Fractional, not full-time
A full-time US BI developer costs $100K+ in salary before benefits. You get the same seniority by the hour: Starter 20h at $125/hr, Growth 40h at $115/hr, Power 80h at $100/hr — and unused hours never expire.
Senior BI help, sized for small teams
A Senior Power BI Developer, Sized for a Small Business
No $100K+ salary, no agency minimums, no retainer. Buy a block of prepaid Flex hours, send your request, and a senior US-based engineer builds your first dashboard from QuickBooks or Excel — typically in 3–5 business days.
Representative dashboard — sample data
BI without the payroll line
Senior help on the days you need it, nothing on the days you don't
Most owners searching for a Power BI developer for small business work don't have a BI team, don't have a $100K+ salary line for one, and don't need forty hours of development every week. They need a first dashboard built from QuickBooks or Excel, sales and cash-flow numbers they can trust, a slow or broken report fixed, and small tweaks handled without a retainer.
That's the gap this service fills: one senior, US-based engineer on prepaid Flex hours that never expire. You buy a block, send a request, approve the scope and hours estimate, and pay only for approved work — a first business dashboard typically fits inside one Starter block. Hiring generally, at any company size? See hire a Power BI developer; this page is the small-business version of that offer.
Common small-business requests
- First dashboard from QuickBooks
- Excel reports made live
- Sales & cash-flow visibility
- Fix a broken or slow report
- Ongoing tweaks, no retainer
- Owner KPI one-pager
Try us risk-free for 4 hours
Buy a block of prepaid Flex hours and, if you're unhappy within the first 4 hours, we refund you in full — no questions asked. Hours are deducted only for work you've reviewed and approved, there's no project minimum, and your banked hours never expire.
Why small teams pick us
Big-company BI skill without big-company overhead
The same senior engineer larger clients get — scoped down to the handful of hours a small company actually needs.
First dashboard from what you have
QuickBooks, Excel workbooks, a CSV export — we start from the data you already run the business on and turn it into a live sales, cash-flow, and P&L view. No data warehouse project required first.
Fixes, not just new builds
A slow report, broken refresh, or DAX that returns the wrong number is a normal first request. Send the file; we diagnose and fix it from the same prepaid hours — no "new project" minimum to get help.
Senior-led, US-based, remote-first
One US-based engineer with 20+ years on the Microsoft platform handles your work end to end — no offshore handoffs, no junior learning on your numbers, no account manager in between.
Pay only for approved work
Every request gets a scope and hours estimate before work starts, and hours deduct only for builds you approve. No retainer, no monthly minimum, and a full refund inside your first 4 hours if you're unhappy.
What does a small company actually need from a BI developer?
Usually four things: a first dashboard built from QuickBooks or Excel, clear sales and cash-flow visibility for the owner, a fix for a report that's broken or painfully slow, and someone to make small changes as the business evolves. None of that justifies a payroll line — it justifies a handful of senior hours.
That's why we sell hours, not headcount. A typical first engagement maps your data source, builds a focused dashboard — sales trend, cash position, AR, and an owner KPI one-pager are the usual set — validates the numbers against your books, and sets up scheduled refresh so it stays current on its own. If your books live in QuickBooks, the QuickBooks Power BI dashboard page covers that build in detail; if you're graduating from spreadsheets, our migration to Power BI service moves your Excel reporting over without losing the logic you've built up.
Full-time hire vs agency vs prepaid Flex hours
Here's the honest comparison small-business owners run in their heads. A full-time hire wins only when you truly have a week of BI work every week; a traditional agency wins on large multi-workstream programs. For everything below that line, fractional senior hours are the cheaper, faster fit.
| Full-time BI hire | Traditional agency | Prepaid Flex hours | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cost | $100K+ salary plus benefits | $175–250/hr typical | $100–125/hr, prepaid blocks |
| Minimums | Ongoing payroll commitment | Project minimums, often $10K+ | None — no retainer, no project minimum |
| Start time | Months of recruiting | Typically 4–6 weeks | Usually this week |
| Unused capacity | Paid whether used or not | Retainer hours often expire | Banked hours never expire |
How much does this cost a small business?
You buy prepaid Flex hours that never expire: Starter 20h at $125/hr ($2,500), Growth 40h at $115/hr ($4,600), or Power 80h at $100/hr ($8,000). A first small-business dashboard typically fits inside one Starter block, and leftover hours stay banked for tweaks and fixes later.
