Quarterly Automation Review Checklist: Keep Things Running

Automations fail silently. That is the uncomfortable truth about every workflow you have built. A token expires, an API endpoint changes, a field gets renamed in your CRM, and suddenly data stops flowing. The worst part is that nobody notices until a customer complains, an invoice goes missing, or month-end reconciliation reveals a gap that should not exist.

A quarterly automation review prevents these silent failures from compounding into real business problems. Think of it like an oil change for your tech stack. It takes a few hours every 90 days, but it saves you from catastrophic breakdowns that cost days of recovery. Here is the complete checklist, organized into five categories you can work through systematically.

A five-step quarterly review process that takes roughly three hours to complete

Section 1: Connection and Authentication Audit

Start by verifying that every integration is still connected and authenticated. API tokens expire, OAuth grants get revoked, and password changes can silently break workflows. For each tool in your stack, confirm the following:

• All API connections show an active or healthy status in your automation platform
• OAuth tokens for services like QuickBooks, Google Workspace, and CRM platforms have not expired
• Webhook URLs are still receiving payloads (check last received timestamp)
• Service accounts have not been disabled or had permissions changed
• Rate limits have not been exceeded or throttled consistently

Section 2: Error Log and Failure Review

Every automation platform keeps error logs. Most people never check them. Open your Make.com or Zapier dashboard and review the error history for the past 90 days. Look for patterns rather than individual incidents.

• Count total errors per workflow and identify the top three offenders
• Check for recurring error types such as timeout errors, data validation failures, or missing field errors
• Verify that error notification emails are still being delivered to the right people
• Review any workflows that were paused due to errors and determine if they should be reactivated or redesigned
• Confirm that retry logic is working correctly for transient failures

Section 3: Performance Metrics Review

Beyond just running, your automations should be performing well. Check execution speed, data accuracy, and volume trends.

• Compare current execution times against baseline. A gradual slowdown signals data bloat or API degradation
• Verify data accuracy by spot-checking 10-15 records that flowed through each major workflow
• Review volume trends. If order volume has grown 30% but your automation plan has not scaled, you may be hitting limits
• Check that conditional logic still matches current business rules. Discount thresholds, tax rates, and shipping tiers change
• Measure time savings against the previous quarter to quantify ongoing ROI

Section 4: Security and Credentials

Automation credentials are an often-overlooked security surface. A compromised API key in one workflow can expose your entire tech stack.

• Rotate API keys for any service that supports it, especially payment processors and accounting platforms
• Remove access for any team members who have left the organization
• Verify that sensitive data like credit card numbers or SSNs is not being logged in automation histories
• Check that shared service accounts use strong, unique passwords
• Review third-party app permissions and revoke anything unused

Section 5: Optimization and Roadmap

The final section looks forward. Based on your review, identify what needs improvement and what new automations would deliver the most value.

• Document any workflows that need redesigning based on error patterns or performance issues
• Identify manual processes that have emerged since the last review and are candidates for automation
• Review your automation platform plan to ensure you have headroom for the next quarter's volume
• Prioritize new automation requests from your team using an impact-versus-effort matrix
• Schedule the next quarterly review on your calendar before closing this one

Layer your monitoring cadence: weekly checks feed into monthly reviews, which inform quarterly audits

The teams that treat automation as set-and-forget are the ones who discover three months of lost orders on a random Tuesday. Schedule the review. Do the review. Protect the investment.

Pair this checklist with our year-end automation checklist for finance teams to make sure your annual close goes smoothly. And if you want a professional to run the review for you, our team conducts free automation audits that cover everything on this list and more.