What you did was a prototype. It's not something that can go into production. Tell your employer that you believe part of the manual effort can be made more e

What you did was a prototype. It's not something that can go into production. Tell your employer that you believe part of the manual effort can be made more efficient via automation. The reason you feel that way is that you've created a prototype that shows it working just enough to prove it to yourself, but it's not production ready. You'd like to work on it on company time and so that it's ready. Consider what you already did as the prototype. Whether you believe it's already ready now, or isn't, is immaterial. No software is "done". It just whether it meets a set of requirements. No doubt there will be additional changes waiting to be done, and maintenance. Consider those to be part of the formal implementation plan. Hopefully they will appreciate your initiative, and now you can continue to get paid for the thing that you were previously doing for free. And, maybe, you can help automate other things. This is good experience for you that you can use elsewhere. The last thing you want to do is worry about compensation for the work you've already done on your free time. You're being penny-wise / pound-foolish about that. The good will you'll have with your current employer will far outweigh that. And if it doesn't go as you describe, don't make a big deal about it, but clearly that's not department for you. Either transfer or go to a different company. This exact scenario happened to me, and this is what I did; my future career benefit from it.