Build, buy or configure: how to cost each route fairly

Owners compare a build with a package. Then they stop. That drops two routes that often win: configuring a tool the business already pays for, such as the ledger or a form builder, and carrying on with spreadsheets. Give each its own row.

No row, no weighing. Use identical columns for every route. A quotation showing one figure tells you the build cost and nothing about renewals, data migration or the weeks your own staff will lose to workshops.

Enter a range where you are unsure. Never leave a cell blank. A blank reads as zero when the totals are added at the end, and a hopeful zero will flatter the cheapest route.

Licences renew. A per-seat package priced for ten users looks very different once the sales team grows to thirty and the warehouse supervisors and finance clerks also need logins. Costs shift again when the vendor moves single sign-on and audit logs into a dearer tier, so ask what each tier includes. Get renewal terms in writing.

Migration is the second gap, because customer masters, open purchase orders, opening stock balances and SKU codes all need cleaning before they load. Duplicate customers, mixed phone formats and half-filled addresses stretch a one-day import into weeks of checking, because each exception needs a person who knows the customer.

Training is third. Output dips while staff learn. For several weeks two systems run side by side, and every sales order is keyed twice, once into the old sheet and once into the new screen. Count those hours.

The vendor never quotes the time your team spends writing requirements, answering questions, testing builds and signing off each stage. For a custom build, that fills a quarter. Ask who must be free, and when.

Put a rough value on those hours. The accounts manager who gives a build six hours a week is not free, because her month-end close still falls to somebody else, usually late on a Friday.

The manual route hides the same bill. A dispatcher who re-keys orders from WhatsApp into an Excel sheet, then phones a driver to confirm each load, costs money daily. No invoice records it.

A package suits a process that looks like everyone else’s, such as payroll, bookkeeping or basic email campaigns, where the vendor has already met every awkward case. Configuring a tool you own suits small gaps, like an approval step before a purchase order or a new report for the stock controller. The data is already there.

A custom build earns its place when the process sets you apart, or when three packages would need bolting together with CSV exports and fragile macros. Quote it in phases. Stop after the first if the numbers disappoint.

Carrying on manually is a real answer when order volume is low and errors are rare, such as a workshop taking a dozen phone orders a week. Say so in the table. Then add the date you will look again, so a choice that suits twelve orders a week never goes stale unnoticed once volumes climb.

Ask two people to fill the table separately, one who favours building and one who favours buying, then compare their cells line by line. The gaps expose one assumption. Argue about those cells only.

Run totals over three years. Year one favours packages and manual work, while years two and three expose renewals, hosting and annual support, and the ranking often flips. Show all three columns.

Pick a route. Write the review date on the table. Then hand the quotations to a trusted outsider, such as your auditor, and ask them to check every cell against its source document.