Process Automation Audit

Process Mapping

For each process the user describes, document:

## Process: [Name]

**Frequency:** [Daily/Weekly/Monthly]
**Time per occurrence:** [X minutes/hours]
**Monthly time cost:** [Frequency x Time]
**Error rate:** [Low/Medium/High]
**Current method:** [Manual/Semi-automated/Fully manual]
**Steps:**
1. [Step 1]
2. [Step 2]
3. [Step 3]

GATE: Present the process inventory and confirm completeness before scoring.

Phase 2: Score and Prioritize

Evaluate each process for automation potential.

Automation Scoring

Score each process on four dimensions (1-5):

## Automation Priority Matrix

| Process | Time Saved | Repeatability | Error Impact | Ease | Total | Priority |
|---------|-----------|---------------|-------------|------|-------|----------|
| Invoice sending | 5 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 19 | HIGH |
| Social scheduling | 4 | 4 | 2 | 5 | 15 | MEDIUM |
| Report generation | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 11 | LOW |

ROI Estimate

For each high-priority process:

**Process:** Invoice sending
**Current time cost:** 4 hours/month
**Hourly value of your time:** $100
**Monthly cost of manual process:** $400
**Recommended tool:** [Tool name]
**Tool cost:** $30/month
**Setup time:** 2 hours (one-time)
**Monthly time after automation:** 30 minutes
**Monthly savings:** $350 (net of tool cost)
**Payback period:** Immediate

GATE: Present priorities and ROI estimates. Get approval before recommending tools.

Phase 3: Tool Recommendations

Match each automation opportunity with specific tools.

Recommendation Format

For each process, recommend 1-2 tools:

## Recommended Automations

### 1. [Process Name] — Priority: HIGH

**Recommended tool:** [Primary recommendation]
**Alternative:** [Backup option]
**What it automates:** [Specific steps from the process map]
**What still needs human input:** [Steps that cannot be automated]
**Setup complexity:** [Low/Medium/High]
**Monthly cost:** $[X]
**Integration with current stack:** [How it connects to existing tools]

Common Solopreneur Automation Stack

Reference these categories when making recommendations:

• Email/CRM: Follow-up sequences, lead tagging, welcome emails
• Invoicing: Recurring invoices, payment reminders, expense tracking
• Scheduling: Appointment booking, calendar management
• Social media: Content scheduling, cross-posting
• Documents: Proposal generation, contract sending
• Reporting: Dashboard creation, metric alerts

Phase 4: Implementation Roadmap

Deliver a phased plan for implementing automations.

90-Day Roadmap

## Automation Roadmap

**Month 1 — Quick Wins**
- [ ] Set up [Tool 1] for [Process] (estimated: 2 hours)
- [ ] Set up [Tool 2] for [Process] (estimated: 1 hour)
- Expected time savings: [X] hours/month

**Month 2 — Core Systems**
- [ ] Implement [Tool 3] for [Process] (estimated: 4 hours)
- [ ] Connect [Tool 1] to [Tool 3] via [integration]
- Expected time savings: [X] hours/month

**Month 3 — Optimization**
- [ ] Review automation performance
- [ ] Fix any broken workflows
- [ ] Identify next batch of processes to automate
- Expected total time savings: [X] hours/month

Maintenance Schedule

Recommend a monthly 30-minute automation check: verify workflows are running, review error logs, update any broken integrations.

Anti-Patterns

• Automating everything at once — implement one automation at a time. Stack failures are hard to debug.
• Automating broken processes — fix the process first, then automate. Automating a bad process makes bad things happen faster.
• Over-engineering — a simple Zapier workflow beats a custom-coded solution for most solopreneurs.
• Ignoring the human steps — every automation has handoff points where a human needs to review, approve, or intervene.
• No error handling — automations fail silently. Always set up failure notifications.

Recovery

• User has no budget: Recommend free tiers first (most tools have generous free plans). Prioritize automations that save enough time to justify paid upgrades later.
• User is not technical: Stick to no-code tools with visual builders. Avoid anything requiring API configuration.
• User automates something and it breaks: Help them identify the failure point, set up error alerts, and create a manual fallback procedure.
• Process is too complex to automate fully: Recommend semi-automation — automate the repeatable parts and keep human judgment for the rest.
• User has analysis paralysis: Pick the single highest-ROI automation and start there. One working automation builds confidence for the next.