Automated testing: why clicking through by hand simply costs your business too much money

You probably know the feeling. You have a new update for your business application or an important change to the checkout on your website. Before it goes live, the whole team spends Friday afternoon frantically clicking through the screens to see if everything still works. It feels safe, but on Saturday morning the first customer calls: the button to request a quote doesn't work anymore. That's the hard reality for businesses that still rely on manual testing.

At a time when software is built and changed faster than ever, manual testing has become a bottleneck. It's slow, error-prone and above all very expensive. The solution? Automated testing. But what exactly does that mean for a small or mid-sized business? And even more important: how do you make sure you don't drown in a sea of technical terms and complicated test scripts?

What is automated testing (and how is it different from test automation)?

Let's push the jargon aside for a moment. The terms 'automated testing' and 'test automation' are often used interchangeably. Still, in practice there's a subtle difference. Automated testing is purely about running the tests: a script or tool takes over the manual work and checks at lightning speed whether a piece of code does what it should. The computer types in the data, clicks the button and checks the result.

Test automation goes a step further. It means automating the entire process around the tests. Think of starting the tests automatically as soon as a developer pushes a new code update. When we build custom software for clients, we make sure processes like these are set up tightly. No code goes live until the system itself has approved the most important functions.

Why small and mid-sized businesses can't get around this anymore

You might be wondering: isn't this just for big tech companies with hundreds of developers? Absolutely not. It's precisely at small and mid-sized businesses (think 5 to 50 employees) that time is scarce. Every hour an employee spends testing a web form is an hour that doesn't go to product development or sales. On top of that, software is getting more complex. An application rarely stands on its own; it's often connected to your CRM, your accounting software and your email marketing through tools like n8n.

When one small change can have a domino effect on the rest of your systems, automated testing gives you the certainty you need. It lets you launch new features faster (shorter time-to-market) without having to worry about breaking your existing processes. That brings not just peace of mind, but also significant cost savings in the long run.

The test pyramid: what are you actually going to automate?

When you start automating your tests, you need to know where to put the focus. In the software world, we often use the 'test pyramid' for this. The pyramid helps you find a good balance in the types of tests you write. Because keep in mind: not everything needs to be automated, or should be.

Unit tests: the solid foundation

At the bottom of the pyramid are the unit tests. These are small, lightning-fast tests that check one specific function or module. Think of a calculation module: if you enter 2 and 2, do you get 4? These tests are cheap to make and take almost no time to run. They form the basis of stable code. At SharpClicks, we make sure the core logic of every application relies heavily on unit tests.

Integration tests: does everything work together?

One step up the pyramid are the integration tests. Here you check whether the different parts of your application communicate properly with each other. Does the frontend pull the right data from the database? And is that lead actually sent neatly to the CRM through an API? Especially in setups with lots of AI automations and connected tools, integration tests are essential. They keep processes from getting stuck because of a simple communication error between two systems.

End-to-end tests: the real customer journey

At the top of the pyramid are end-to-end (E2E) tests. These mimic exactly what a user does. An automated browser opens, fills a shopping cart, goes to checkout and completes a fictional payment. Because these tests are slow and complex (and break more often because of small design changes), you want fewer of them than unit tests. But the E2E tests you do have cover your most important business processes.

AI and automated testing: a logical next step

We can't talk about automation without mentioning AI. Artificial intelligence plays a growing role in software testing. Think of 'self-healing' tests, for example. In the past, a test broke right away if web designer Jordy changed the name of a button from 'Buy now' to 'Order now'. These days, thanks to AI, smart testing tools understand that the button still has the same function, and they adjust the test on their own.

I'd rather deliver a working system you can use yourself than a thick report that just ends up in a drawer.

Jesse Scherpen, owner of SharpClicks

AI also helps generate realistic test data. To test a CRM or dashboard properly, you need data. AI models can generate thousands of realistic but fictional customer profiles in a matter of seconds. That immediately solves problems with the GDPR and privacy, because you don't need to use real customer data in your test environment.

The pitfalls: where it goes wrong (and what it costs)

It sounds great, but automated testing is no magic band-aid for bad code. We regularly see businesses go wrong because they don't account for the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). Writing tests is an investment, but maintaining tests takes time too. A system changes, and your tests have to change with it.

On top of that, there's the danger of 'flaky tests'. These are tests that pass one time and fail the next, without the code having changed. For example because of a slow server or a spotty network connection. Flaky tests make developers lose trust in the test system, and that's deadly for your process. That's why we always recommend a solid infrastructure, with fast hosting on platforms like Vercel and tightly configured CI/CD pipelines.

Getting started with testing without the headache

If you want your business to keep growing, automated testing is simply a must. It gives you a safety net, speeds up your development time and guarantees a better experience for your customers. You don't have to automate everything right away. Start small. Begin with the business-critical processes: checking out, generating an invoice or sending a contact form.

At SharpClicks, we don't build reports, we build systems that work. Whether it's setting up a solid testing strategy for your existing application or building completely new custom software with built-in quality checks, we make sure the technology works for you. That way you can head into the weekend on Friday afternoon with peace of mind, without having to click through anything by hand.

How we can help

Custom software. Software that fits the way you work. First working version €5,000 to €7,500.

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