A free calculator launched by AI automation consultancy HeyBRB is giving UK tradespeople a straightforward way to see the annual cost of the admin tasks they have never got round to fixing.
The Admin Cost Calculator is available with no login and no signup required. Enter two figures, hours spent on manual admin per week and an effective hourly rate, and the tool returns a weekly, annual, and five-year cost figure alongside a projection of how much could be recovered by automating 60% of that workload. The calculation is instant.
The tool is grounded in findings from HeyBRB’s UK Admin Drain Report 2026, published in March 2026 following a survey of 167 UK small business owner-operators. For trades businesses, the data is particularly pointed. When respondents were asked what single task they would most want to automate, invoice chasing and overdue payment follow-up was the top answer, cited by 21% of all respondents. Client and tenant communications came second. Quote writing and scheduling rounded out the top four.
The average respondent across all industries loses 8 hours a week to manual processes. That is 384 hours a year, the equivalent of ten full working weeks spent on tasks that, in many cases, already have automated solutions available for under £100 per month.
For trades businesses, the cash flow dimension of invoice chasing is worth separating from the time cost. A plumber, electrician, or builder chasing five to ten overdue invoices a month is losing time that could be spent on jobs. More significantly, automated follow-up sequences send reminders consistently, without the awkwardness of a personal chase call, and without the invoices being forgotten entirely during a busy period.
Using the calculator at 10 hours of admin per week and an effective rate of £45 per hour, a sole-trader plumber or electrician is spending £23,400 per year on manual processes. Over five years, that is £117,000. Automating 60% of that workload would recover £14,040 per year.
Richard at HeyBRB commented: “Tradespeople know they lose time to admin. What they often haven’t done is look at what that time is actually worth. This tool makes it a number rather than a feeling. And once you have the number, the conversation about fixing it is a lot simpler.”
The Admin Cost Calculator sits alongside a broader set of free tools for UK small businesses at heybrb.ai/tools, including an AI Savings Calculator, an Email Template Generator, and an Automation Checklist. All are free and require no account.
For trades businesses ready to act on the findings, HeyBRB offers a paid AI Assessment at £499. The assessment maps the business’s actual workflows across a 45-minute recorded call and delivers a custom report within five business days, identifying specific automations for quoting, invoice chasing, scheduling, and client communications. At the calculator’s default figures, the assessment pays for itself in under 8 working days, with a full money-back guarantee if it does not identify at least five hours of weekly savings.
The Admin Cost Calculator is available now at https://heybrb.ai/tools/admin-cost-calculator. The full tool suite is available at https://heybrb.ai/tools.
ABOUT
HeyBRB is a UK AI automation consultancy registered in England and Wales. The company works with trades businesses including plumbers, heating engineers, electricians, builders, and contractors, helping owner-operators reduce the time spent on invoicing, quoting, scheduling, and client communications using practical AI tools. All recommendations account for UK-specific requirements including Gas Safe certification tracking, HMRC compliance, and GDPR data handling.
HeyBRB publishes a free tool suite for UK small businesses at heybrb.ai/tools, including the Admin Cost Calculator, AI Savings Calculator, Email Template Generator, and Automation Checklist. Original research includes the UK Admin Drain Report 2026, based on 167 responses from UK small business owner-operators surveyed in March 2026.
Website: https://heybrb.ai
Admin Cost Calculator: https://heybrb.ai/tools/admin-cost-calculator
Free tools: https://heybrb.ai/tools
PRESS CONTACT HeyBRB Registered in England and Wales Press contact: Richard Email: hello@heybrb.ai Website: heybrb.ai
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Company Name: HeyBRB
Contact Person: Richard Thomas-Pryce
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Country: United Kingdom
Website: https://heybrb.ai/