How to Prepare for an Automation Audit
Most people book an automation audit worried they'll need to explain APIs, or worse, defend their spreadsheets. You won't. A good audit runs on your knowledge of your own business - the preparation is about surfacing that knowledge, and it takes about 20 minutes.
What should you prepare before an automation audit?
Three things: a list of your most repetitive tasks, a rough idea of how often each happens and how long it takes, and the names of the tools where that work lives. That's it — no technical documentation, no process diagrams, no cleanup. Twenty minutes of preparation is enough for the audit to start from your reality instead of generic questions.
What an automation audit actually is (our version, at least)
"Audit" can mean anything from a sales pitch with extra steps to a three-week consulting engagement. Ours is neither, and it runs in three steps.
First, a free 30-minute call. We talk through how your business runs and where time disappears. No preparation beyond the checklist below, no commitment.
Second, if there's something worth automating, we run a mini-audit of the workflows involved : how the work actually flows today, tool by tool, exception by exception.
Third, a delivery call. You get documentation of your current workflows, the automation design we recommend, and a fixed implementation quote : the full number, before any build starts. How we structure the work from there is on our services page.
The same person runs all three steps : the person on the first call is the person who would build.
The 20-minute checklist
1. List your three most repetitive tasks
Not the most annoying ones, the most repetitive ones. The tasks where someone does the same clicks, in the same order, every time: turning a request into a quote, copying order details into an invoice, assembling the same weekly report. If a task makes someone think "I could do this asleep," it goes on the list.
2. Put rough numbers on each one
For each task, jot down three numbers: how many times it happens per week, roughly how long it takes each time, and who does it. Estimates are fine, "about 15 quotes a week, 30-ish minutes each, mostly Sarah" is exactly the right level of precision. These numbers are what turn "this feels slow" into a business case; we've shown how far they add up in The real cost of re-typing data.
3. Name your tools
Where does the work happen? A CRM, monday.com boards, Excel files, a shared inbox, an accounting tool, WhatsApp — just list them. You don't need version numbers or admin access; we only need to know what talks to what (and what currently doesn't).
4. Note where things break
Every business has workarounds: the field nobody fills in, the copy-paste between two tools that "don't talk," the Friday afternoon spent chasing information that exists somewhere else. These pain points are usually where automation pays back fastest, so write down the two or three that cost you the most patience.
What you don't need to prepare
This list matters as much as the checklist. You don't need to clean your data first, seeing the mess is part of the audit. You don't need a technical spec, or an opinion on which tools to use; recommending the stack is our job, not your homework. You don't need to grant access to anything for the first call. And you don't need to be sure automation is the answer, "is this even automatable?" is a perfectly good reason to book.
What happens after the call
If the call surfaces real potential, we move to the mini-audit and come back with the delivery call: documented workflows, a recommended design, and a fixed quote to accept or decline, no pressure either way.
If it doesn't, if the volume is too low, or the process needs fixing before it needs automating, we'll say so on the call. An audit that ends with "don't automate this yet" is a successful audit; it just saved you money.
FAQ
Is the audit really free?
The 30-minute call is free, and there's no obligation at any point afterwards — you can stop at the call, or at the quote, without owing anything.
Do I need to be technical to get value from an automation audit?
No. The audit runs on your knowledge of your business, who does what, how often, and where it hurts. The technical translation is our side of the table.
What if it turns out automation isn't the right answer?
Then that's the recommendation you'll get. Some processes are too low-volume, too unstable, or too broken to automate profitably, and we'd rather tell you in 30 minutes than discover it mid-project.
