# Which business work should you automate first? | NxtFoldS > The best first automation is rarely the most exciting one. It is the task that repeats often, follows clear steps and costs your team real hours every week. Source: https://nxtfolds.com/insights/which-work-should-you-automate-first - [Home](https://nxtfolds.com/) - [Insights](https://nxtfolds.com/insights) - Which work should you automate first? Automation # Which work should you automate first? The best first automation is rarely the most exciting one. It is the task that repeats often, follows clear steps and costs real hours every week. By [Prashant Kumar](https://nxtfolds.com/company/founder) 18 Oct 20262 min read Share [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fnxtfolds.com%2Finsights%2Fwhich-work-should-you-automate-first) In this article - [Start with volume](#start-with-volume) - [Prefer clear steps](#prefer-clear-steps) - [Count the cost of a mistake](#count-the-cost-of-a-mistake) - [Measure before you start](#measure-before-you-start) - [What a first project looks like](#what-a-first-project-looks-like) Most businesses have a long list of tasks that someone would happily never do again. Choosing which one to automate first decides whether the project pays for itself quickly or drags on. ## Start with volume Pick work that happens many times a week. Entering invoices, copying orders between systems, sending the same follow up emails and building the weekly report are common examples. A task done twice a month rarely repays the effort of automating it. ## Prefer clear steps If you can write the task down as a checklist, it is a good candidate. Where a step needs reading or judgement, such as sorting emails by what they ask for, a language model can now handle it, but the steps around it should still be fixed and checked. ## Count the cost of a mistake Some errors are cheap to fix, like a report sent an hour late. Others are expensive, like a payment sent twice. Begin where mistakes are cheap, and add a review step wherever money, customers or legal records are involved. ## Measure before you start Note how long the task takes today and how often it goes wrong. Without that number, nobody can say later whether the automation worked. ## What a first project looks like A good first project is small enough to finish in a few weeks and visible enough that the team notices the difference. Once it runs reliably, the next task is easier to choose, because everyone has seen what automation can and cannot do. Where we help with this - [AI Automation](https://nxtfolds.com/services/ai-automation) - [Software Development](https://nxtfolds.com/services/software-development) - [Business Automation](https://nxtfolds.com/solutions/business-automation) - [AI Agents](https://nxtfolds.com/solutions/ai-agents) ## Keep reading - 01 ### What decides the cost of a website? Two websites can look alike and cost very different amounts. These are the parts of a project that move the price, so you can compare quotes with the right questions. https://nxtfolds.com/insights/what-decides-the-cost-of-a-website - 02 ### What to prepare before you talk to a developer A first call goes further when you bring a few things with you. None of them need to be perfect, and all of them save time. https://nxtfolds.com/insights/what-to-prepare-before-you-talk-to-a-developer - 03 ### Does your website need an admin panel? An admin panel lets your team change the website without a developer. Here is how to tell whether you need one, and what a good one includes. https://nxtfolds.com/insights/does-your-website-need-an-admin-panel Start a project ## Have something ambitious in mind? Let's turn your idea into something real. [hello@nxtfolds.com](mailto:hello@nxtfolds.com) [Start a project](https://nxtfolds.com/start-a-project)