How to run the audit (90 minutes)
Map → Pilot → Run applied to “SMB automation audit checklist”
Engagement phases for “SMB automation audit checklist”
Block time with someone who does the work — not only the manager. Fill lists honestly. Score candidates. Pick one pilot, not twelve. The goal is not a transformation roadmap. The goal is a ranked list of hours and a clear first pilot.
1. Inventory
- List recurring tasks done weekly or more (even “small” 15-minute ones add up).
- Note tools touched (email, CRM, sheets, Slack, billing, project tools).
- Mark handoffs between people or systems — handoffs are automation gold.
- Flag rework caused by missing data or inconsistent formats.
- Separate customer-visible work from internal-only work (risk differs).
- Capture “hero work” — tasks that only one person can do because the process lives in their head.
2. Score each workflow (1–5)
- Frequency — how often it runs
- Time cost — minutes per run × frequency
- Error cost — money, reputation, or delay when wrong
- Rules clarity — can a careful junior follow a written SOP?
- Tool access — APIs or exports available?
High frequency + high time + high rules clarity → automation candidate. High language/judgment needs → agent candidate. High error cost → require human approval gates. Low clarity → Map harder before you build.
3. Discovery questions (ask out loud)
- What starts this workflow (trigger)?
- What does “done” look like in one sentence?
- What exceptions happen monthly?
- Who is accountable when it fails?
- What report would prove a pilot worked?
- What would make us shut it off?
4. Build a simple scoring table
Columns: Workflow, Frequency, Minutes, Error cost (1–5), Rules clarity (1–5), Tool access (1–5), Pattern guess (automation/agent/human), Pilot candidate (Y/N). Sort by Frequency × Minutes × Rules clarity. The top of that list is where money hides.
Common hiding places
- Status updates that exist only in someone’s head
- Weekly reports assembled by copy-paste
- Onboarding checklists stalled on one missing field
- Lead routing that “usually works”
- Invoice or order exceptions handled by the same two people every time
What not to automate first
Rare, high-judgment, high-brand-risk work. Strategic negotiations. Anything without a baseline. Anything nobody will own after launch. Automating chaos scales chaos.
Team roles for the audit
- Operator — tells the truth about the work
- Owner — can change process and permissions
- Scribe — captures exceptions and tools
From audit to Map conversation
Bring your top three scored workflows, tools involved, and a rough “better looks like X in 30–60 days.” That is enough for a serious Map discussion with Kokasync Labs. We will tell you if economics justify a pilot — or if you should stay manual for now.
Want a guided Map session? Email hello@kokasync.com with your top three scored workflows.
Next reads
Scope a pilot · Pattern choice · How we work
Want this applied to your stack?
Fixed-scope pilots for AI agents and automations. Map first. Ship one real workflow. Then run it.
Field notes from delivery
Across real scoping conversations, the same failure modes show up: no baseline, no owner, no written metric, and a desire to automate everything before anything is proven. Guides like this exist to slow that impulse without killing momentum. Clarity is speed.
When you brief Kokasync Labs, bring the messy truth — screenshots, exception examples, “this is how it actually works on Tuesdays.” Polished process docs that nobody follows will produce systems nobody uses.
A 30-day action plan
- Days 1–3: Inventory the three workflows that burn the most hours.
- Days 4–7: Score them with the checklist dimensions (frequency, time, risk, clarity, access).
- Days 8–10: Choose one pattern per workflow (chatbot / automation / agent / hybrid).
- Days 11–14: Write a one-page pilot charter with a single primary metric.
- Days 15–30: Run Map with a builder (internal or Kokasync) and decide go / no-go on Pilot.
How this connects to the rest of the site
The Library goes deeper on individual concepts. Vision explains the firm we are building. How we work is the engagement contract. AI agents and Automations are the service doors. These Guides are the shared language between them.
Glossary (quick)
- Baseline — measured performance before the pilot.
- Human checkpoint — a required person on a material action.
- Kill-switch — how you stop the system quickly when quality or cost drifts.
- Run layer — ongoing operation after pilot proof.
- Fixed scope — one deliverable, one number, one timeline.
Closing
If this guide changed how you would brief the next AI conversation, it worked. If you want help turning it into a live pilot, write to hello@kokasync.com with the workflow, the tools, and what better looks like in 30–60 days.
Detailed walkthrough: from pain to pilot
Start with a pain that has a clock attached — something that burns hours every week. Write the current steps as if training a new hire. Circle every handoff and every tool. That map is more valuable than a feature wishlist.
Next, invent the metric before you invent the architecture. “Make us more efficient” is not a metric. “Cut average handle time from 18 minutes to under 8 on tier-1 requests, with human review on external sends” is a metric. If you cannot write it, you are not ready to buy models, tools, or agency time.
Then decide the pattern per step — not for the whole company. Rules-based steps become automations. Language-heavy multi-step work becomes agent work with gates. Questions become chat with escalation. Hybrid systems are adult systems.
Finally, pilot small and instrument everything. Keep a weekly sample of successes and failures. Name an owner. Write a kill-switch. Only then expand. This is how Kokasync Labs compounds craft without becoming a factory of demos.
Quality bar we hold ourselves to
- Written metric before build
- Human control on material risk
- Logs that reconstruct a bad run
- Owner after launch
- Honest no-go when economics do not work