Does anyone here work with automated acceptance tests? I don't know a lot about them and I've been wondering if it's too time consuming to write them and if it's better to test manually

Set up a script that sends an e-mail to your manager/client asking to test it

Yes.

Yes, it takes some time to get up and running with automated testing, do it as a side project and add to it where you can

Yes, it saves you time manually retesting everything already covered by the automation suite

Yes, it's a pain in the ass to change the suite to need new criteria if you change a lot of things frequently.

Yes, you should just do it anyway.