Questions

What can a small business automate?

A small business can automate any task that repeats the same way and involves moving data between two systems. In practice that means: pushing orders to the courier, issuing and entering invoices, daily reports, replying to routine enquiries, and customer reminders.

The most commonly automated tasks:

1. Order → shipping label. Saves 2–4 minutes per order. At 900 orders a month, that's around 50 hours.
2. Invoice → accounting system. Saves 4–6 minutes per invoice.
3. The daily report. Saves 20–60 minutes a day.
4. Replying to enquiries. Saves few hours, but prevents lost customers.
5. Tracking payments and returns.

What isn't worth automating: tasks that happen a few times a month; processes that keep changing; judgements that need context nobody has written down.

The rule is simple: if a task takes under 5 hours a month, automating it almost never pays back.

How much does business process automation cost?

In Bulgaria, automating a single process costs between €1,500 and €8,000 one-off, plus €200–€900 a month for support. One clearly defined process — pushing orders to a courier, say — is around €2,500 and takes two weeks.

On top of that: hosting and third-party services, typically €20–€80 a month.

Be wary of two kinds of quote: those without a fixed price (you're paying for the supplier's uncertainty) and those without ongoing support (the automation will stop, and nobody will notice).

Funding: Bulgaria's “Digitalisation of Enterprises” programme covers up to 70% of the investment for eligible companies.

When does automation pay for itself?

Automation pays for itself when the time it saves is worth more than it costs. The maths:

(hours saved per month × hourly cost) ÷ project price = months to payback

Example: 900 orders a month × 4 minutes = 60 hours. At €9/hour that's €540 a month. A €2,500 project pays back in about 4.6 months.

When it doesn't pay back:

• Under ~500 orders a month
• The task takes under 5 hours a month
• The process changes more often than it repeats

A sensible limit: if payback is beyond 9 months, don't do it. Not because the arithmetic is wrong, but because in nine months your business will have changed enough to make the solution the wrong one.

And don't forget the second number: errors. One wrong shipping label costs a return, a reshipment, and sometimes the customer. That rarely makes it into the calculation — and it's often bigger than the hours saved.

Run your own numbers

Can spreadsheet processes be automated?

Yes — and in most cases the spreadsheet doesn't need to go anywhere. The problem is rarely Excel itself. The problem is that someone is filling it in by hand.

Three options, cheapest first:

1. The spreadsheet stays, but fills itself. Data flows in automatically from the shop, the accounts and the courier. The file, the formulas and your team's habits stay exactly as they are. Fastest and cheapest — usually €1,500–€2,500.
2. The spreadsheet is replaced by an automatic report. It arrives by email every morning. Nobody opens a file.
3. The spreadsheet is replaced by a system. Only when several people write to one file at once, when history matters, or when the file has quietly become a database pretending to be a table.

When a spreadsheet is a genuine risk: when only one person understands how it works. That isn't a technical problem, it's an operational one — and it's the single most common reason people call us.

Is company data safe when using AI?

It depends entirely on how it's built. Your data is safe if the supplier uses a business agreement with the language model (one where your data isn't used for training), processes only the minimum necessary, and has a signed data processing agreement with you.

What to ask any supplier before signing:

1. Is my information used to train the model? The answer must be no, and it must be in the contract, not in an email.
2. Where is the data processed? EU or US, and on what legal basis.
3. What exactly leaves my system? The whole invoice, or only the fields you need?
4. Is there a signed DPA? If the supplier doesn't know what that is, you have your answer.
5. What happens in a breach? Who notifies whom, and how quickly.

A practical rule: your customers' personal data — names, addresses, phone numbers — shouldn't pass through a language model unless the task genuinely requires it. For most tasks it doesn't. A shipping label needs a plain integration, not AI.

From August 2026, the EU AI Act requires you to tell people when they're dealing with an AI rather than a person. If your supplier hasn't heard of this, find another supplier.

Which processes should NOT be automated?

Don't automate a process that isn't stable, doesn't repeat, or is fundamentally broken. Automation makes a process faster — including when the process is wrong.

The only honest question: if this process stopped entirely tomorrow, what exactly would break? If the answer is “nothing” — don't automate it. Stop doing it.