Time and money by industry: work out what a role earns you

Every industry has its own work that keeps coming back and is never urgent. The sum that goes with it is the same for everyone; only the figures differ.

The sum

Take the monthly price of a role. Divide it by what an hour of your time is normally worth. The answer is the number of hours per month the role has to free up to earn back its own cost.

Then fill in how many minutes a single task costs you. Fifteen minutes is a reasonable assumption for a quote, a follow-up email or a status update, but use your own number. Multiply that by the number of tasks included in the role. That is the work you can hand over, on paper. In practice you will use some of those tasks.

An example with an assumption: if a task costs you fifteen minutes, then 45 tasks come to roughly eleven hours of work. That is not a measured saving; it is the room in which a role fits.

By industry

Web shop. The same questions about parcels, returns and sizes. Customer service, 229 euros per month with 100 tasks.

Construction and renovation. Clients ask how things are going, schedules shift, suppliers need to be called. Planner, 129 euros per month with 40 tasks.

Administration and bookkeeping. Receipts, invoices and tax returns with deadlines. Administrative assistant, 99 euros per month with 45 tasks. Tax return assistant, 199 euros with 20 tasks. Bookkeeping support, 249 euros with 25 tasks.

Associations. Membership changes, the general meeting, mail from the umbrella organisation and the grants calendar. Association secretary, 99 euros per month with 40 tasks.

Veterinary clinic. Cost estimates, aftercare instructions and vaccination reminders. Veterinary clinic assistant, 149 euros per month with 40 tasks.

All amounts exclude VAT.

What you need to know

Every task waits for your approval before anything goes out. That takes time, and that time belongs in the sum: approving a task takes minutes, not zero. Stilops has no customer cases yet, so you won't find a saving here that anyone has actually achieved. You will find a sum that lets you see for yourself whether a role fits your situation.

Start with the test run of a single task. Then you are calculating with what you have seen yourself.

Which task stays on your desk the longest?