The honest cost of a Bottleneck Audit — what $2,500 actually buys

Every prospect asks the same thing within the first ten minutes: "what's it cost?" Fair question. Most consultancies dodge it. We don't.

Our Bottleneck Audit starts at $2,500 CAD. One week, fixed fee — 50% deposit, 50% on completion, no hourly clocks. It's a fast, focused read on how your business actually runs: we find the three things quietly costing you the most hours and hand you exactly what to do about them. This post is what that buys, where the time goes, what's not included, and how to know if it's the right first move.

If by the end you decide it isn't a fit, that's also a win — for both of us.

What the number actually represents

A Bottleneck Audit is one focused week of outside attention on how your operations run. The deliverable is a one-page action plan — a prioritized fix list — plus a 60-minute findings readout.

Underneath, the time breaks down roughly like this:

Phase	Hours	What happens
Kickoff	2–3	Working session to map how the business runs today, with you and key operators
Workflow + time-sink audit	5–7	Walkthroughs of the 2–3 workflows that feel most painful — where the hours actually go
Bottleneck mapping	4–5	Where work stalls, repeats, or falls through the cracks; root causes, not symptoms
Prioritization	3–4	Quick wins vs. higher-leverage automation, with rough effort + payback per opportunity
Readout & action plan	3–4	One-page plan (PDF + editable doc), 60-minute readout, one revision round
Total	17–23 hours	One senior operator, focused

Math check: at $2,500 against ~20 hours of senior time, the implied hourly is roughly $125. A Big Four consultant bills $400–$700 for comparable diagnostic work; a boutique senior typically lands $250–$400. We price the Audit deliberately low — it's the low-commitment front door, not a flagship engagement. Most clients who run one go on to an Automation Build; that's where the math works for us. We're trading the hourly rate for the right to that next conversation.

What's in the box at the end

Every Audit client gets the same deliverables, every time:

1. Bottleneck map — where work stalls, repeats, or falls through the cracks, with root causes named.
2. Prioritized fix list — quick wins you can ship this month vs. higher-leverage automation plays worth investing in. Ranked.
3. Effort + payback estimates — rough but honest, for each opportunity. Actual hours and dollars, not vague "synergies."
4. One-page action plan — PDF plus an editable doc, built to be read in 90 seconds and shared with your team.
5. 60-minute findings readout — your team, in a room or on Zoom. Q&A built in.
6. One revision round on the action plan.

The plan is yours. Hand it to your in-house team, hand it to another consultant, or come back to us for the build. It stands on its own.

Where the time actually goes

The single biggest driver is the workflow walkthroughs. We watch the 2–3 processes that feel most painful, with the people who actually run them. This always — always — surfaces undocumented steps and rework the owner didn't know existed. That alone is often worth the fee.

Bottleneck mapping is second. Most teams can list what feels slow; almost none can say where the hours truly leak, or why. Getting that right is the difference between automating the thing that pays back in weeks and the one that takes months and never lands.

What's NOT included

Pricing transparency means being clear about boundaries. A Bottleneck Audit does not include:

• Implementing the fixes. The Audit tells you what to build and why; building it is the next engagement (an Automation Build, typically $20,000+). The Audit is the on-ramp, not the build.
• Custom software development. Out of scope.
• A deep analysis of your full data warehouse. We do a working-level operations audit, not a data deep-dive.
• Ongoing consulting beyond the readout. The readout and one revision round are included. Ongoing advisory is a different engagement (the Operator Retainer).

We're rigid about scope on purpose. Open-ended scope is how fixed fees turn into hourly clocks, and hourly clocks are how clients feel surprised by invoices.

When it's the wrong move

The Audit is the wrong move if:

• You already know exactly which workflow to automate and just want it built. Skip the Audit and scope a Build directly.
• You can't free up a 60-minute kickoff and a couple of workflow walkthroughs. The Audit is collaborative — we can't run it solo against your business.
• You want a 100-page report. The action plan is one page and useful, not exhaustive.

What it pays back

• Avoided cost from automating the wrong thing. The most common outcome — quietly the most valuable. Most teams have an "obvious" first automation that turns out to be the wrong one once the time is actually measured. Avoiding a $30,000 misadventure is worth $2,500 every time.
• Identified quick wins. Most Audits surface one or two things you can fix this week with no consultant — usually a template or a simple automation worth a few hours a week.
• A defensible plan. Your leadership team gets a real, prioritized document, not a vibes-based pitch. That changes the budget conversation entirely.
• A pricing anchor for any future build. Even if you go in-house or to another shop, you have honest effort and cost estimates to negotiate against.

How to decide

If too much of your business runs on manual effort and you want a fast, clear read on where the time goes and what to fix first — the Audit is almost always the right first step.

If you've already identified the specific workflow you want automated and just want it built, jump straight to a Build and skip the Audit.

How to start

The first move is a short conversation. No deck, no pitch, no commitment. We ask what you're trying to move; you ask whatever you need. If we're clearly the wrong fit, we'll tell you. If we're clearly the right fit, we'll send a one-page scope and a fixed quote.

Book an audit here. The longer you wait, the more those manual workflows quietly cost you.