The verdict in three sentences
A connected dashboard (Power BI, Metabase, Looker Studio) costs 8,000 to 22,000 EUR for an Amsterdam SME, licences on top (10 to 40 EUR/user/month). It replaces manual Excel exports with automatically refreshed data, saving 2 to 4 days of management close each month. The real deliverable is not the chart: it is the decision made earlier, on reliable figures.
Dashboard budget in 2026
2026 orders of magnitude for the Amsterdam market, in euros.
| Item | Scope | 2026 budget (EUR) | Lead time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Framing & KPIs | Workshops, metric dictionary | 1,500 - 3,500 | 1-2 wks |
| ETL pipeline | Source connection, cleaning | 3,000 - 8,000 | 2-4 wks |
| Dashboards | 3-6 views, filters, drill-down | 3,500 - 10,000 | 2-4 wks |
| Security & access | Roles, RLS, sharing | 1,000 - 3,000 | 1 wk |
| Maintenance/yr | Changes, support | 1,500 - 5,000/yr | ongoing |
Licences vary widely: Power BI Pro is about 10 EUR/user/month, Looker Studio is free (paid in Pro), and open-source Metabase is free beyond hosting (~40-80 EUR/month of server).
Packaged SaaS BI vs custom
| Criterion | SaaS BI (Power BI, Looker) | Custom (Metabase, bespoke) |
|---|---|---|
| Initial cost | 8,000 - 15,000 EUR | 15,000 - 22,000 EUR |
| Recurring licences | 10 - 40 EUR/user/month | 0 - 80 EUR/month total |
| Lead time | 6-8 weeks | 8-10 weeks |
| Customisation | Good | Full |
| Vendor lock-in | High | Low |
| Best for | Finance, marketing teams | Specific data, app integration |
For an SME under 30 users, SaaS BI is often faster to deploy; beyond that, or if data is highly specific, open-source custom cuts the licence bill over 3 years.
The real hidden cost: data quality
The classic trap of a dashboard project is not the visualisation layer but the data preparation. A poorly configured ERP, heterogeneous account labels or non-normalised manual exports force you to build a robust ETL pipeline before you even draw the first chart. This is often 40 to 50% of the project effort, and it is where perceived reliability is decided: a director who spots an inconsistency in the first figure abandons the tool. So you must invest in a shared metric dictionary, where each KPI has a single definition (what is a sale? on which date? net or gross?), otherwise two departments will read the same chart differently. Also plan access governance: a CFO does not share margin per customer with the whole company. Finally, a good dashboard comes with a ritual: a 30-minute weekly review around the figures turns the tool into a steering reflex rather than a gadget checked once a month.
Need a professional website?
Kolonell builds websites that attract clients, optimized for the Sénégalese market. Free quote in 2 minutes.
Mini case study
Claire, CFO of a 45-staff industrial SME in Amsterdam. Each month she spends 3.5 days consolidating sales, margin and cash from 4 Excel files and the ERP. Her loaded daily cost is about 480 EUR, i.e. ~1,680 EUR/month of close time, or ~20,000 EUR/year.
She invests 14,000 EUR in a Power BI dashboard connected to the ERP and CRM, delivered in 8 weeks, with 12 licences at 10 EUR/month (1,440 EUR/year). The management close drops from 3.5 to 0.5 day, i.e. 3 days saved/month (~17,000 EUR/year). The project pays back in about 11 months and commercial decisions now rest on figures under 24 hours old.
FAQ
Which KPIs come first? Those that trigger action: margin per product, DSO, utilisation rate, cash forecast. A good dashboard holds 6 to 10 actionable metrics, not 50.
Power BI or Metabase? Power BI (~10 EUR/user/month) for Microsoft finance teams; Metabase (open-source, ~40-80 EUR/month of server) if you want zero per-user licence beyond 30 people.
How much close time can you save? Typically 2 to 4 days/month of manual consolidation removed, i.e. 15,000 to 25,000 EUR/year for an SME.
Do you need an in-house data engineer? Not to start: the ETL pipeline is maintained by the provider for 1,500 to 5,000 EUR/year. A hire is justified beyond 50 sources.
How fast is it delivered? Expect 6 to 10 weeks depending on the number of sources and the complexity of the business rules to model.
Let's scope your project. Tell us your data sources, user count and your 10 priority KPIs: we price a decision-ready dashboard. Detailed quote within 48 h. WhatsApp +221 77 596 93 33.
Mohamed Bah
Fondateur, Kolonell
Passionate about digital and entrepreneurship in Africa, Mohamed has been helping Sénégalese businesses with their digital transformation since 2020. Founder of Kolonell, he believes every SME deserves a professional and accessible online présence.
