// Free tool

If AI takes over a task, do you have paid work for the people who do it now?

A free worksheet for an owner or leader looking at one office task, such as billing, scheduling or client reports. Use it before you buy an AI tool for that task or tell your team anything. You enter how many hours the task takes now, how many AI might free up, and what useful work is waiting for the people who do it. Where you have to guess, the page gives you a starting number to change. Expect this to take about 10 minutes.

The numbers already in it are an invented example engineering firm, marked example. Not your numbers to hand? Ask the manager or controller who runs the task to fill it in with you.

Hours your team spends on the task

Pick one task, such as billing, reconciliations or client reports. Use a typical week averaged over the year. If several people spend part of their week on it, use their average. Worried about the whole team? Run the test once for each task.

People who do it

example

Hours a week each spends on this task

example

Hours in a full working week at your firm

Used to show spare hours as full-time weeks of work

Hours a week on the task, all of them together

Hours people will still spend on the task with AI

Running the AI, checking its work and handling the cases it cannot do. Nobody knows this until they try the AI on last month's work for this task. To measure it, run about 30 real items from last month through the AI and time how long someone takes to check and fix them. Until then, pick the closest kind of work for a starting guess. These are rough starting points we chose, and no study backs them. Replace them once you have tried it.

Simple internal work, like data entry or filing: people still spend about 20% of today's hours Routine work with a quick check, like most billing: people still spend about 30% Judgement calls, or work where mistakes cost money: people still spend about 50%

Hours a week, all of them together

Hours a week AI frees up

Useful work waiting for those hours, every week

Count work that is not getting done today and that the people who do this task now could learn. Freed time can go to three kinds of work: catch up, get ahead and do new things. Leave out anything already counted in section 01. Type 0 in any box that does not fit your firm; the example numbers stay in until you change them.

Catch up

Work you already do that is behind or done in a rush. Freed hours let people do it sooner and do it properly.

Chasing clients who pay late

Clients 30 to 90 days late in a typical month

example

Your accounting software's report of unpaid invoices by age

Minutes a week chasing each late client

guess

Billing extras: changes, added services, parts or time left off an invoice

Jobs a week with changes or extras to bill

example

Minutes to track and bill the extras on each job

guess

Following up proposals and quotes, if your staff can make the call

Proposals or quotes sent in a typical month

example

Minutes of follow-up for each proposal or quote

guess

Admin your managers would hand over, such as project coordination

Hours a week of admin your managers would hand to the people who do this task now

example

Keeping job files current, booking meetings, tracking deadlines, chasing documents. Count it only if your managers have better work for the time it frees.

Client check-ins after a job closes

Hours a week of check-in calls and emails nobody has time for now

For example, 10 closed jobs a month at a quarter of an hour each is about half an hour a week

Get ahead

Work you always meant to do but never had the people for.

The “we should really” list

Hours a week of work you keep meaning to start

Welcome packs for new clients, renewal reminders, client surveys, writing down how jobs are done, tidying shared files

Client work you turned away or kept putting off

Hours a week of client work your staff could learn to do, that you could sell

example

Think of work you turned away or delayed last year, then divide its hours by 52

Do new things

Work that used to need a specialist, an agency or a new hire. Think of client reports, dashboards, design, research, simple tools or a new service.

New work someone has already tried with AI

Hours a week of new work that has worked in a trial

Leave it blank until someone has tried it with AI and it works. Until then, treat it as a bonus and plan without it.

Not sure what else they could do?

Ask each manager what they would hand over tomorrow, and look back at the work you turned down last year.

Our article on freed time covers where it can go (catch up, get ahead, do new things) and how people grow into new work.

Hours a week of useful work waiting

One-off catch-up work

Invoices more than 90 days old, and past work that was never billed. It gives people something to do for a while, so it buys time. It ends, so it does not count in section 03.

Total hours to clear it all

example

For example, number of old invoices times half an hour each

Hiring and people leaving

Optional. Spare hours do not have to mean anyone loses their job. If you planned to hire for this task in the next year, or someone has told you they plan to leave, the spare hours can take on that work instead. Until that happens, plan as if those hours still have no work.

Full-time people you planned to hire for this task

Staff on this task who have told you they plan to leave

Count only what people told you without being asked. Plans can change, so treat this as a maybe. Don't ask anyone about retirement plans: it can feel like pressure to leave.

These numbers are rough and could worry your staff. Decide what you will try first, then tell the team promptly.

Read next. Our article on freed time covers where it can go (catch up, get ahead, do new things) and how people grow into new work. It is useful whether or not you do the test.

What to do with the answer. Do the test before you promise your staff anything, and try the AI on last month's work for this task before you trust section 02. For the bigger picture, read What AI means for your staff depends on when you start.

If you want a second pair of eyes, book a free 30-minute call with Chase Bernier, who runs Sidekick, to go through your numbers with you.

This is general information for planning. It is not legal, HR or financial advice. Changes to anyone's pay, hours or duties have legal rules that depend on where your staff work; check them before anything changes. Treat this as a rough test. It counts hours. It does not count what the AI costs, or whether the new work earns what those hours cost; your bookkeeper can help with that. It also leaves out what your people want to do, which is the conversation to have next.