Automating Business Processes: Which Ones First?

Why the order of automation is crucial

You want to automate — but where do you start? Accounting, customer communication, inventory management, scheduling — there’s potential everywhere. I see it with almost every client: anyone who tries to automate everything at once nearly always fails. Your resources are limited, the team has to adapt, and not every automation delivers the same value.

The answer is systematic prioritisation. With the right method you identify the processes where automation brings the greatest return on investment — and start exactly there.

The automation priority matrix

Rate each process across three dimensions, each on a scale from 1 to 5. Multiply the values together and you get a prioritisation score. You automate the processes with the highest score first.

The three dimensions of prioritisation:

• Frequency (1–5): how often is the process run? Daily = 5, weekly = 4, monthly = 3, quarterly = 2, annually = 1.
• Time per run (1–5): how long does the process take manually? Over 60 minutes = 5, 30–60 min = 4, 15–30 min = 3, 5–15 min = 2, under 5 min = 1.
• Error-proneness (1–5): how often do errors occur when handled manually? Regularly = 5, frequently = 4, occasionally = 3, rarely = 2, almost never = 1.

Top 10 processes most SMEs should automate first

These processes offer the fastest ROI in most businesses:

• 1. Invoice creation and dispatch: correct invoices are generated automatically from order or delivery data and sent by email.
• 2. Quote creation: standardised quotes from templates, filled with customer data and current prices.
• 3. Email notifications: automatic confirmations, reminders and follow-ups for orders, appointments or enquiries.
• 4. Data entry and synchronisation: data from forms, emails or documents is transferred automatically into the right system.
• 5. Scheduling and confirmation: calendar reconciliation, automatic booking confirmations, reminders before the appointment.
• 6. Receipt capture: incoming receipts are photographed, recognised by AI and posted automatically.
• 7. Customer communication: welcome emails, birthday messages, satisfaction surveys — all automated and personalised.
• 8. Reporting and dashboards: daily or weekly reports are compiled automatically from various data sources.
• 9. Inventory alerts: when stock falls below minimum levels, an order is placed automatically or purchasing is notified.
• 10. Onboarding new employees: checklists, access rights, welcome emails and training plans are created and assigned automatically.

Calculating ROI: is the automation worth it?

The ROI calculation for automation is simpler than you might think. Work out the current time spent per month on the manual process. Multiply it by the staff cost per hour (including non-wage labour costs — in Austria roughly 1.3 times gross pay). That gives you the monthly cost of the manual process. Compare it with the cost of the automation solution: one-off setup plus ongoing costs.

A concrete example: a process costs 20 hours per month manually at an hourly rate of 35 euros (including on-costs). That’s 700 euros per month, or 8,400 euros per year. The automation costs 3,000 euros as a one-off plus 50 euros per month. In the first year: 3,600 euros of cost versus 8,400 euros of savings — an ROI of 133 per cent. From the second year on, you save 7,800 euros annually.

The strategy: quick wins first

The most successful automation projects follow a clear strategy: start with quick wins. These are processes that can be automated in a few days and deliver visible results straight away. Why? Because quick wins build trust in your team. When your employees experience a tedious routine task being lifted off their shoulders, their willingness to embrace bigger changes grows. You also gather practical experience before you tackle more complex processes.

Typical quick wins with immediate effect:

• Automatic email forwarding and sorting based on sender or subject.
• Automatically creating tasks from incoming emails in your project-management tool.
• Automatic calendar synchronisation between different systems.
• Daily or weekly summaries of key figures by email or messenger.
• Automatic welcome emails to new customers with personalised content.

Common mistakes in process automation

These pitfalls are worth avoiding:

• Automating a bad process: if a process is fundamentally flawed, automation only makes it faster at being flawed. Optimise first, then automate.
• No clear responsibilities: every automation needs an owner who monitors it and steps in when errors occur.
• Missing documentation: if nobody knows how the automation works, it becomes a risk instead of a relief.
• Too much at once: start with one process, perfect it, and then scale.
• Ignoring the human factor: involve the affected employees from the very start. Automation only works with acceptance.

Automation is not a technology project — it is a change project. The technology is the easy part. Bringing people along is the real task.

Your automation roadmap with Grafenau

The question is not whether, but which processes you automate first. With the priority matrix and a clear quick-win strategy you can start right away. I support SMEs in Carinthia and across Austria from process analysis through to finished automation. Together we identify your biggest levers, implement the automation technically, and train your team to work with the new workflows. The first step is always a conversation — get in touch and find out where the greatest automation potential lies in your business.