How Our Automation Pricing Actually Works

Fixed price, against a written scope

We quote a fixed price for a defined phase after discovery. That means we carry the risk of it taking longer than we expected, and we price for that — typically a margin over our expected cost.

You get budget certainty and we get an incentive to specify carefully. A fixed price without a written scope is not a fixed price; it is a number that will be renegotiated.

The five answers that move the number

1. How many systems does it touch? Each integration is design, build, error handling and testing.
2. Do those systems have usable APIs? This changes a price more than any design decision we make.
3. How many exceptions? The happy path is a fraction of the work.
4. How many user roles? Each one multiplies the permission matrix and the testing.
5. Who owns it internally? Projects without a decision-maker slip, and slippage costs money.

Typical ranges

What is included

• Specification and the exception design
• The build, with fortnightly demonstrations
• Exception handling and monitoring, not as an extra
• Parallel running against your manual process
• Documentation good enough for another developer to maintain it
• A 90-day warranty on defects after launch

Testing and exception handling are roughly a quarter of what you pay for and the first thing clients ask us to cut. We will not, because cutting it moves the cost to your first month live at a much higher rate.

What you can cut to reduce the price

Scope, honestly. One intake channel instead of three. One role instead of two. The admin interface deferred while a developer runs queries. Historical data left where it is.

Each of those reduces the price without affecting whether the thing works, which is the distinction that matters.

Frequently asked questions