# Find what is worth automating, with figures and sources

> Spot repetitive tasks and re-keying, estimate volumes and durations with their sources, and rank automation opportunities by gain and effort.

Source : https://tellmehow.io/en/use-cases/automation-agencies · Updated on : 2026-10-18

An automation proposal is won on volumes and durations. TellMeHow identifies repetitive tasks and re-keying role by role, estimates them with their sources, and ranks them by impact and effort.

For an automation agency, TellMeHow runs discovery interviews with the client’s employees, by voice and with sight of their screen, then identifies repetitive tasks and re-keying, estimates volumes and durations with their sources, and proposes opportunities prioritized by impact and effort. The output is neutral: no automation platform is imposed.

### What an agency sells

An automation agency sells time saved: workflows, integrations between tools, and scripts that remove a manual task. To propose the right projects, it first has to know where the time goes, which means watching people work. The client’s leadership knows the big pain points, but rarely the volumes or the detail of each task. Without those facts, the proposal rests on assumptions the client can challenge.

### What slows discovery down

#### Tasks too ordinary to mention

Copying an amount from a PDF into software, renaming files, chasing by email: actions repeated dozens of times a day rarely come up in a standard interview.

#### Volumes based on guesswork

Without frequency or time per task, the promised savings remain the agency’s estimate. The client takes longer to sign, or negotiates the scope down.

#### Costly discovery before the proposal

Interviewing every role takes days the agency struggles to bill. The temptation is to propose the most visible automation rather than the most useful one.

### From discovery to a fact-based proposal

Discovery becomes a structured step, run in parallel with everyone involved.

#### Configure the automation method

You start from the automation audit method template and add your opportunity categories (tool integration, workflow, task removal, training) and your prioritization grid.

#### Have people show their repetitive tasks

The AI interviewer asks people to describe, then show, their day-to-day tasks. It asks for frequencies and durations (“roughly how many per week?”) and confirms the key figures.

#### Estimate and prioritize

The analysis flags re-keying, pain points, and volumes, then proposes opportunities with an estimated saving in hours per month, a range, a visible calculation, and an estimated effort. An imported source can confirm or contradict participants’ estimates.

#### Deliver and price

The client receives a navigable deliverable with an impact/effort matrix, under your brand. You base your proposal on the findings and their evidence, and export opportunities as CSV or JSON.

### Example: a 60-person accounting firm

Illustrative example, not a client case.

Accounting firm, 60 employees, two offices, around 900 client files, ahead of a project to automate production work.

- Staff accountants
- Payroll team
- Administrative assistants
- Legal team

- Collecting documents from clients
- Bookkeeping and bank reconciliation
- Preparing payslips
- Chasing and corresponding with clients
- Tools and files used to track client files

- Show me how you process incoming receipts
- Show me how you track missing documents

Roughly 250 to 400 reminders for missing documents per month, sent one by one from the mailbox, according to five staff accountants.

Payroll inputs received by email are copied into the payroll software from a spreadsheet each client provides, in a different format every time.

Receipts uploaded by clients are renamed by hand before filing, taking two to three minutes per batch according to the team.

### What the agency delivers

- An inventory of repetitive tasks and re-keying, process by process.
- Estimated volumes and durations, each with its range and sources.
- An impact/effort matrix of opportunities, using your categories and scoring grid.
- A factual basis for your proposals, which the client can check finding by finding.

### Common questions from automation agencies

**Does TellMeHow require a specific automation platform?**

No. The TellMeHow output is neutral: opportunity categories come from your method, and opportunities export as CSV or JSON. You recommend the tools you know best.

**How are savings estimated?**

Each opportunity in TellMeHow carries an estimated saving in hours per month, shown as a range with the calculation visible, along with an estimated effort. It is linked to the findings that justify it, which are in turn linked to their evidence.

**Can we add quantitative data to the interviews?**

Yes. TellMeHow accepts artifacts (exports, spreadsheets) and structured imports in a documented exchange format, such as message volumes measured by another tool. The analysis compares them with participants’ estimates and can propose a follow-up when they diverge.

**Does the AI interviewer suggest solutions during the interview?**

No. By default, the TellMeHow AI interviewer does not judge, advise, or suggest solutions, so it does not steer the participant’s account. The firm’s method can change this behavior with an explicit instruction.

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- Français : https://tellmehow.io/cas-usage/agences-automatisation.md