Insights · Owners and finance leaders
What Does a Workflow Automation Project Cost for a Mid-Sized Company?
What business process automation costs for a $20–50M company, what drives the price, and how Trie Technologies prices an audit, a pilot and ongoing support.
In short. For a mid-sized company, a sensible automation project starts small and fixed-price: an audit to find what is worth automating, then a pilot on one process. At Trie Technologies that is $4,500 for a 1–2 week process audit, $12,000–$20,000 for a 4–6 week pilot, and $3,000–$6,000 per month for ongoing support.
"How much does automation cost?" is usually the first question, and the honest answer is that it depends on the process. But it should not be a mystery, and you should know the number before you commit.
What drives the cost
- How many systems are involved. Reading an emailed invoice and drafting a bill in one accounting system is simpler than a flow that touches email, an ERP and a warehouse system.
- How varied the inputs are. Ten customers with similar PDFs is easier than two hundred with handwritten notes and scans.
- How your systems accept data. A clean import or connection keeps cost down; systems with no way in take more work.
- How many exceptions need rules. The common path is usually quick to automate. The edge cases are where the time goes.
- How much review you want. Most clients want a person approving anything that matters, and that review step has to be designed well.
How we price it
We use three fixed starting points, so the cost is clear up front:
- Process audit: $4,500, fixed price, 1–2 weeks. We sit with your team, map where time goes, and hand you a ranked list of what to automate, with a rough cost and payoff for each. Most companies start here.
- Pilot build: $12,000–$20,000, fixed scope, 4–6 weeks. We build the best candidate inside your existing systems. Your team uses it on real work, and we measure the time it saves.
- Ongoing support: $3,000–$6,000 per month. We keep it working, handle edge cases, and add the next process when you are ready.
You own what we build.
How to judge whether it is worth it
Compare the price with the hours the process takes today. Count the people involved, the hours each spends per week, and what errors and delays cost you. The audit exists to do this math with you, process by process, before you spend on a build. If the numbers do not work, we will say so.
What to look at first
- List the three most repetitive tasks in your finance or operations team.
- Estimate the hours per week each one takes, and who does it.
- Note which systems each task touches.
- Write down what goes wrong today: late entries, duplicates, missed changes.
- Decide who on your team would review the automated drafts.
If you want to know what automating one of your processes would cost, we are glad to talk it through. Book a free 20-minute call. No pitch; if it is not a fit, we will say so.