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Free resource · worksheet

Map the manual work before automating it.

CloudWarrior automation map · cloudwarrior.io/automation-map/

A worksheet for the tasks that come back every week: where the data comes from, who owns it, what breaks and where to start. Fill it in the browser or on paper, with no account and no entries sent to a server.

Fill in the sheet
Talk about automation
  • No account, no email
  • Entries not sent to a server
  • Printable and PDF-ready

How to use the map

The map does not calculate savings and does not grade the team. It shows which tasks are worth sorting out first and what needs to be found out before anything is automated.

  1. Collect the tasks from one week

    Note the work someone does by hand and repeats: copying data between systems, exports, retyping emails, reports. Do not judge them yet.

  2. Describe one task per block

    Fill in the fields from trigger to errors. If you do not know something, write “not sure”. That is information too, because it shows what needs checking.

  3. Set priority by consequence

    High priority goes to tasks where an error or a delay reaches customers, money, deadlines or regulation. Being tedious alone does not make a task a priority.

  4. Choose one small step

    For high-priority tasks, name the smallest change whose effect can be checked. Decisions and exceptions stay with people.

A filled example

An invented services company and one task. The data is illustrative and does not describe any client.

Task: the weekly sales report

Task
Weekly sales report for the management team
Trigger and frequency
Every Monday morning, started by hand
Owner
One person in sales; the head of sales approves the report
Input: systems and data
CSV export from the online shop, invoice sheet from accounting, list of returns from customer service
Output: systems and data
Summary spreadsheet emailed to the management team
Errors and exceptions
Returns get missed, exchange rates are typed in by hand, the report is late when the person is on leave
Effort
About 3 hours every Monday, one person
Priority
High
First small step
Automation prepares, a person approves

Why this first step

First, the three exports are merged into one sheet automatically. The person in sales checks totals and returns before sending, and exchange rates come from one source instead of manual entry.

Your sheet

One block is one task. Three blocks are enough to start, and the button adds more. You do not need to fill in every field.

To print the sheet or save a PDF, use your browser’s print command (Ctrl+P or Cmd+P).

Task 1

The name the team uses, for example “invoices from email orders”.

What starts the task and how often: daily, after every order, at month end.

The person or role who does it today and can approve a change.

Where the data comes from: a system, file, inbox or form, and in what format.

Where the result goes and who uses it next.

What goes wrong, what needs a human decision, and how anyone notices a failure.

Rough time per run and how many people. A description, not a quote.

High when an error or delay reaches customers, money, deadlines or regulation.

The smallest change whose effect can be checked before larger work.

Task 2

The name the team uses, for example “invoices from email orders”.

What starts the task and how often: daily, after every order, at month end.

The person or role who does it today and can approve a change.

Where the data comes from: a system, file, inbox or form, and in what format.

Where the result goes and who uses it next.

What goes wrong, what needs a human decision, and how anyone notices a failure.

Rough time per run and how many people. A description, not a quote.

High when an error or delay reaches customers, money, deadlines or regulation.

The smallest change whose effect can be checked before larger work.

Task 3

The name the team uses, for example “invoices from email orders”.

What starts the task and how often: daily, after every order, at month end.

The person or role who does it today and can approve a change.

Where the data comes from: a system, file, inbox or form, and in what format.

Where the result goes and who uses it next.

What goes wrong, what needs a human decision, and how anyone notices a failure.

Rough time per run and how many people. A description, not a quote.

High when an error or delay reaches customers, money, deadlines or regulation.

The smallest change whose effect can be checked before larger work.

How to read a filled map

  • Start with one task

    Pick a high-priority task with a clear owner. Several automations started in parallel are hard to check and hard to maintain.

  • No owner is the first finding

    If nobody is accountable for a task, automating it moves the problem somewhere else. Agree first who approves the result.

  • Errors show where a person is needed

    Exceptions and decisions from the errors field stay with people. The automation prepares the data and raises the problem instead of hiding it.

  • Do not count savings yet

    The map shows where time goes and where errors start. Cost and benefit can only be judged fairly once the systems and data have been looked at.

Map ready? Let us look at one task.

In a consultation we go through the high-priority tasks and agree whether the first step is cleaner data, automation with human approval, or a short sprint. A description of one task is enough, with no passwords and no customer data.

Request a consultation

Other resources

Request a consultation

Describe the problem, the outcome that matters and any deadline that is real. Two or three sentences are enough to start.

Request a consultation

  1. Prepare an email
  2. Finish sending in your email app

Where the reply goes.

Helps place the request in context.

The problem, the outcome you need and any real deadline. No passwords, keys or customer data.

Initial qualification 08:00–16:00, consultations with Patryk after 18:00, Europe/Warsaw. The date is agreed individually; sending this form does not book a consultation.

Answers are used to reply to this request and nothing else. No mailing list, no sequence. Privacy.

Scripts are off, so this form cannot hand the request on. The same three answers work as plain mail: address, company and what needs to change. Write to pat@cloudwarrior.io.

Or write straight to pat@cloudwarrior.io.

Who answers, and when

Status: Patryk Ciszewski is currently contracted on a project.

  • Andrzej and Zosia run the initial qualification, 08:00–16:00 Europe/Warsaw. They ask about the company, the project, the problem, the outcome you want, the deadline and the budget, then pass the case to an engineer.
  • Technical consultations with Patryk are held after 18:00, Europe/Warsaw.

The time is agreed by email, case by case.

A person reads every request and replies by email with a proposed next step, the questions still open, or a clear no.

What happens next

  • A person at CloudWarrior reads the request and checks whether the problem fits the practice.
  • The reply proposes a call, asks what is still unclear, or explains why the fit is wrong.
  • Andrzej and Zosia run the initial qualification 08:00–16:00, and consultations with Patryk are held after 18:00, Europe/Warsaw. The actual date is agreed individually.
  • Scope, success criteria, timeline and cost are agreed in writing before any work starts.
Reply
By email, from a person
Call windows
Qualification 08:00–16:00 · Patryk after 18:00, Europe/Warsaw
Dates
Agreed individually
Commitment
None until scope is agreed

Contact

Remote across the EU · Europe/Warsaw time