If your virtual assistant's day is mostly data entry, invoice routing, order processing, or email triage — that task list maps to an automation. We build it once. You own it. The VA cost disappears.
n8n · Make · OpenAI — on your accounts
12-month TCO comparison + build estimate
Your GitHub repo, your keys, your n8n instance
Audit gives you the math before you decide to build
The VA cost line is visible. The churn, retraining, and exception-handling that pile on top of it usually aren't.
45% 12-month retention on direct offshore VA hires is the industry reality. Each time someone leaves, you spend 2–4 weeks training a replacement — on top of your actual job.
The workflow doesn't give notice. It doesn't need onboarding. It runs the same way it ran last Tuesday.
The VA handles routine tasks fine. But every edge case — an invoice that doesn't match, an order with a note, a customer response that's slightly off-script — comes back to you.
You're spending 3–5 hours a week reviewing things that should have been rule-based from the start.
Between Shopify, QuickBooks, your CRM, and your shipping platform, there are manual export/import steps someone does every week. The VA does it. When the VA is out, it doesn't happen.
That's a workflow gap, not a staffing gap. Workflows don't take sick days.
This is a generic illustrative example, not a projection for your business. The audit produces a version of this table for your actual numbers.
Scenario: One offshore VA handling data entry, invoice routing, and order processing. Direct-hire through OnlineJobs.ph or equivalent. $800/month all-in. Business has been operating 24+ months. Task list is documented and repetitive.
| Cost item | VA (12 months) | Automation (12 months) |
|---|---|---|
|
Direct labor / setup VA monthly wage or setup build cost |
$9,600 | $7,500 |
|
Onboarding / retraining (one cycle) Estimated at 3 weeks lost owner/manager time, ~$2,400 value at $800/week opportunity cost. VA churn rate ~45%/yr makes this a likely year-1 cost. |
$2,400 if churn occurs |
$0 |
|
Oversight / exception handling Estimated 3 hrs/week owner review at $75/hr opportunity cost. Exception handling goes to zero with rules-based automation. |
$11,700 | $0 edge cases handled by rules |
|
Hosting / infrastructure n8n self-host on Hetzner or Railway. Estimate $80–$120/month depending on volume. |
$0 | $1,200 |
|
Optional monitoring retainer Care retainer ($800/mo) if you want Baxter Solutions maintaining it. Not required — system runs without us. |
$0 | $0–$9,600 optional |
| 12-month total (no retainer) | $23,700 | $8,700 |
| Difference (illustrative) | $15,000 savings |
Methodology notes: VA cost at $800/month direct-hire. Retraining cost estimated at 3 weeks at $800/week opportunity cost, applied probabilistically given 45% annual retention rate. Owner oversight at $75/hour × 3 hours/week × 52 weeks. Automation build at $7,500 one-time. Infrastructure at $100/month × 12 months. Numbers are illustrative — the audit produces actual figures for your specific task list, VA cost, and time investment. Not a guarantee of outcome.
The audit produces a version of this table for your business — using your actual VA spend, your actual task list, and your actual time investment in oversight. That's the deliverable: the math written down before you commit to a build.
The audit exists to protect you from a build that doesn't pencil out. We don't want to build something that won't pay back — and neither do you.
You share your VA task list — or we work from your job posting, which is often enough. We map each task to an automation category: fully automatable, partially automatable, or human-required.
Output: a 10–15 page written report with workflow-by-workflow breakdown, 12-month TCO comparison, prioritized build roadmap, and a fixed build estimate. 90-minute walkthrough call included.
The audit tells you whether the math works. If it does, the build estimate from the audit is the price — no re-quoting. If it doesn't work, you've spent $2,500 to confirm that before spending $7,500 to find out the hard way.
No pressure to proceed. The report is yours either way.
We build the workflow on your n8n instance, on your hosting account, with your API keys. One named VA role replacement: $7,500. Multi-role team replacement: $15,000–$35,000.
Source code in your GitHub repo. Documentation in your workspace. 30-day post-launch support. The system runs whether you keep a retainer with us or not.
We don't automate everything. We automate the part that's rule-based and repetitive — which is typically 60–80% of a VA's day.
If your VA's work is mostly in the bottom list, we'll tell you during the audit. We'd rather lose the project than build something that doesn't return value.
Start with the audit. The build estimate comes out of the audit — no re-quoting.
The system runs without a retainer — you own it. The retainer is for clients who want Baxter Solutions monitoring and maintaining it.
Care — monitoring + 2 hrs/mo
Operate — 6 hrs/mo + monthly call
If you cancel the retainer, the system keeps running. You own the code. You can hire any developer to maintain it.
Enter your actual VA spend and oversight time. Every assumption is visible and editable. This is the interactive version of the illustrative table above — using your inputs instead of industry averages.
The Offshore-Replacement Audit ($2,500) produces a version of this comparison using your actual VA task list, confirmed spend, and real oversight hours — not estimates. Ask about the audit.
Tell me what your VA does and roughly what you're paying. That's enough to start a conversation about whether the audit makes sense.
If you're not sure whether your VA tasks qualify: email me with a bullet-point list of what your VA does daily. I'll tell you within 24 hours whether an audit makes sense or not.
$2,500 · 12-month TCO comparison + build estimate