Map a process and quantify automation ROI

ROI case for automating vendor-invoice approval

Find someone who actually approves invoices — a contact in finance ops, or a written persona you role-play if you cannot reach one — and get a time estimate for every step of the current process: receipt, matching to the PO, approval routing, payment. Document the current state as a diagram, identify the two or three steps that are genuinely automatable and say why the rest are not, propose the to-be workflow, and build a spreadsheet estimating hours saved per month and the cost that represents.

A 45-minute interview you run with someone who approves invoices in their job, or a role-play from a written persona script if you cannot reach one

1. Run the interview and get a time estimate per step, not one total · ~1h
2. Draw the as-is map with owners and per-step timings · ~2h
3. Pick the automatable steps and draw the to-be workflow · ~2h
4. Build the ROI sheet with every assumption stated on the same page · ~2h

• Current-state process map has at least 5 distinct steps with time estimates for each
• At least 2 automatable steps are identified with justification for why they're automatable
• To-be workflow proposal includes a diagram, not just a text description
• ROI spreadsheet shows hours saved/month and a cost-savings figure with stated assumptions

Evidence a recruiter can check

• As-is and to-be process diagrams side by side, with per-step timings on the as-is
• An ROI sheet where every assumption is written down and the hours-saved figure moves when you change one
• The steps you judged automatable with the reason for each — and at least one you deliberately left human
• A one-page summary a decision-maker could approve from without opening anything else

Mapped a manual vendor-invoice approval process end to end and built the ROI case for automating it — per-step timings, a to-be workflow, and an hours-saved model with its assumptions on the page.