In this guide 6 sections
Ask which sources the vendor reads, and how. Ask who owns the reporting database, whether metric definitions are written down, and what happens when a nightly refresh fails and who gets told. Then ask how access is controlled, and whether you receive the source code and a way to extend dashboards yourself without paying the vendor for every change.
Which systems will they read, and how?
List every source the project touches. Include the accounting package, the billing system, the CRM, the Excel file on someone’s desktop and the warehouse stock app, and write the connection method beside each one. Press on the method.
A read-only database login, a scheduled export file and a vendor API are very different things, and the read-only login is safest for live software. Writing back to a source needs a reason.
Be wary of the vendor who says “we connect to everything”, because nobody has opened your accounting database, your stock app or the spreadsheet on the shared drive.
- Read-only access to the source system
- A named person on your side who grants it
- Who pays when the source vendor charges for API access
- What happens when the source software is upgraded
Who owns the reporting database?
Your cleaned data has to live somewhere. Ask whose server runs it, whose cloud account holds it and whose name sits on the monthly bill, because the answer should be yours in all three cases.
Suppose the vendor holds it. Ask what you receive when you leave. A full database backup in a standard format such as PostgreSQL or SQL Server is a fair answer, whereas a promise to “export your reports” is not.
Ask the same about the dashboard files, whether they are Power BI workbooks, Metabase questions or Looker Studio reports, because a dashboard without its query is a picture.
Are definitions written down and signed?
Charts first means arguments later. Ask whether the vendor will produce a definition sheet for each metric, with formula, source field, exclusions and owner, before a single chart is drawn.
Ask who signs it on your side. If the answer is “whoever you nominate”, push for the finance head and the sales head by name, because their agreement is the real milestone.
Ask how a later change to a rule is recorded, whether the old figures are restated, and who approves the restatement before the board sees it.
What happens when a refresh fails?
Every pipeline breaks eventually. A service account password expires, a column in the sales table is renamed, or a source server is down at 2 a.m. Ask how the vendor finds out about each failure, how the news reaches you before your first coffee, and who restarts the run once the cause is fixed.
Good answers mention a run log, an alert to a named inbox and a banner on the dashboard showing the last successful refresh time. Poor answers say “monitoring” and stop.
Get the response time in writing. Also ask what stays covered after the first months, once the build team has moved on and your own staff hold the keys to the pipeline.
- Alert goes to your owner and the vendor
- Dashboard shows the last refresh time
- A failed load never overwrites good data
- Reruns possible for a single day
Access, handover and extending it yourself
Ask how row-level access works. A branch manager should see only their own branch, so request a demo with two test logins, one for a branch manager and one for the finance head. Ask who adds a new user, and how fast.
Request the pipeline source code, the database scripts and the documentation at handover, delivered into a repository that you control and can hand to another firm. Ask which of your own people could add a column or a new chart, and what training that would take before they did it unaided.
Send the vendor this list. Ask for answers in writing.
BI vendor question sheet
Four blocks cover sources and access, ownership and handover, definitions and refresh failures, and extension by your own staff, with every question printed on its own row. Each question sits beside the vendor’s written answer and the evidence offered, and a last column scores it clear, vague or missing. Two vendors then compare side by side. Gaps show before any contract is drafted.
Open a blank worksheet to printQuestions owners ask
Should I ask for a fixed price or time and materials?
Ask for both. A fixed price suits a defined set of dashboards, whereas time-based billing suits discovery work, where the sources are unknown and the scope will move.
Do I need a data warehouse before the first dashboard?
Not always. A modest set of sources often fits in one reporting database, so ask the vendor to justify any larger design against your data volumes and user count.
Who should sit in the vendor meeting?
The person who asks for the reports, the person who runs your main software, and someone from finance, since each of them hears different gaps in the same answer. Keep the group small.
Can I see a reference before signing?
Yes. Ask to speak to a customer with similar sources, and ask what broke in the first three months and how many days the vendor took to fix it. The fixing speed tells you more than any demo.