What is the Evolve Workflow Audit?
A fixed-fee engagement that answers one question properly: where does your team’s week actually go, and what is it costing you. Every member of staff in scope documents their own repeating work, so the picture is a census rather than a sample. You end up with two things. The first is full documentation of every process in the business, department by department, which most companies have never had in one place and which keeps its value whether or not you automate anything. The second is the same work turned into annual hours and cost, ranked by what is worth automating first. You can buy it on its own, and it also runs at the front of every AI automation, agentic AI, and bespoke software project we deliver.
Most failed AI projects fail in the first two weeks of choices
Picking the wrong workflow, missing a compliance dependency, or underestimating the change effort is far more expensive than any technical mistake that comes later. By the time the build team is involved, the difficult decisions have already been made.
The Workflow Audit is the safeguard. We do the observation work that is almost always skipped, sitting with your people, watching the routines, mapping the actual flow of work, before any model is selected, any code is written, or any platform decision is made.
The output is the document the engagement is then planned and priced from. It is also the artefact that, on its own, often pays for itself: clients describe the experience as the only consultancy meeting where they left with a clearer picture of their own business than when they walked in.
The four phases
The Workflow Audit covers four observable phases. The underlying tooling that drives them is proprietary and remains so. What clients see is the output of each phase.
Listen
Everyone in scope, not just the managers describing the work and not a sample of the team. Each person documents the routines that consume their week, the workarounds they have built, and the moments they describe as “the bit that always slows us down”, with the time and frequency attached. Fifteen to thirty minutes each, in their own words, whenever suits them.
Map
We build an explicit picture of each priority workflow, how it moves across people, systems, and decisions. Hand-offs, exceptions, decision gates, and the data each step actually produces or consumes. Drawn from observation, not from a process diagram somebody wrote three years ago.
Score
Every candidate opportunity is evaluated against a consistent rubric. Business impact, technical feasibility, regulatory risk, change-management cost, time to value. The same lens applied to every option, so prioritisation is defensible rather than political.
Sequence
A phased roadmap that makes the order of work obvious. Quick wins to build confidence and free capacity, foundational investments in data and platform where needed, strategic plays scheduled once the foundations exist. The sequencing reflects your appetite for change, not a generic playbook.
What you walk away with
Concrete, board-ready deliverables, not a slide deck of generic recommendations. Every output is designed so your leadership team can make informed decisions about where to invest.
Every process, department by department
A complete written record of what your business actually does all week, grouped by department and searchable across all of them. Most companies have never had this in one place. It is worth keeping whether or not you automate a single thing.
Ranked opportunity register
Every process captured with its annual hours and cost, then ranked. Where several people described the same job the total is corrected, and both figures are shown so the adjustment is visible rather than assumed.
The money, stated three ways
What the repeating work costs a year, how much of that is addressable once feasibility is taken into account, and a realistically recoverable range. Plus what the whole thing amounts to in full-time equivalents.
Tiered by how much person it needs
Every process sorted into work that can run with nobody involved, work where AI does it and a person checks, and work that genuinely needs a person throughout. Hours and addressable cost against each.
Where to start, not just what is big
Every process placed on a pain against feasibility map, and a recommended sequence with dependencies. The biggest number is rarely the right first move, and the map is what shows you why.
Systems and software register
Which platforms actually consume the time across the business, what the subscriptions cost a year, and how much of that spend sits against work that could be automated. Drawn from what your people named, not from a licence list.
Board-ready, and auditable
A summary a non-technical leadership team can decide from, the whole dataset as a PDF and a spreadsheet, and a stated data-quality position: who did not respond and what the total therefore excludes. Steps touching personal data are flagged at capture and redacted by default.
The data itself, not a locked dashboard
Everything exports as a spreadsheet whenever you want it. Take it to your own IT team, to your software supplier, to another agency, or to us. Nothing is held back to make the next phase conditional on using Evolve, and the register is scoped and priced from the same document whoever does the work.
See a real one
Two figures from the sample report. Northgate Logistics is a fictional company, so nothing is redacted: 18 people across four departments, 14,747 hours a year of repeating work costing £357,158, and the reasoning behind every number.
A handful of processes carry most of the cost
Six of 21 processes account for 72% of the annual cost. That is what makes the sequencing obvious.