There is no retainer and no monthly minimum, so a quiet month costs nothing. Every request gets a scope and hours estimate before work begins, and hours deduct only for work you approve. On the Microsoft side, most small teams just need Power BI Pro licenses for the people viewing reports — Microsoft explains the license types in its Power BI license documentation (opens in new tab), and we'll tell you exactly what you need rather than upselling capacity you don't. For the wider budget conversation, our affordable Power BI consulting page goes deeper on pricing, and how it works walks through the Flex model step by step.
What about ongoing work after the first build?
Small businesses rarely need a standing engagement — they need occasional hours: a new visual before a bank meeting, a refresh that broke, a metric definition that changed. Your banked hours cover exactly that, whenever it comes up, with no minimum per request and no pressure to "use up" anything.
If your needs grow into a steady stream of development — several dashboards, multiple data sources, monthly enhancements — the same engineer scales with you, and our outsource Power BI development arrangement covers handing off all ongoing BI work. And if you're hiring more generally — comparing marketplaces, contractors, and staffing at any company size — the hire a Power BI developer page is the broader version of this offer. Everything we build lives in your tenant, under your accounts: you own the files, the model, the DAX, and the credentials from day one.
Typical first-engagement scope
- Connect QuickBooks or Excel data
- Sales & cash-flow dashboard
- Owner KPI one-pager
- Scheduled refresh, set and monitored
- Leftover hours banked for tweaks
3–5
business days, typical
Prepaid
hours, never expire
You
own everything
A first dashboard usually fits inside one Starter block, and hours deduct only for work you approve. See Flex pricing →
How it works
From first request to live dashboard
- 1
Send your request
Tell us where your data lives — QuickBooks, Excel, or something else — and what you need to see. We reply with a scope and hours estimate before any work begins; hours deduct only for builds you approve.
- 2
We build & validate
A senior US-based engineer connects the data, builds the model and DAX, and checks the numbers against your books — most focused first builds ship in 3–5 business days.
- 3
Own it & bank the rest
We publish to your workspace, set scheduled refresh, and hand over every file and credential. You own it all, and your remaining hours stay banked for whatever comes up next.
Representative perspective
We're eleven people — nobody here was ever going to learn DAX. One Starter block got us a sales and cash dashboard from QuickBooks, and the leftover hours have covered every tweak since. Hiring for this would have been absurd.Owner, small distribution company
Representative perspective
Every agency we called wanted a five-figure project before they'd fix one slow report. Here we paid for the hours the fix took, kept the rest banked, and had the same engineer add two visuals a few months later — no retainer, no re-onboarding.General manager, family-owned services business
Get senior BI help without the payroll line
Tell us where your data lives and what you need to see. We'll scope the task and tell you the hours before any work begins — drawn from prepaid Flex hours that never expire, with no minimums and no obligation.
FAQ
Small-business Power BI questions, answered
A full-time BI developer in the US runs $100K+ in salary before benefits, and most small businesses have nowhere near a week of BI work every week. Here you prepay a block of hours, draw them down only for work you approve, and pay nothing between requests. Same senior skill set, sized to the actual workload.
Most first dashboards fit inside one Starter block — 20 prepaid hours at $125/hr, $2,500 total. You get a scope and hours estimate before any work begins, hours deduct only for builds you approve, and whatever is left stays banked for tweaks later because Flex hours never expire.
No. Many small businesses start with nothing but QuickBooks and spreadsheets. We tell you exactly which Microsoft licenses you need — usually just Power BI Pro per viewer — help you set them up, and build inside your own tenant so you own everything. Licensing is Microsoft's cost, documented on learn.microsoft.com; we never resell or mark it up.
Usually this week. There's no recruiting cycle and no agency onboarding: you buy a block of Flex hours, send your request through the form, and we reply with a scope and hours estimate. Once you approve it, most focused builds ship in 3-5 business days, senior-led start to finish.
That's exactly what the model is built for. There's no retainer and no monthly minimum — your prepaid hours sit banked until you need a tweak, a new visual, or a refresh fix, and they never expire. A quiet month costs you nothing; a busy month just draws down more of the block.
Book a free demo
Get senior Power BI help, on demand
Tell us the task. We scope it, you approve, and a senior consultant delivers — typically in 3–5 business days. Prepaid hours that never expire.
- Prepaid hours from $100/hour — and they never expire
- Senior-led delivery — 20+ years on the Microsoft platform
- Typical 3–5 business day turnaround
- Full refund if you’re unhappy in your first 4 hours
The fastest way to reach us is the form — tell us the task and we'll reply within one business day.