Manual attribution time calculator
Exporting platform numbers, reconciling them and building the report takes hours every week. Enter yours and see what they cost a year, and what a tool must save to pay for itself.
Result
Fill in hours a week, whole team, cost per hour, fully loaded to see the result.
How it works
The calculator turns your team's weekly hours into a yearly cost, then works out how many hours a week a tool would have to save to cover its own price.
It assumes no saving. If you enter your own estimate of the hours a tool would save, it shows what those hours are worth next to the tool's price.
hours a year = hours a week × 52 cost a year = hours a year × cost per hour cost a month = cost a year ÷ 12 hours a tool must save each week = tool price a month × 12 ÷ (52 × cost per hour) with your own estimate: value a year = hours saved a week × 52 × cost per hour net a year = value a year - 12 × tool price
What each term means
- Hours a week
- Everyone's time together: exports from each platform, reconciling their numbers with each other and the store, and building the report.
- Cost per hour
- Fully loaded: pay plus employer costs such as taxes, pension and benefits, divided by paid hours.
- 52 weeks
- An average week times 52. If the work stops in holiday weeks, lower the weekly average.
- Hours saved
- Your own estimate for the tool you are weighing up. No one else can give you this number.
Why the break-even line comes first
A saving is a forecast; the break-even is arithmetic. It turns the question around: this tool must save at least this many hours a week to pay for itself. Hold that number against a month of your own timesheets before you hold it against anyone's promise.
Worked example
Example numbers, round on purpose, not a real store:
- Hours a week, whole team
- 12
- Cost per hour, fully loaded
- €50
- Price of a tool
- €300 a month
- Hours a week it would save
- 6, your estimate
- 1Hours a year: 12 × 52 = 624
- 2Cost a year: 624 × €50 = €31,200
- 3Cost a month: €31,200 ÷ 12 = €2,600
- 4Hours the tool must save each week: €300 × 12 ÷ (52 × €50) = 1.4
- 5Value of 6 hours a week: 6 × 52 × €50 = €15,600 a year
- 6Net a year: €15,600 - 12 × €300 = €12,000
In this example the tool pays for itself if it saves 1.4 of the 12 hours a week. If the estimate of 6 hours holds, the team gets back €12,000 of time a year after the tool's price.
Frequently asked questions
How do I work out a fully loaded hourly cost?
Take what the role costs the business in a year: pay plus employer taxes, pension and benefits. Divide it by the hours that person is paid for in a year. Your finance team or payroll provider has both numbers.What counts as manual attribution work?
The hours spent exporting numbers from each ad platform and GA4, reconciling them with each other and with the store, fixing the spreadsheet, and explaining the gaps to whoever signs off the budget.How many hours will a tool save me?
Only your own reporting can say. Time a normal month of the work, then a month with the tool. The calculator never assumes a saving; its break-even line shows the least a tool has to save to cover its price.Why does the calculator use 52 weeks?
An average week times 52 is a year. If nobody does the work in holiday weeks, enter a lower weekly average so the year comes out right.Does this include the cost of acting on a wrong number?
No. It counts the time only. A budget moved on a wrong number costs something too, but that depends on your spend and is not part of this calculation.
Related tools
Next: what each channel caused, not what it claimed
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