What does self implementation cost?
A low onboarding fee is only part of the picture. Estimate the staff hours, internal cost and likely timeline involved in implementing a new business system.
About 2–3 minutesHere’s the cost that doesn’t appear on the software invoice.
Internal staff cost is the value of working time diverted from normal duties. The estimate includes learning, decisions, data work, training, testing, go-live and stabilisation.
| Approach | Example external fee | Internal staff time | Staff time value | Likely go-live | Subscription before go-live | Indicative total |
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Important: Self-implementation can take from approximately four months to two years when it competes with day-to-day work. This calculation allows for ordinary learning and rework, but it cannot quantify the future cost of correcting poor data, accounting or workflow decisions—or reimplementing the system later.
Consult can help with full implementation or just the areas where your team needs support.
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How this estimate works
The calculator is calibrated against recorded time from completed inventory-system implementations led by an experienced implementer: approximately 30 hours for a simple implementation, 85 hours for a typical implementation and 185–200 hours for a complex implementation. Your selections move the estimate between those benchmarks.
Client decisions, data validation, testing and staff participation still exist when a provider or partner completes the specialist work. For self-implementation, the calculator adds a substantial learning and rework allowance based on system knowledge, previous implementation experience and relevant accounting knowledge. Training is counted as total staff-hours rather than only the trainer’s time.
Internal staff costs include a 20% employment-cost allowance for leave, ACC and related costs. For annual salaries, the hourly equivalent is salary ÷ 2,080 paid hours, then multiplied by 1.20. Hourly pay rates are also multiplied by 1.20. This is an indicative planning allowance rather than a payroll calculation.
The implementation-partner example uses an indicative NZ$145/hour remote consulting rate. Partner-led projects are managed to an agreed go-live date; the estimate assumes the client supplies data, decisions and staff availability when agreed.
Reference example only: Unleashed NZ FlightPath prices checked 8 August 2026 — A $449, B $789 and C $7,999, excluding GST. FlightPaths are Unleashed onboarding packages and do not represent the pricing of all software providers. View Unleashed FlightPaths. External fees shown exclude GST; internal salary cost is not subject to GST.
