£1,950 fixed · ten working days · one source, one report
One report you can read out in a meeting without checking it first.
You do not need a reporting system yet. You need the one report you keep asking for, built on the system you already run, with the number on it tied back to that system to the penny before anyone sees it. That is the whole job, and it has one price.
One report, up to three pages, answering the one question you wrote down on the call, designed to be read on a phone, in greyscale and in a printout.
One semantic model over your system, up to eight tables, with a one page data dictionary so the next person can see what every field means.
A one page reconciliation note: the headline figure on the report and the same figure in your system, side by side, tied to the penny.
Published to your own Power BI workspace, in your tenant. Nothing lives on my side.
A 60 minute handover call and a one page runbook: how to refresh it, what to do when it breaks, who to ring.
One round of changes inside five working days of handover.
A 20 minute call, then a one page proposal
We name the system, write the question down in one sentence, and agree the figure that has to reconcile. The proposal lands inside 24 hours with a card link for the first half.
Model, build, reconcile
The system connects (live through a gateway your IT installs, or from exports), the model gets built and documented, the report gets designed, and the headline number gets tied back to source. What does not tie gets fixed, not explained.
Handover, then it is yours
Published to your workspace, a 60 minute walkthrough with whoever will use it, the runbook, and one round of changes in the week that follows. The second half is invoiced only once the reconciliation note ties.
- One source system, one semantic model of up to 8 tables
- One report answering one written question, up to 3 pages and 15 measures
- Headline figure reconciled to source to the penny, or it does not ship
- Published to your own Power BI workspace. You own it from day one
- The £1,950 comes off a Reporting Sprint booked within 90 days
- A free 20-minute call, no pitch
- We work out which engagement fits, or whether none of them do
- If a cheaper piece of work solves it, I'll tell you
One of these, connected properly.
The First Report takes exactly one source. That is not a limitation to negotiate, it is what makes ten working days and one price honest. A second system is the Reporting Sprint.
- Xero
- Sage 50
- Sage 200
- QuickBooks Online
- Business Central
- HubSpot
- Salesforce
- Dynamics 365 Sales
- a folder of spreadsheets
Live if your own IT installs the on-premises gateway. Otherwise from scheduled exports or a OneDrive folder, which is how most first reports start and is perfectly good.
Not a Health Check
The Health Check scores Power BI you already have against 48 written checks. This builds one report from a system and a question. If you already have an estate nobody trusts, start there instead.
Not a pilot
It is a finished report your finance or ops lead reads out on a Tuesday, not a proof of concept to be rebuilt later. The model underneath is the one a Sprint would extend.
Not a day rate
Twenty honest hours go into one of these, including the call, the proposal and the handover. You are buying the report and the reconciled number, not my Tuesday and Wednesday.
If it doesn't reconcile, it doesn't ship.
The same rule that produced a 23 year financial archive reconciled to £0 variance applies to a single report. On the First Report it is written into the payment terms rather than a badge: the second half is only invoiced once the reconciliation note ties, so the guarantee is something your FD can repeat, not something you have to take on trust.
50% to book, 50% on delivery, 14 days to pay.
Invoice or card, whichever suits your finance team. All prices exclude VAT where applicable.
The deposit holds your date
Booking blocks out my diary, so the first half is non-refundable inside 14 days of the start date. Move it with more notice than that and nothing is lost.
Work pauses on an overdue invoice
Not a threat, just how it works, and saying it now saves an awkward conversation later.
Scope changes get quoted, not absorbed
Every fixed price names what it covers. Anything outside that gets priced before it starts rather than appearing on a final invoice.
Access delays move the date, not the price
Waiting on permissions is the most common reason a turnaround slips. It shifts the delivery date and never the fee.
Frequently asked questions
What is the First Report?
One system you already run, one report answering one written question, and the headline number reconciled back to your system to the penny before it ships. £1,950 fixed, live in your own Power BI workspace within ten working days of the data arriving, with a handover call and a one page runbook so your team owns it.
Which systems can the First Report connect to?
One of: Xero, Sage 50, Sage 200, QuickBooks Online, Business Central, HubSpot, Salesforce, Dynamics 365 Sales, or a folder of spreadsheets. Connected live if your own IT installs the gateway, otherwise from scheduled exports or a OneDrive folder. A second system is a Reporting Sprint, not a First Report.
What does "reconciled to the penny" mean here?
Before the report ships, the headline figure is tied back to the source system with a one page reconciliation note showing where each side came from. If it does not tie, it does not ship, and you do not pay the balance. That is the same standard as every other build on this site, written into the payment terms rather than a badge.
How is the First Report paid?
It starts with a free 20 minute call, because a fair price needs a named source and a written question. Then a one page proposal inside 24 hours with a card payment link: 50 per cent to book, 50 per cent invoiced only once the reconciliation note ties. 14 days to pay.
What is not included in the First Report?
A second source system, row-level security, dataflows, Fabric, Copilot, installing a gateway, fixing the data in your source system, training beyond the handover call, on-site days, and Power BI licences. Each of those has its own place on the services page. The caps are what make the fixed price honest.
What happens after the First Report?
Most people either leave it alone, put it on a Watch plan at £250 a month so a silent refresh failure never kills it, or come back for the Reporting Sprint when they want the other two sources and eight pages. The £1,950 comes off a Sprint booked within 90 days.
Is the First Report the same as the Health Check?
No. The Health Check scores Power BI you already have against 48 written checks and hands back a report card. The First Report builds one report from a system and a question, for people who have no Power BI yet or one report they need to trust. If you already have an estate nobody trusts, start with the Health Check.
Stop arguing about the numbers. Start using them.
Book a fixed-price Power BI Health Check and find out how trusted, usable and audit-ready your reporting really is, and exactly what to do next.