Work out whether this pays for itself.
Your people, your hours, your rates, against what you expect to invest.
$60.50 an hourIllustrative default. Replace it with your own loaded cost
Example scenario. Change any figure and the ledger moves.
Why there is a default.
The $60.50 hourly cost is an editable example, not a published wage benchmark. Replace it with your organisation's loaded hourly cost before relying on the result.
What you expect to invest
Use your own budget or a quote you already hold. Nothing here is our figure. Read what shapes an AI operations scope in our cost guide.
Why the value starts late.
Nothing is carried until the build is live, so the value side only runs from that month. Two months is the default because an audit runs two to three weeks and a pilot four to six. Change it.
This work, today
$133,584a year. 2,208 hours across 4 people.
- Value of the hours carried, ten months of year one
- + $55,660
Why capacity is not cash.
Hours carried come back as capacity, not money in the account, unless you resell the time or stop paying for it.
- Build, one off
- -
- Running cost, ten months of year one
- -
What year one leaves out.
A retainer runs on a twelve-month minimum from the day it starts, so the months past the end of year one are not in this figure.
- Year one, net
- -
This is a scenario, not a promise.
Every input is an estimate you supplied and the arithmetic only reflects it back.
Enter what you expect to invest and the ledger nets it.
What the audit measures.
Scope
We watch one process end to end.
The quoting run, follow-up chain or back-office cycle you just modelled, traced through your actual systems, not a questionnaire. Two to three weeks.
Evidence
You get the real hours, not your estimate.
The carry share you guessed above is replaced with a measured one, and the figures either hold or they do not.
Output
A costed build plan, or a written no.
If an agent cannot carry enough of the work to pay for the build, the audit says so and you keep the report.
Terms
The fee is fixed before the work begins, and it credits forward.
A fixed fee agreed in writing before the work begins. Part of the audit fee credits a pilot, or the full fee credits your first month of retainer, if you start within 60 days. Credited once, not both. If the acceptance criteria are not met, we extend by up to two weeks at no extra cost. If they are still not met, the full pilot fee is refunded, less reasonable third-party costs.
30+ hours each week. Quoting administration no longer consumed the same weekly workload. Read the Savwinch case study.
Savwinch, a marine hardware manufacturer, during the engagement period