring cost. The useful part is the estimate behind the name.
Pick one workflow
Start with work that happens often enough to measure. Ask the people doing it about ordinary cases and exceptions, and use available records to check the volume and time involved.
Be clear about what the estimate includes. Time spent producing an output, reviewing it, and correcting mistakes all belongs in the picture.
Estimate the opportunity
Our Operations Tax Calculator combines annual hours, loaded hourly cost, and an assumption about the share of work that could be automated.
The result estimates the value of potentially recoverable time. It does not mean that amount will disappear from the budget. The team may use the capacity to serve more customers, reduce a backlog, or improve quality.
Test different assumptions. If a small change in the automation rate changes the investment decision, that is a good reason to measure the task more closely before proceeding.
A distributor example
For a B2B distributor with $200M in revenue, roughly 14% of orders went through manual exception handling across accounts receivable, customer service, and operations. The estimated annual cost was about $1.1M in senior labor, with roughly seven days of additional DSO, or days sales outstanding.
The proposed response was a 12-week implementation of an exception classifier with AI-assisted dispute drafting. The measured baseline made it possible to define what the implementation needed to improve and compare its cost with the opportunity.
Include the cost of changing the process
Implementation, integration, training, review, and ongoing support affect the result. Some costs appear at the beginning; others continue while the system is in use.
A pilot can help test whether the output is useful and how much work remains for the team. Record the results and revise the estimate before extending the project.
Decide what the recovered time would be used for
A business case is easier to assess when it describes what will change for the team. Faster service and additional capacity may be worthwhile even when they do not reduce spending. State the expected benefit clearly so it can be checked later.
Joust can help assess a workflow and plan the changes it needs. Tell us about the process you would like to improve.
Ron Davis
Founder
Three decades building enterprise platforms. Started Joust to close the gap between strategy decks and the work they're supposed to change.