Automation Opportunity Audit & ROI Scorecard – Excel, Google Sheets & Fillable PDF

Who it's for

• Small-business owners and managers who keep hearing "automate it" and want to know which tasks are actually worth it before paying for any tool.
• Consultants and ops leads who need a plain, repeatable way to score up to 50 tasks with a client or team.
• Anyone who wants payback and ROI worked out from their own time and cost estimates, not a vendor's.

A calm, plain worksheet for deciding which of your business's repetitive tasks are worth automating, and what kind of tool fits each one, before you pick or pay for a platform. You list the work, score it, add your own time and cost estimates, and leave with a top-3 pilot list and a 30-day plan.

Features

• Task Inventory for up to 50 tasks: who does each one, how often, how long it takes, and whether the steps follow clear rules. Hours per month and current cost per month calculate from the hourly costs you enter for each role.
• Scoring: each task gets six sub-scores from 1 to 5 (volume, clear rules, digital inputs, cost of an error, data sensitivity, human judgment) and an opportunity score from 0 to 100. You can change the weights and volume thresholds on the Settings tab.
• Time & Cost: enter your own estimates for the share of time automated, setup hours, tool cost per month, and review time. The sheet shows hours freed, net value per month, setup cost, payback, 12-month net, and 12-month ROI, all labeled as your estimates. When the numbers don't add up, it says "No payback at these inputs."
• Tool-Type Fit: a fixed set of written rules suggests one of five tool types for each task (keep manual, simplify first, chat assistant, workflow automation, or AI agent with approval), marks whether a human approval step is needed, and shows which rule applied. These are rules of thumb; you decide.
• Pilot Plan: picks your top 3 eligible tasks and lays out a 30-day plan for each, week by week, with owners, status, and a day-30 review to record what you measured and what you decided.
• Dashboard: a one-page summary of tasks entered and scored, total hours and cost per month, tool-type counts, tasks that need an approval step, and your top 3 pilots. No charts.
• Fillable 8-page worksheet PDF for people who prefer paper or run the audit in a meeting. It has form fields and printed formulas, with no math built in, so you can fill it in a PDF reader that supports forms or print it and work by hand.

What's inside

One .zip file, automation-opportunity-audit-en-v2026.10.zip, with 5 files:

• automation-audit-en-v2026.10.xlsx (blank workbook, 8 tabs)
• automation-audit-en-v2026.10-EXAMPLE.xlsx (the same workbook filled with a worked example for a fictional business, "Example Bakery & Catering Co.")
• automation-audit-worksheet-en-v2026.10.pdf (fillable worksheet, 8 pages: how to use, task inventory, scoring, time and cost, tool-type rules, top-3 pilot pick, 30-day pilot plan, day-30 review and decision)
• Guide-EN-v2026.10.pdf (9 pages: quick start, the method, scoring rules, tool-type definitions, how to estimate honestly, the Pilot Plan and day-30 review, a walk-through of the worked example, and a privacy note)
• LICENSE.txt

Workbook tabs: Start Here, Dashboard, Settings, Task Inventory, Scoring, Time & Cost, Tool-Type Fit, Pilot Plan.

The method in 5 steps:

1. List the repetitive work in the Task Inventory.
2. Score each task.
3. Estimate time and cost with your own numbers.
4. See which kind of tool fits each task, and whether a person should approve the output.
5. Pick your top 3 pilots and follow the 30-day plan.

Works in Excel 2016 or later (Windows and Mac), Excel for the web, and Google Sheets (upload the .xlsx file to Google Drive and open it with Google Sheets). The worksheet PDF works in PDF readers that support forms, or you can print it. No macros or scripts. Amounts are in US dollars and dates use the MM/DD/YYYY format.

Use it to plan before you build in any chat assistant, AI agent, or automation platform. It doesn't recommend or rank any vendor.

Also available in Spanish as a separate product at the same price: Auditoría de Oportunidades de Automatización y Calculadora de ROI – Excel, Google Sheets y PDF rellenable.

Planning worksheet only. All figures are your own estimates from your own inputs; no time, cost, or income result is promised. Not financial, legal, or tax advice.

Not affiliated with or endorsed by any AI or automation platform.

Single business license: use these files in one business or for one client engagement at a time. Your filled-in audits are yours. Do not resell, share, or redistribute the template files.

Digital download; nothing is shipped. If a file is damaged, won't open in a program listed above, or isn't the file you ordered, email mike@doonerdesigns.com and we'll replace it or refund your purchase. Not downloaded yet? You can ask for a refund within 14 days of purchase. Refund policy

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