The annual cost of manual work

Software and SaaS services are widely used in 2026 to track, run, or automate various stages of a business.

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

During meetings with our clients, we have repeatedly confirmed that while SaaS services have increased significantly over the past few years, numerous platforms create a modern-day problem: moving information between automated systems may require an additional step of manual work.

Not all services used by companies come from a single provider, and may not directly support data transfer between each other. Sometimes, off-the-shelf software may lack a single step of automation, resulting in an unnecessary manual step or similar issues. That’s why it’s still very common for employees to copy information, move it between tools, and check things manually at each step.

In practice, copying and pasting between different systems with Ctrl+C and Crtl+V is easy. Each step may take seconds, and maybe just a few minutes in a daily total. Exporting Excel files and converting them to other formats for different platforms is also common, though it may be a bit more complex in some cases.

But when you combine all those steps taken by many employees over a year, the numbers start to get serious.

Below, you can count an estimation of your company’s costs for manual work annually.

This calculation is just a simple example and does not take into account all variables. The reality is often a more complex combination of multiple steps, sometimes involving both software and hardware. In those cases, the time spent on manual steps might exceed the time per person / working day, and the annual total continues to rise.

Work smarter

At kood/Sisu, we think the solution to the problem isn’t making people work more or faster. It’s removing all unnecessary, repetitive manual steps where human input isn’t necessarily needed. Those steps can be connected or automated into a single, complete workflow that involves internal systems or SaaS services. By eliminating manual stages, the process becomes smoother for employees, freeing up time for tasks that require human involvement and expertise.

This is also one of the most common things we have solved for our clients at kood/Sisu already. That’s why we believe this will be one area where the future junior software developers can shine and show their value for companies, like they already do with us – ability to handle coding, API calls, backend and commands between various platforms, combining them into one automated AI-enriched processes, while understanding the business and value the client is looking for – those might be the actual keys for a success in the development field in the future.