"This will save the team time" is the single most common justification for an automation project — and the least useful, because it's not measurable before or after.
What to measure instead
Before scoping any workflow automation, we ask clients to quantify three things: the fully-loaded hourly cost of the manual process, the error rate of the manual process, and the cost of an error when it happens (a mis-billed invoice costs more than the ten minutes it took to create).
The formula that survives a budget review
ROI = (hours saved × loaded hourly rate + errors avoided × cost per error) − (build cost + maintenance cost). Maintenance cost is the line most proposals omit, and it's rarely zero — automations built against changing APIs and forms need upkeep.
If you want help building this case for a specific workflow, our Workflow Automation team can model it with your numbers before you commit budget.