12 Automations Every Small Business Should Run (with a Rollout Checklist)

Pricing checked October 12, 2026 at zapier.com/pricing, make.com/en/pricing, and n8n.io/pricing. Usage figures are our estimates from each automation's steps unless we say they were measured.

You don't need fifty automations. Most small businesses get the majority of the benefit from about a dozen boring ones that run every day: capturing leads, following up, getting paid, asking for reviews, and keeping records straight.

Here are the twelve we'd set up first, roughly in the order we'd build them. For each one you get the trigger, the steps, what it uses in billing terms, and gotchas. All twelve are also in the downloadable checklist.

How to read the "usage" lines: Zapier bills per successful action step (triggers and built-in Filter/Formatter/Paths/Delay steps are free); Make bills per credit (most module actions = 1); n8n bills per full workflow execution regardless of step count. Sources: Zapier, Make, n8n.

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Getting and keeping customers

1. Instant lead response

1. TRIGGERnew website form, Facebook/Google lead form, or missed call
2. STEP 01create/update contact in CRM
3. STEP 02text and email the lead within a minute ("Thanks, here's what happens next")
4. STEP 03alert whoever's on duty in Slack/Teams/SMS

Usage per lead: Zapier 3 tasks · Make ~4–5 credits · n8n 1 execution. Gotcha: texting leads in the U.S. generally requires consent and, for business texting via most SMS providers, A2P 10DLC registration. Check your SMS provider's registration requirements before you send.

2. Lead nurture for people who didn't book

1. TRIGGERlead is still in "New" stage 2 days after creation (scheduled check or CRM workflow)
2. STEP 01send a short follow-up email with an answer to a common question
3. STEP 02if no reply in 5 more days, create a call task for a human

Usage: small; runs once or twice per lead. Gotcha: many CRMs (HubSpot, Pipedrive, and others) have built-in sequences; use those first if your plan includes them, and only automate the hand-off.

3. Booking confirmations and reminders

1. TRIGGERnew appointment in your booking tool or calendar
2. STEP 01send confirmation
3. STEP 02reminder 24 hours before
4. STEP 03reminder 2 hours before with address/parking info

Usage: 3 sends per booking. Gotcha: most booking tools (Calendly, Acuity, Square Appointments, etc.) include reminders natively; check before paying for automation steps.

4. Review requests after every job

1. TRIGGERjob/appointment marked complete, or invoice paid
2. STEP 01wait a few hours
3. STEP 02send a review request with a direct link to your Google review form
4. STEP 03log it so nobody is asked twice

Usage per job: Zapier 2 tasks (Delay is free) · n8n 1 execution. Gotcha: Google's policies prohibit offering incentives for reviews and selectively soliciting only positive reviews ("review gating") (Google Maps user-contributed content policy). Ask every customer the same way.

5. New-customer onboarding packet

1. TRIGGERdeal marked Won, or first payment received
2. STEP 01send a welcome email with what happens next
3. STEP 02create the client folder from a template (Google Drive/Dropbox)
4. STEP 03create onboarding tasks in your project tool
5. STEP 04add the client to your newsletter list (with consent)

Usage: 4 actions, once per customer, so cheap.

Getting paid

6. Invoice the moment work is done

1. TRIGGERjob complete in your field-service or project tool
2. STEP 01create the invoice in your accounting tool from the job's line items
3. STEP 02email it with a payment link

Gotcha: this one's worth it only if your job tool doesn't already sync with your accounting tool. Check native integrations first.

7. Polite overdue-invoice reminders

1. TRIGGERweekly schedule
2. STEP 01search invoices overdue by 7+ days
3. STEP 02send each customer a friendly reminder with the payment link
4. STEP 03post a summary to the owner

Usage: loops per invoice: Zapier ~1 task per reminder + 2 · Make ~1 credit per reminder + a few · n8n 1 execution per weekly run. Gotcha: many accounting tools offer built-in reminders. Automate only if you need custom timing, tone, or channels (e.g. SMS).

8. Payment received → thank-you + bookkeeping

1. TRIGGERpayment succeeds (Stripe, Square, your accounting tool)
2. STEP 01send a thank-you/receipt
3. STEP 02mark the deal or job "Paid" in your CRM
4. STEP 03add a row to your revenue log

Running the back office

9. Email attachments → organized files

1. TRIGGERnew email with attachment matching a rule (e.g. from suppliers, or containing "invoice")
2. STEP 01save the attachment to the right Drive/Dropbox folder with a consistent filename (date-vendor-amount)
3. STEP 02forward bills to your accounting tool's inbox address if it has one

Gotcha: use an AI extraction step only if filenames really need parsed data; AI steps can cost more than a standard step (Zapier notes AI by Zapier is priced by model tier, rates page).

10. Daily or weekly numbers digest

1. TRIGGERschedule (e.g. Monday 7am)
2. STEP 01pull last week's new leads, booked jobs, revenue, and overdue invoices from your tools
3. STEP 02post one summary message to Slack or email

Usage: a handful of actions once a week, so close to free on any plan. Why it matters: it replaces logging into four dashboards.

11. New-hire and offboarding checklist

1. TRIGGERnew row in a "Team changes" form
2. STEP 01create accounts/tasks checklist in your project tool
3. STEP 02notify whoever provisions accounts
4. STEP 03on offboarding, create a revoke-access checklist

Gotcha: automate the checklist, not account deletion. A human should confirm access removal.

12. Backups of the data you'd hate to lose

1. TRIGGERweekly schedule
2. STEP 01export your CRM contacts / form submissions / key spreadsheets
3. STEP 02save a dated copy to cloud storage

Gotcha: check whether your CRM offers native export or backup first, and store backups somewhere with access controls.

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What would all 12 cost to run?

For a hypothetical 5-person service business with ~150 leads, ~120 jobs, ~100 bookings, and ~40 overdue reminders a month, our rough estimate is 1,500–2,500 Zapier tasks a month across all twelve. On Zapier's official pricing that's the 1,500-task tier at $39/mo or the 2,000-task tier at $49/mo, billed annually ($58.50 / $73.50 monthly) (Zapier, October 12, 2026). On n8n, the same work is roughly one execution per trigger event, around 600–800 a month (our estimate), and n8n Cloud Starter is €20/mo billed annually (n8n).

On Make, every module action uses a credit, including the trigger, so the credit count lands at or above the Zapier task count. That's well past the 1,000-credit Free plan but inside Core's 10,000 credits: $9/mo billed annually, $10.59 monthly (Make). That's our estimate, not a measured figure.

See the full math in Zapier pricing explained and the tool-by-tool comparison in Make vs n8n vs Zapier.

How to roll these out without breaking things

1. Start with #1 and #4. Lead response and review requests have the most direct effect on revenue.
2. Use native features first. Your CRM, booking tool, and accounting tool may already do 3, 6, 7, and 2. Automation platforms are for the gaps between tools.
3. Test with fake data. Submit your own form with a test name; confirm every step before turning it on.
4. Turn on error alerts. Every platform can notify you when a run fails. A broken lead automation that fails silently is worse than none.
5. Write down what each automation does (the checklist template has a column for this) so the next person can maintain it.

Which tool should you build these in?

• Zapier if you're non-technical and want the widest app support. Free covers single-step versions of #3, #8, and #12; most of the rest need Pro's multi-step Zaps and filters.
• Make if you want lower per-unit costs and visual routers for branching (#1 in-area vs out-of-area). Start with Make's free plan.
• n8n if several of these are long, multi-step, or looping (#7, #10), since it bills per execution. Try n8n Cloud.