What is a "process audit" for automation, and what does it tell you

Alexander Krastev · 2026-09-22

Before automating anything you want three answers: what can a machine do here, what would it save, and what will it cost. A process audit is those answers on one page.

How it works

Describe the work the way you would to a new colleague:

"Invoices come by e-mail from about forty suppliers. Someone types the supplier, number, date and total into a spreadsheet, files the PDF by month, and sends anything over two thousand to the manager."

A photo of a diagram or a procedure document works just as well as typed words.

What comes back

Which steps a machine can do, and in what order — so the first piece is useful on its own.
How many hours a month it saves, from the volumes you gave.
What it would cost to run. This comes from your own real runs; if you have not run anything yet it stays empty instead of being invented.
What it would cost to build — you type that, because nobody else knows your rate.
What the report could not work out. The questions still left for a person. Most reports leave this out; it is usually the most useful part.

The button at the end

One click turns the report into a real workflow — but it arrives switched off, and a switched-off workflow refuses to run for real. You open it, read every step, change what is wrong, try it in a mode that touches nothing, and only then turn it on. That is enforced in the software, not written on a warning label.

The report downloads as a PDF and can be shared on a read-only link, for the person who decides but did not describe the work.

Which processes to automate first

That is the real question behind every automation opportunity assessment. The audit answers it per step: repeated, rule-based steps with a document or an e-mail as input score high; judgement calls stay with a person. Start where the saving is largest and the risk smallest.

Trying it

Free at aikautomation.com — Process Audit in the menu, one paragraph, one minute. For your own computer or server you buy a licence and we install it for you. Get in touch.