Are you actually ready to automate? One of the answers is no.

The scorecard

The four stages, and what to do at each

The score maps onto four states. They are not a funnel — most businesses sit at stage 2, and stage 2 has the cheapest fix on the list.

1. Stage 1Not yet The process still changes month to month, or it exists only in one person’s head. Automating now encodes the problem. Write it on one page, run it that way for a month, and note where reality differed. The full list of what not to automate covers why this one matters most.
2. Stage 2Foundations in place, joins missing Real systems, stable process, and somebody re-typing between them. This is where most Australian SMBs sit and it is the cheapest thing to fix — usually one connector, not new software. It is also most of what we build.
3. Stage 3Ready, with a decision to make The question is no longer "are we ready" but "buy, connect, or build". The framework settles it in about an hour, and the answer is usually buy-then-connect.
4. Stage 4Ready, and leaking now Everything is in place and the volume is there, so the manual work has a running cost. Count it on one real job before you talk to anyone — it is the number that makes every subsequent conversation shorter.

What the twelve questions are actually testing

Four things, three questions each, though they are not grouped that way on screen because grouping them makes people answer the group rather than the question.

• Do real systems exist?Accounting software, a job or CRM system, and whether those two talk. If the answer to the third is no, that gap is usually the entire opportunity.
• Is the process stable and legible?Same steps as six months ago, runnable from written instructions, and someone knows the admin hours. Automating an unstable process makes it worse faster.
• Can a decision be made?One person who can sign, a team willing to change how they work, and a budget that clears the minimum. Committees turn two-week increments into four-week ones without adding software.
• Do the sums work?Weekly frequency, errors you would notice, and a repeated task rather than a one-off. Frequency is what makes automation pay; judgement is what makes it hard.

Nothing in there is about how enthusiastic you are, which is deliberate. Enthusiasm is not a readiness signal — it is the thing that gets projects started before they should be.

What this tool can’t tell you

Whether it is worth it. Twelve yes/no/partly answers can establish that automation is possible and roughly how much groundwork is missing. They cannot tell you what the manual work currently costs you, and that number is the one that decides whether any of this is a good idea.

That takes counting, on one real job, start to finish. Nobody can do it from a questionnaire — including us, which is why the Leak Check is a conversation about a specific job rather than a longer version of this form.

Why there’s no email gate on this

Because a scorecard that demands an email before showing the result is a lead form wearing a tool’s clothes, and you would be right to distrust the scoring. Nothing here is transmitted: open your network tab and check.

The trade is that we do not know you ran it. If the result is useful and you want the twenty minutes, the Leak Check is free and about 40% of them end without a proposal — a number we publish for the same reason this tool has no gate.