Page
Excel Build vs Hiring an Analyst
Three-year TCO of a one-time Excel build vs hiring an in-house analyst vs buying a BI tool vs doing nothing - every recurring cost in rupees.
- compare
- analyst
- pricing
An Excel build starting from ₹6K - we work with your budget. The honest comparison is against the three realistic alternatives - hiring an in-house analyst, buying a BI tool plus a consultant, or doing nothing. Tell us what you can spend and we will tell you what fits. No upsell, no pressure.
Three-year TCO
Four columns, one honest comparison.
Indicative numbers for a finance team spending 12 hrs/week on manual reporting across 3 people. Run the Hours Saved Calculator for your own - the comparison logic is the same.
FormulaSurge
One-time Excel build
- Year 1
- Starting from ₹6K
- Year 2
- ₹0
- Year 3
- ₹0
When the numbers already live in Excel, you want a senior pair of hands at a fixed price, and you want to own the deliverable. Tell us your budget - we will tell you what fits.
In-house analyst
Recurring salary + benefits
- Year 1
- ₹2.5L
- Year 2
- ₹2.5L
- Year 3
- ₹2.5L
When you have 40+ hrs/week of genuine analytical work every week, for the next 18 months, and the budget for benefits plus 3–6 months of ramp.
BI tool + consultant
Licence + consultant hours
- Year 1
- ₹1.2L
- Year 2
- ₹50K
- Year 3
- ₹50K
When Excel is genuinely outgrown - multi-tenant, real-time dashboards, hundreds of millions of rows. Not the case for most small teams.
Do nothing
Cost of inaction
- Year 1
- ₹3.0L
- Year 2
- ₹3.0L
- Year 3
- ₹3.0L
The number nobody computes - 1,728 hrs/yr of recoverable manual reporting time across 3 people at ₹175/hr, plus errors surviving into the report your CFO signs.
Want this on your own numbers? Run the Hours Saved Calculator.
In writing
Four guarantees on every paid engagement.
What every paid engagement comes with - in writing, before any build work starts.
Written scope, fixed price, fixed timeline
Agreed in writing before any build work begins. No open-ended discovery, no scope creep, no surprise invoice at the end.
Working draft within five working days
Or your deposit back, no questions. We will not string you along for a month to find out we are not a fit.
30-day post-handover support window
Every defect against the Definition of Done fixed free, and every question answered within one working day. New features are quoted separately.
A written Definition of Done
If we miss it, we fix it free. No arguments. The bar is in writing before the work starts, not after.
When each option actually makes sense
No silver bullet. Three real options, one bad one.
The honest framing is not “Excel build vs hiring an analyst” - it is “what work do you actually have, over how long?” The four-cell grid below is the rough decision rule we walk buyers through on the first call.
You need a finished workbook, not a full-time head
A dashboard, a pipeline, an automated month-end close, a three-statement model - fixed-scope, fixed-price, owned by you after handover. Choose the Excel build.
You need ongoing analytical capacity, every week
Your team has 40+ hours a week of analysis, ad-hoc questions, board-prep and scenario work - for the next 18 months. Hire the analyst. We can hand over the workbook your analyst inherits.
Excel is genuinely outgrown - multi-tenant, real-time, hundreds of millions of rows
Power BI / Tableau / Looker. A real platform migration with a real consultant. Buy the tool. We will tell you so on the first call.
You are still deciding
The free audit runs the seven mechanical checks on your actual workbook, in writing, within one working day. From there you will know which option the work calls for.
The honest answer
Send us the workbook. We will tell you which option to pick.
A surprising number of first replies say “hire an analyst” or “buy a BI tool” - we do not chase work that fits another option better. Free audit. Reply in writing within one working day.
Transparent pricing
Direct channels
Three bands.
In writing.
- Starter
- ₹6K
- Standard
- ₹15K
- Complex
- ₹40K+
- 1Send the brief
- 2We pick a band
- 3Scope in writing