Automation Opportunity Audit Checklist

Run the same first-pass audit I run with clients — find where the hours actually leak before you buy any tools.

1. 01Trace one real lead from first touch to invoice. Note every wait longer than an hour and who broke it.
2. 02List every place someone re-types data they can already see in another tool.
3. 03Count your lead sources. For each: does it write to the CRM automatically, or into an inbox?
4. 04Time your median first response to a new lead. If you can’t measure it, that is the finding.
5. 05List your existing automations (Zaps, scenarios, workflows). Mark which ones have error alerting. (Usually: none.)
6. 06For each automation: who owns it? If they left tomorrow, who could fix it?
7. 07Find every weekly report assembled by hand. Note the hours and the source systems.
8. 08Ask each team member: “What do you do every day that feels like a robot should do it?” Write the answers down verbatim.
9. 09Identify work that follows fixed rules (automation candidates) vs. work needing judgment on varied inputs (AI candidates).
10. 10For every AI candidate: could a person verify the output faster than producing it? If not, strike it.
11. 11Estimate the weekly hours each item costs. Multiply by loaded hourly cost. Sort descending.
12. 12Fix nothing yet. The top three items on that sorted list are your roadmap — everything else waits.

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