Example Engineering Co. · Project Administration · 2026-10-19 to 2026-10-23
That is 1.2–2.2 full-time people of capacity, worth $126K–218K a year at $55/hour loaded labor cost. 74% of the low estimate comes from 5 tasks agents can run, with a person approving each change; 20% from 1 task an agent could take on once the team settles on one way of doing it; the rest from AI helping people work faster.
| Task | Recommendation | Team h/wk | Back h/wk | $ / year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Enter subconsultant invoices 106× a week · 7 people · Microsoft Edge, Adobe Acrobat, Microsoft Outlook Takes 12–21 min on average depending on the person; worth checking whether the steps could be standardized. | Automate (after one way of working is agreed) A Copilot Studio agent with Power Automate watches the shared Outlook mailbox, reads each subconsultant invoice PDF, matches it to the subcontract and project phase in Vantagepoint, and prepares the voucher with the figures filled in. The project coordinator approves each prepared voucher in one step before the agent saves it and routes it to the PM; invoices over $50,000 are flagged for the principal, and invoices that can't be matched, or that charge a closed phase, go to the coordinator as exceptions. With: Copilot Studio, Power Automate, Deltek Vantagepoint | 28.2 | 9.9–15.5 | $25K–39K |
| Answer project manager questions 186× a week · 7 people · Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Edge Takes 6–10 min on average depending on the person; worth checking whether the steps could be standardized. | Automate A Copilot Studio agent reads each PM question in Outlook, pulls the phase budget, invoice and status figures from Vantagepoint through its API, and sends the reply. Because policy bars unattended actions, a coordinator reviews and approves each reply in one step before it goes out and handles questions that are unclear or need judgment. With: Copilot Studio, Power Automate, Microsoft 365 Copilot | 25.5 | 8.9–15.3 | $23K–39K |
| Prepare monthly client invoices 50× a week · 7 people · Microsoft Edge, Microsoft Excel, Adobe Acrobat Takes 22–42 min on average depending on the person; worth checking whether the steps could be standardized. | Automate A Copilot Studio agent with Power Automate flows pulls each draft invoice from Vantagepoint, checks it against the contract and phase status (closed phases, the approved provisional overhead rate), builds the Excel backup, and combines the PDF package. The coordinator approves each prepared package in one step, and the project manager's required review stays before anything is submitted. Portal entry stays with the coordinator because the client portals are UI-only, though the agent can hand over a ready-to-paste figure sheet. With: Copilot Studio, Power Automate, Microsoft 365 Copilot | 27.1 | 8.1–13.6 | $21K–34K |
| Issue drawing transmittals 118× a week · 7 people · ProjectWise Explorer, Bluebeam Revu, Microsoft Outlook Takes 9–16 min on average depending on the person; worth checking whether the steps could be standardized. | Automate A Power Automate flow, with a Copilot Studio front end for requests, finds the drawings the engineer of record has marked approved in ProjectWise, checks them out through the API, builds the transmittal from the project's client contact list, and prepares the Outlook email with the PDFs attached. The coordinator reviews the stamped set and the draft transmittal in one step before the flow sends it, and handles exceptions such as missing approvals or sets that need re-stamping by hand. With: Power Automate, Copilot Studio, Bentley ProjectWise | 25.7 | 7.7–14.1 | $20K–36K |
| Set up new projects 36× a week · 7 people · Adobe Acrobat, Microsoft Edge, Microsoft Outlook Takes 23–47 min on average depending on the person; worth checking whether the steps could be standardized. | Automate When a notice to proceed and contract arrive in Outlook, a Copilot Studio agent reads the contract, pulls out the project details, phases, budgets and billing terms, and prepares the new project in Deltek Vantagepoint. It also prepares the ProjectWise folder structure from the standard template, using Power Automate and the available APIs. The coordinator approves the prepared project and billing terms in one step before anything is created, and handles contracts with unusual terms or missing data. With: Copilot Studio, Power Automate, Microsoft 365 Copilot | 22.2 | 6.7–12.2 | $17K–31K |
| Chase and correct timesheets 157× a week · 7 people · Microsoft Edge, Microsoft Outlook Takes 6–9 min on average depending on the person; worth checking whether the steps could be standardized. | Automate A Power Automate flow, with a Copilot Studio agent for the wording, reads the missing-timesheet list and the closed-phase charges from Deltek Vantagepoint each cycle. It drafts reminder emails in Outlook and prepares a correction for each wrong charge, using the project's open phases and the PM's usual reallocation. The coordinator approves the reminders before they are sent and approves each timesheet correction before it is applied in Vantagepoint, and handles unclear cases by hand. With: Power Automate, Copilot Studio, Deltek Vantagepoint | 18.5 | 5.5–10.2 | $14K–26K |
| Write monthly progress reports 11× a week · 7 people · Microsoft Edge, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Word Takes 42–117 min on average depending on the person; worth checking whether the steps could be standardized. | AI assist Have Power Automate pull budget and percent-complete figures by phase from Deltek Vantagepoint into the Excel tracker and a Word report template, and have Microsoft 365 Copilot draft the standard narrative sections for the coordinator to review, edit and send. The coordinator still writes the project-specific commentary and the PM approves the report before it goes to the client. With: Power Automate, Microsoft 365 Copilot, Deltek Vantagepoint | 11.5 | 2.9–5.2 | $7K–13K |
These are "swivel chair" steps: people carrying information from one system to another. Connecting the systems directly usually removes the step entirely. The biggest: Deltek Vantagepoint → Microsoft Outlook, about 172 times a week.
| From → to | Mostly during | Times / week | Copy-paste |
|---|---|---|---|
| Deltek Vantagepoint → Microsoft Outlook | Answer project manager questions | 172 | 17% |
| Adobe Acrobat → Deltek Vantagepoint | Enter subconsultant invoices, Set up new projects | 133 | 20% |
| ProjectWise Explorer → Microsoft Outlook | Issue drawing transmittals | 106 | 60% |
| Deltek Vantagepoint → Microsoft Excel | Prepare monthly client invoices, Write monthly progress reports | 51 | 37% |
| Microsoft Excel → DOT eCMS | Prepare monthly client invoices | 28 | 18% |
| Microsoft Excel → Microsoft Word | Write monthly progress reports | 11 | 18% |
The rest were retyped by hand. Detected from a value seen in one app reappearing in a field being edited in another; the values themselves are never stored.
Possible entry errors: 4% of values retyped from Adobe Acrobat into Deltek Vantagepoint were one character off from the source.
What the team's leads estimated at the start, next to what was measured. Differences of 8 points or more are worth a conversation: they usually mean hidden work, or work that has quietly moved elsewhere. This time: Prepare monthly client invoices.
| Task | Estimated share | Measured share | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Prepare monthly client invoices | 30% | 17% | less than expected |
| Enter subconsultant invoices | 20% | 18% | |
| Issue drawing transmittals | 15% | 16% | |
| Chase and correct timesheets | 10% | 12% | |
| Write monthly progress reports | 10% | 7% |
Measured shares are of tracked work; meetings and chat are not tracked.
How the work actually flows → · Where AI agents fit →
HourBack observed 7 people for about 1 week(s). Results are team totals only; groups smaller than 5 are never reported, and no individual data is available to anyone at the company. Chat, meetings and personal apps were not captured, so total hours are lower than paid hours. Ranges are first-year estimates after review time, exceptions and adoption; the low end is the planning number. Dollar values use $55/hour for Project Coordinator / Project Administrator (loaded hourly cost, provided by sample figures). Yearly values assume 46 working weeks.