Cost Tracking
Track exactly what automations cost and save with detailed ROI calculations
See exactly what your automations cost to run and how much they save your business with transparent ROI tracking.
What It Does
Cost Tracking Dashboard shows you the complete financial picture of your automations. Track how much AI you're using, what each task costs to run (down to fractions of a penny), how long tasks take, how much time your team saves, and your net ROI (savings minus costs). Every number is real data from your actual executions, not estimates.
Why It Matters
40 percent of small businesses cite cost concerns as a barrier to AI adoption. The fear isn't just about the price - it's about not knowing if AI actually saves money or just creates a new expense. Cost Tracking solves this by proving value with real numbers.
You see exactly what each automation costs per execution, compare that to the labor cost it replaces, and calculate net savings. When automations deliver ROI, you have data to justify expanding. When they don't, you have data to optimize or discontinue.
Business Impact
Make data-driven decisions about automation investment. Instead of guessing whether a process is worth automating, see the actual cost (AI execution) versus actual savings (time saved times hourly rate). Typical customers find 70 percent of automations deliver 3-5x ROI, 20 percent break even, and 10 percent cost more than they save (candidates for optimization or removal).
How It Works
Track Every Execution
Each time an automation runs, the platform records start time, end time, and all AI API calls made.
Calculate AI Costs
For each API call (GPT-4, Claude, etc.), multiply tokens used by model price to get exact cost.
Measure Time Saved
Compare automation execution time to estimated manual completion time based on your process benchmarks.
Calculate Labor Savings
Multiply time saved by your team's hourly labor cost to get dollar value of savings.
Show Net ROI
Display monthly costs, monthly savings, and net ROI (savings minus costs) with trend analysis.
Break Down by Task
See costs and savings per automation type (proposals vs reports vs lead enrichment) to identify best performers.
Use Cases
Common Questions
How accurate is the cost tracking?
Extremely accurate for AI costs (down to fraction of a penny per API call based on exact token counts). Time savings accuracy depends on your manual process benchmarks - we use the times you provide during implementation as baseline. Over time, you can refine benchmarks as you measure actual manual execution for comparison.
Does the dashboard show cost breakdowns by task type?
Yes. You can filter by automation type (proposals, reports, lead enrichment), date range (daily, weekly, monthly), execution status (successful, failed, pending approval), and cost/savings thresholds. Export data to spreadsheet for deeper analysis if needed.
What if automation costs more than it saves?
Dashboard highlights negative ROI automations in red for immediate attention. Common causes: automation doing too much work (over-engineered), using expensive AI model for simple task (optimization opportunity), or manual process benchmark inaccurate (re-measure baseline). We help investigate and either optimize to profitability or recommend discontinuing if fundamentally not a good fit for automation.
Last Updated: 2025-10-26