What actually happens in the first meeting

"Data audit" sounds long, technical and uncomfortable. The word doesn't help. So here's what actually happens in that first meeting, without the runaround — because it looks nothing like what you're probably imagining.

It isn't a technical review you won't understand

We won't be talking to you about database schemas or cloud architectures. It's a conversation, in your business language, about how you make decisions today: which reports you use, where they come from, how long they take to arrive and who you trust when two figures disagree.

It takes an hour, not half a day

There's nothing special to prepare. If you can have an example of a report you use regularly to hand — even a spreadsheet with formula errors in it — all the better. But it isn't required. And if you've filled in the form beforehand, we arrive prepared and the hour goes twice as far.

This is what we look at

First, where your data comes from today: systems, spreadsheets, someone's head. Second, how much time goes each week into building the reports you use to decide. And third, where the risk is highest that a figure is wrong without anyone noticing.

This is what you take away, whether or not you continue with us

A clear read, in plain language, of the two or three things costing you the most time or money right now. If it makes sense to continue, we'll tell you where we'd start and what's needed before a price can be fixed. If not, you leave with more clarity than you had before the meeting, and no obligation.

Why this meeting isn't charged for

Because it's the fastest way to know whether we can genuinely help, without either of us wasting time on a generic proposal. We'd rather show you first and let you decide afterwards.

There is one case where we do charge, and we say so before starting: when the scope can't be pinned down in a conversation and someone has to get properly into your sources. That's no longer a meeting, it's an in-depth assessment, it has its own deliverable and it's quoted like any other piece of work. If you then hire the build, it's deducted in full.

And why we don't give you a price beforehand

Because we'd be making it up. The effort in these projects is set by the real state of your data, not by how the report looks: a single report wired to a single database can be solved in weeks or take months if that database is undocumented. We'd rather look at it and give you a figure we can stand behind in writing.