The situation
"Automation saves time" is easy to say and hard to check. So instead of a claim, here is a formula with every assumption written out. Replace our numbers with yours. If your result is small, that's useful to know too: for some people, automation isn't about time at all.
Everything on this page is a model example. Your numbers will differ. None of these figures were measured on Coinomatic users.
Step 1 – Time one manual cash-out
Our assumptions for a single manual run, in minutes:
- Step: Log in to the exchange + 2FA; Our assumption: 2; Yours: ___
- Step: Check balance and decide the amount; Our assumption: 3; Yours: ___
- Step: Place the sell/convert order; Our assumption: 3; Yours: ___
- Step: Check the fill and the fee; Our assumption: 2; Yours: ___
- Step: Request the bank withdrawal + confirm; Our assumption: 3; Yours: ___
- Step: Record it in a spreadsheet/books; Our assumption: 4; Yours: ___
- Step: Total per manual run (m_man); Our assumption: 17; Yours: ___
Add time if your situation needs it, e.g., +3 min to match a payment to an invoice, or +5 min for approval and documentation in a business.
Step 2 – Time the automated version
Automation doesn't make the work zero:
- Item: Check Logs/Transactions after each run (m_auto); Our assumption: 2 min/run; Yours: ___
- Item: Monthly review + export for your accountant (r); Our assumption: 10 min/month; Yours: ___
- Item: One-time setup incl. a test run (S); Our assumption: 20 min, spread over 12 months (≈1.7 min/month); Yours: ___
Step 3 – The formula
Monthly savings (minutes) = f × (m_man − m_auto) − r − S / 12
where f is the number of cash-out runs per month.
Optional: value of time = savings (hours) × your hourly rate H. H is your number, not ours.
Illustrative example – three model personas
Illustrative example – model personas, not real customers.
- Persona: A Small miner, daily operating cash; f: 30; m_man: 17; m_auto: 2; r: 10; S/12: 1.7; Manual (min/mo): 510; Automated (min/mo): 71.7; Modeled savings: ≈438 min ≈ 7.3 h
- Persona: B Freelancer, 4 BTC invoices (+3 min matching); f: 4; m_man: 20; m_auto: 3; r: 10; S/12: 1.7; Manual (min/mo): 80; Automated (min/mo): 23.7; Modeled savings: ≈56 min ≈ 0.9 h
- Persona: C Agency/Web3 business, weekly treasury + monthly payroll + ~12 client payments (+5 min approval); f: 17; m_man: 22; m_auto: 2.5; r: 15; S/12: 1.7; Manual (min/mo): 374; Automated (min/mo): 59.2; Modeled savings: ≈315 min ≈ 5.2 h
Workings: A = 30 × 15 − 10 − 1.7 = 438.3 · B = 4 × 17 − 10 − 1.7 = 56.3 · C = 17 × 19.5 − 15 − 1.7 = 314.8.
A weekly variant of persona A (f ≈ 4.3): 4.3 × 15 − 11.7 ≈ 53 min.
Persona B is the honest outlier. With four runs a month, the time saved is under an hour. For B, the better reasons are consistency and clean records, not minutes.
Step 4 – Break-even against the plan price
Automation pays for itself, in time terms, when:
savings (hours) × H ≥ monthly plan price P
Or, in minutes: break-even minutes per month = 60 × P / H.
Take P from the current Pricing section. We don't quote prices here because they can change. Example of the arithmetic only: if your hourly rate H were $25, every $1 of monthly plan price needs about 2.4 minutes of savings to break even.
What the model leaves out
- Mistakes and forgotten runs in the manual process.
- Decision stress, the "should I sell today?" moment.
- Price differences from converting at a different time than you would have by hand. These can go either way, and Coinomatic doesn't try to time the market.
- Troubleshooting time on the automated side. In our own live test, a withdrawal was skipped because no withdrawal method was verified at the exchange. Fixing that takes time the model doesn't count. That's why m_auto is 2 minutes, not 0.
How Coinomatic fits into the "m_auto" minutes
The 2-minute check is realistic only if the information is in one place. In the app:
- Automations: status, last and next run, run count per automation.
- Transactions: completed conversions with amounts and fees (COMPLETED rows are described as "finalized accounting-relevant executed financial actions").
- Logs: each step with a short reason, including skips.
- Export: CSV/XLSX according to the Knowledge Base (part of the monthly "r" minutes).
Limits
- A model, not a measurement. One person's 17 minutes is another's 6 or 30.
- Automation doesn't guarantee amounts or timing of bank arrival. A conversion isn't a bank deposit.
- Plan limits affect how many automations (and therefore how many workflows) you can run. Only active automations count toward the plan limit, not ended ones. The 30-day trial allows 1 automation.
Next step
Fill in the "Yours" column. If the result is meaningful, start with a one-run test (article 15). If it's small, read article 7 on records. That may be the better reason for you.
Coinomatic is software that triggers actions on your connected exchange account (today: Kraken) based on rules you set. It is not a financial advisor, broker, or money transmitter, and it does not take custody of your funds. Nothing in this article is financial, tax, or legal advice.