# Workflow acceptance workbook

Automately · October 13, 2026

Use this worksheet before handing a workflow to its owner. Work with synthetic test records and remove personal information from evidence.

## 1. Define the job
- Workflow and owner:
- Trigger and required inputs:
- Expected destination and next action:
- What needs human approval:
- Manual fallback and backup owner:

## 2. Record acceptance evidence
For each case record test ID, time, expected result, actual result, evidence link and owner sign-off.
- Normal submission reaches the correct destination.
- Missing or invalid input produces a useful error.
- Repeated submission does not create an unintended duplicate.
- Destination outage creates an alert and recoverable record.
- Provider acceptance is recorded separately from inbox arrival.
- The person responsible can find the record and take the next action.

## 3. Write the recovery runbook
- Last confirmed successful step:
- Downstream records or messages already created:
- Likely cause and evidence:
- Safe retry point and duplicate protection:
- One-record recovery test and result:
- Backlog recovery plan:
- Owner approval and post-recovery check:

## 4. Estimate costs
List subscriptions, task or operation limits, usage assumptions, model/API costs, setup hours, maintenance hours and exception handling. Use vendor billing definitions; a task and an operation may count differently.

Monthly operating cost = subscriptions + usage + maintenance labor + exception labor.

First-month cost = operating cost + setup labor.

## 5. Measure outcomes
Track comparable manual and assisted tasks, including review and correction time. Record sample size, date range, quality checks and exceptions.

Net hours returned = comparable manual time - assisted processing time - review time - correction time - maintenance time.

Estimated capacity value = net hours returned × an explicitly stated hourly assumption. This is not realized cash savings unless spending actually decreases.

## 6. Make a thirty-day decision
- Is output quality acceptable?
- Does the owner trust the alerts and recovery procedure?
- Are actual costs within the approved limit?
- Keep, revise or stop? Why?
- Next review date: