A help desk price is easy to underestimate when the comparison stops at the advertised subscription. A useful budget also accounts for the number of people who need access, the work required to start, store and mailbox connections, conversation migration, training, and temporary staffing during busy periods.
This worksheet turns those inputs into a monthly and first-year estimate. It does not assume that every vendor includes the same services. Mark unknown costs explicitly and ask for a written answer before treating them as zero.
1. Calculate the Base Seat Cost
For a per-agent plan, begin with the people who will actively work in the inbox—not the total company headcount.
Monthly seat cost = active agent seats × monthly price per agent
For example, eveningDesk Lite is €20 per agent per month. Three agent seats therefore have a base subscription cost of 3 × €20 = €60 per month, or €720 for 12 months. The final checkout amount can still reflect applicable taxes or an eligible promotion.
Check how the vendor treats administrators, occasional reviewers, contractors, and people who only need reports. Do not assume those roles are free or billable until the pricing terms say so.
2. Record Onboarding and Setup
Separate the recurring subscription from the work needed to reach a usable inbox. Ask who performs each task, what is included, and when it will be completed.
- Workspace and administrator setup
- Mailbox connection and sending-domain checks
- Team invitations, roles, and permissions
- Saved replies, routing rules, and support policies
- Agent training and launch-day support
For eveningDesk, checkout starts workspace setup; it does not instantly provision a finished workspace. Include the setup period in the rollout plan rather than treating payment as the end of onboarding.
3. Price Integration Work Honestly
An integration label does not reveal who configures it, what data it exposes, or whether additional services are required. For every mailbox, store, or other system in scope, record:
- Any vendor or platform fee
- Internal setup time and the person responsible
- Credential and permission requirements
- Whether data is synced, linked, or fetched on demand
- Ongoing checks when credentials or APIs change
In eveningDesk, WooCommerce order data requires configured store credentials, and the relevant order is synced or linked. That boundary should be reflected in both the implementation plan and the cost estimate; order context should not be budgeted as automatic work that needs no configuration.
4. Estimate Migration as a Project
Migration cost depends on what must move. A clean start with only new email is different from importing years of conversations, contacts, tags, attachments, and internal notes.
List each data set, its source, its approximate volume, the required history, and the person who will verify the result. Then add time for export cleanup, a sample import, quality checks, and a fallback copy of the original data.
If a vendor has not confirmed that a data type can be migrated, write not confirmed in the worksheet. Do not hide that uncertainty inside a zero-cost line.
5. Model Seasonal Staffing Separately
Many e-commerce teams need more support capacity around launches, holidays, or returns peaks. Build that temporary demand into the estimate instead of paying for peak headcount all year by default.
Seasonal seat cost = temporary seats × monthly seat price × active months
At a €20 monthly seat price, three core seats for 12 months plus two temporary seats for three months would be:
(3 × €20 × 12) + (2 × €20 × 3) = €720 + €120 = €840
This is a planning example, not a promise about how a specific vendor changes subscription quantities. Confirm proration, minimum terms, seat-removal timing, and whether seasonal agents need separate onboarding before using the result as a purchase total.
6. Complete the First-Year Worksheet
| Cost area | Calculation or question | Your estimate |
|---|---|---|
| Core agent seats | Seats × monthly price × 12 | €_____ |
| Seasonal seats | Temporary seats × price × active months | €_____ |
| Onboarding | Vendor fee + internal setup time | €_____ |
| Integrations | Platform fees + configuration time | €_____ |
| Migration | Export, cleanup, import, and validation | €_____ |
| Training | Agent hours + launch support | €_____ |
| Contingency | Unconfirmed work or scope changes | €_____ |
| First-year total | Add every confirmed and estimated line | €_____ |
Keep recurring costs and one-time implementation work visible as separate subtotals. That makes a second-year forecast easier and prevents a low subscription price from masking a large setup project.
Questions to Resolve Before Checkout
- Which roles count as paid agents?
- What exactly happens after payment, and who owns each setup task?
- Which connections are included, and what credentials do they require?
- What data can be migrated and validated?
- How are seats added or removed during a seasonal peak?
- Which taxes, promotions, usage fees, or service fees can change the total?
A credible comparison leaves unknowns visible. Use the worksheet to turn each unknown into a question, then update the budget only when the answer is confirmed.