What does your busywork actually cost?
Last updated
Nobody invoices you for your own evenings, so the number stays invisible. Two sliders make it visible, and the math is honest enough to tell you when not to hire us.
The slider starts at six hours because that is roughly where the research lands. In 2024 Canadian small businesses spent 735 hours on regulatory compliance, 256 of them (about 32 business days) on red tape alone, which works out to just under five hours a week, according to Canadian Federation of Independent Business. The smallest businesses carry the most of it: firms with fewer than five employees spent $10,208 per employee on compliance, against $1,374 at firms with 100 or more.
312
hours a year
$23,400
of your time, yearly
~9
evenings a month
At those numbers, busywork costs you about $1,950 a month in your own time, and $23,400 a year. That is the number worth holding your quote up against: handing the reporting over is worth doing when it costs less than the hours it gives back, and we'll tell you plainly if it doesn't.
Rough arithmetic, not a quote. It values the hours you entered at the rate you set, and assumes those hours are ones we'd actually absorb, which depends on what your busywork is. The quote confirms scope honestly, and if your volume is light enough to keep doing it yourself, that's what the reply will say.
Sources
- Canada's Red Tape Report: The Cost of Regulation to Small Business (January 2025). Canadian Federation of Independent Business. Figures checked August 2026.
Curious how the hand-off works? See the process or read a complete sample report.