The bulk of the work is mine. Your team only appears where it's needed.

The first meeting

Your time: 1 hour

You tell me which report eats the most time each month, which systems the data comes from and who builds it today. With that I'll tell you whether it fits, what I'd do first and what's needed before a price can be fixed.

You leave with my opinion, whether you hire me or not. If I don't think you need me, I'll say so.

In-depth assessment

Your time: depends on scope

When the scope can't be pinned down in a conversation, I analyse it properly and hand you a plan: what to automate, in what order, with a fixed price for each report.

It's the only assessment I charge for, I tell you before it becomes necessary, and it's deducted in full if you then hire the build.

The proposal

Your time: none

I send you in writing exactly which report, with which fields, in what timeline and at what price. No small print and no conditions appearing halfway through.

All I need from you is read access to the sources. If that has to be arranged with your IT person or provider, I deal with them directly.

Connection and model

Your time: none

I connect your sources — ERP, CRM, spreadsheets or SQL databases — and build the data model following good modelling practices, so it causes fewer problems and is quicker to change later. I do this part without bothering you: your team carries on and your ERP keeps working exactly as it does today.

I read from your systems, I don't write to them. I never touch production data.

First version and reviews

Your time: 1 hour per round

I show you the report running and compare its figures against your last close, one by one. If something doesn't add up, it shows here and it's fixed here.

You tell me what's missing, what's superfluous and what's badly named. Two rounds of review are included: one to correct and one to confirm.

Delivery and handover

Your time: 1 hour

I leave the report refreshing itself, hand it over in a session walking through how it works and where each figure comes from, and deliver the documentation of how everything is built.

From here you don't depend on anyone else. If you'd like your team to learn to build its own reports, training is contracted separately. And if you'd rather I keep looking after it, there's monthly maintenance with no lock-in.