View as a table
| Process | Hours a year | Cost a year |
|---|---|---|
| Chasing delivery paperwork | 2,500 h | £60,000 |
| Daily route planning | 2,250 h | £54,000 |
| Driver debrief and defects | 2,200 h | £52,800 |
| Answering "where is it?" | 1,688 h | £38,813 |
| Damage and shortage claims | 1,125 h | £25,875 |
| Booking timed deliveries | 1,050 h | £24,150 |
Almost none of it truly needs a person throughout
Only 1% of the hours genuinely need a person start to finish. Most of the rest is work a person would check rather than do.
- Runs without a person16%
- AI does it, a person checks83%
- Needs a person throughout1%
View as a table
| Kind of work | Processes | Hours a year | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Runs without a person | 6 | 2,315 h | 16% |
| AI does it, a person checks | 14 | 12,313 h | 83% |
| Needs a person throughout | 1 | 120 h | 1% |
The full report runs to nineteen pages: every process costed, a pain against feasibility map, the software register, and a recommended sequence. Tell us where to send it.
Which one do you need?
Two engagements, two different questions. Most firms start with the audit. Regulated firms that need to satisfy a board or a regulator add the assessment on top of it.
Workflow Audit
Where does the time go, and what is it worth? A census of the repeating work across your business, priced in pounds, with a ranked view of what to automate first. Fixed fee, about three weeks, and you keep the report whatever you decide to do next.
Scope an auditAI Readiness Assessment
Can we run this safely? Data quality, systems, infrastructure, and the governance work needed before anything touches client data or a regulated decision. The judgements an audit cannot make for you. Built on top of an audit, for FCA, SRA, ICO and NHS contexts.
Learn moreIt also runs at the front of every build
Bought on its own, the audit is a decision document. Bought ahead of a build, it becomes the brief. Either way we will not pick the technology before we know where the time goes.
AI Automation
Every AI automation engagement opens with an audit, so the thing we automate is the thing that actually costs you money.
Learn moreAgentic AI
For agentic work the audit is non-negotiable. Pointing an autonomous system at the wrong workflow costs far more than looking first.
Learn moreBespoke software builds
The audit becomes the implementation brief, so the build team works from what your people actually do rather than a written specification.
Learn moreFrequently asked questions
What is the Evolve Workflow Audit?
A fixed-fee audit of the work that repeats. Every member of staff in scope documents their own routines, so you get a census rather than a sample. We turn that into annual hours and cost per process, correct for the same job being described by several people, and rank what is worth automating first.
How long does a Workflow Audit take?
About three weeks from launch to report. Each person spends 15 to 30 minutes documenting their own routines, at a time that suits them, and can come back to it. Nobody has to sit in a workshop or fill in a spreadsheet.
How is the Workflow Audit different from an AI Readiness Assessment?
They answer different questions. The audit answers where the time goes, what it costs, and what to automate first. The assessment answers whether you can run it safely, covering data quality, infrastructure, and governance. Most firms start with the audit; regulated firms that need a board paper add the assessment on top.
What do we get at the end of the Workflow Audit?
Full documentation of every process in the business, department by department, with the time each takes and the systems it touches. On top of that, a prioritised opportunity register, recommended sequencing with realistic timelines, and compliance and governance notes for any opportunity touching client data or regulated decisions. Yours to keep, whatever you decide to do next.
Do we own the data from the Workflow Audit, and can we use it without Evolve?
Yes to both. The register and the underlying data are yours, and export as a spreadsheet whenever you want. Take them to your own IT team, your software supplier, another agency, or us. Nothing is held back to make a second phase conditional on using Evolve, and anyone can scope and price the work from the same document. If the audit says the return is not there, we will tell you that and you will still have documentation worth having.
Will the audit disrupt our day-to-day operations?
No. Nobody has to be taken off the floor for a workshop. Each person documents their routines in their own time, in 15 to 30 minutes, and the analysis happens on our side once the responses are in.
How do you avoid counting the same work twice?
Deliberately and visibly. When several people describe the same process, adding their hours together would inflate the finding, sometimes by a factor of three. We detect the overlap, adjust for it, and show you both the raw total and the corrected one so you can see exactly what was taken out and why. A number you cannot interrogate is not worth having.
Is the underlying methodology proprietary?
Yes. The tooling and frameworks that drive the audit are proprietary to Evolve. What clients see is the output: a sharp, defensible, and immediately actionable view of where to invest.
Start with a Workflow Audit
Most engagements begin here. Book an initial alignment call and we will scope a Workflow Audit shaped to the size of your business and the departments you most want to understand.