Manual coordinator outreach uses time even when no separate invoice appears. The useful first question is how much complete work it consumes, and the next is whether changing it would alter a real expense or accepted result. This exercise supplies a method, not a typical-provider cost or a recommendation to automate.
Compute it from your own work
- Record active effort by role: list-building, source/permission checks, drafting, reviewing, follow-up, replies, exceptions and record keeping. Include after-hours work without counting the same time twice.
- Separate elapsed waiting: a message awaiting a reply is not continuously consuming staff hours.
- Use approved cost inputs: actual loaded employment cost where applicable. Label a founder opportunity-cost assumption separately; it is not automatically a cash expense or billable revenue.
- Record missed actions: retain actual timestamps and reasons. A late reply does not establish that a placement was lost or value would have been collected.
- Choose a representative period: one week may be atypical. Annualisation requires an explicit weeks/volume assumption and seasonality check; fifty weeks is not a universal factor.
A useful effort valuation is the sum of active hours by role multiplied by the stated role cost. Salary costs may already be in the accounts; this allocation does not create another P&L expense or prove recoverable savings.
Test an alternative on the same basis
Compare preparation, review, corrections, exceptions and accepted handoffs for equivalent cases. Include setup, provider charges, monitoring, maintenance and residual human work. Preserve quality and permission boundaries; do not increase contact volume simply to demonstrate activity.
An outreach draft or queued item is not an approved send, reply, meeting or placement. Consequential channel actions require their existing authorization and controls. Actual contract and data-use terms govern database ownership and reuse.
For a wider comparison, use the hire-versus-workflow exercise. Neither method supplies current installation prices or a refund guarantee.
Current commercial boundary
This article was reviewed on 27 September 2026. The current Firm Capacity System starts with repeated work within a service a firm already sells. NDIS outreach is a supporting historical application, not the umbrella offer. A free 25-minute founder conversation is separate from a paid Blueprint or installation quote; it does not promise a written cost model or recommendation. The old Referral Agent 90-day booking/refund claim is not a current offer on this page. Existing signed client agreements retain their actual scope and terms. No outreach, hiring decision or provider change is authorized by this exercise.