Know whether a workflow is worth changing before you spend on it.
The Operational Leverage Audit measures one workflow end to end and gives you a decision: what it costs today, what can safely change, what it would be worth, and whether to proceed. Fixed fee from $1,500. Delivered in 10–15 working days after data access.
One workflow. One fixed fee. One decision.
| Scope | One recurring workflow, from its trigger to its hand-off, as you define it in the intake. |
| Fee | From $1,500, fixed and agreed in writing before work starts. |
| Timeline | 10–15 working days from data access, usually 2–4 weeks elapsed. Delays in access extend the timeline day for day. |
| Your time | Completing the evidence intake, plus two or three short working sessions with the workflow owner. |
| Deliverable | A written report and a walkthrough presentation, with a go / no-go recommendation. |
| Obligation | None. The Audit is a standalone deliverable. Any implementation proposal is a separate document, sent no earlier than 48 hours after the presentation. |
Operators who need a number, not a demo.
| Founders and lean teams | You're growing and a recurring workflow is absorbing people. You want to know whether to hire for it or redesign it. |
| COOs and operations leads | You've seen AI demos but need to know what would actually hold up in your process, with your exceptions and your controls. |
| Teams with a stalled automation attempt | Something was tried and abandoned, or runs but still needs checking. The Audit shows why, and what a reliable version needs. |
| Investors assessing an "AI-native" claim | A workflow-level view of what a target's automation really does, alongside our five-point technical due-diligence framework. |
A 10-section evidence intake, built to be answered once.
The intake collects the facts the free diagnostic can't. If you've taken the diagnostic, its answers carry forward and you confirm, amend or replace them. Submitting locks the record, so the Audit works from a fixed version; later corrections are recorded as amendments.
| Section | What we ask |
|---|---|
| 01 · Audit context | Which workflow, who owns it, what you want the Audit to establish, and where the boundary sits. |
| 02 · Diagnostic handoff | What the free diagnostic captured, confirmed or corrected, plus teams, frequency, systems and known exceptions. |
| 03 · Workflow | Each material step: who performs it, which system, input and output, handling time, frequency, judgement, and whether it's automated. |
| 04 · People and time | The roles involved, how many people, and time per occurrence. You don't need to calculate FTEs; we do. |
| 05 · Systems and data | Manual entry, duplicate entry, spreadsheets, email, copy-paste, integrations and reconciliation problems. |
| 06 · Exceptions and decisions | Common exceptions, how often they happen, the rules and judgement used, missing information and escalation. |
| 07 · Controls and verification | What must be correct, who checks it, what happens when a check fails, which errors are unacceptable, and what must never be automated. |
| 08 · Existing automation | What already runs, how it's checked, how often it fails, and attempts that were abandoned. |
| 09 · Evidence and constraints | Samples, extracts or documents that support your answers, and the operational, legal, security or policy constraints we must respect. |
| 10 · Review and submission | A final review and an accuracy declaration that locks the evidence record. |
From scoping call to decision.
| 01 | Scoping call (30 minutes, free) | We agree the workflow, its boundary and the question the Audit must answer. You receive a short statement of work with the fixed fee. |
| 02 | Evidence intake | Your workflow owner completes the 10-section intake and shares supporting samples. The working clock starts once data access is in place. |
| 03 | Validation sessions | Two or three short sessions to walk the workflow, test the numbers and close gaps in the evidence. |
| 04 | Analysis and design | Baseline, friction map, future-state design, verification architecture and benefit model, each with its assumptions written down. |
| 05 | Report and walkthrough | A written report and a presentation to your decision-makers, ending with a go / no-go recommendation. |
A report you can take to a board, a budget meeting or a vendor.
| Report section | What it answers |
|---|---|
| Executive summary | Proceed, proceed with conditions, or don't proceed, and why, on one page. |
| Measured baseline | Hours per month and FTE absorbed by the workflow, cycle time, exception rate and verification burden, calculated step by step from your evidence. |
| Friction map | Where work stalls across demand/input, processing, decision, execution and verification. |
| Future-state design | For every step: automate, augment or keep human, with the indicated AI depth (Level 1–4) and the reason. |
| Verification architecture | The checks every automated action must pass, where people take over, and the audit trail that records it. |
| Benefit model | Low, base and high scenarios with every assumption stated, so your finance team can challenge each number. |
| Risks and failure modes | What could go wrong, the control that prevents it, and the metric that would show it. |
| Implementation options | If the case holds: Pilot scope, success criteria against the baseline, and what it would take. |
| What the Audit did not establish | The limits of the evidence, stated openly. |
Want to see the format first? Ask for the sample report on your scoping call. It uses a fictional company with illustrative figures.
Limits we state up front.
| Not a guarantee of savings | The benefit model is a modeled estimate built on your evidence, with stated assumptions. A Pilot is what measures the real result. |
| Not a software sale | We don't resell a platform or tie you to a vendor. The design is model- and vendor-agnostic. |
| Not a company-wide transformation plan | It goes deep on one workflow. That's what makes it fast, fixed-price and specific enough to act on. |
| Not a legal or regulatory opinion | We show how the design supports controls such as human oversight and record-keeping. Whether a system is "high-risk" under the EU AI Act is for your counsel to confirm. |
Before you commit.
Do we need to take the free diagnostic first?
No, but it helps. Its answers carry into the intake, and its Snapshot usually tells us which workflow to pick.
What if the Audit says don't proceed?
Then you have a decision document instead of an open question, and you've avoided spending on a build that wouldn't pay back. That is a valid result.
Who sees our data?
Only the Secular Labs team working on your Audit. We work under confidentiality terms set in the statement of work, and you decide what evidence to share. See our privacy notice.
Can the Audit cover more than one workflow?
Each Audit covers one workflow so it can stay fixed-price and specific. Related workflows can be audited back to back.
More answers in the full FAQ.
Tell us which workflow keeps you up at night.
A 30-minute scoping call is enough to confirm whether an Audit makes sense and what it would cost. In person in Munich or Frankfurt this October, or on video.