Off-the-shelf report package or bespoke project: how to choose

When choosing a business analytics solution, the decision usually comes down to one question: take a ready-made report package or build a system from scratch? Both options are right, just for different situations.

When a ready-made package is enough

A ready-made package is a good fit when:

• you use Rivilė, Finvalda or R-Keeper;
• you need standard metrics: revenue, expenses, profit, sales, customers, debts, inventory;
• you want results quickly, as setup takes a few days;
• you don’t want a large upfront investment, paying a monthly fee from €59 instead.

The biggest advantage is often not even the price but the fact that you don’t need to know in advance what you want. The package shows you which reports are possible in the first place, and only then does it become clear what is missing.

When you need a bespoke project

A bespoke solution is justified when:

• your data comes from several different systems: accounting, CRM, tills, logistics, Excel files;
• you use an accounting system for which no ready-made package exists;
• your business model is specialised and the standard breakdowns don’t fit (for example, project-based work or manufacturing with complex unit costs);
• you need metrics that standard reports don’t include.

This kind of work is billed by the hour, and how long it takes depends on the number of sources and the state of the data. More on the Power BI implementation page.

The hybrid option that works most often

In practice, most clients choose a third way: they start with a ready-made package and add a few bespoke reports.

The logic is simple: you don’t pay for what already exists, yet you still get what your particular business needs. The manager of one restaurant chain put it precisely: the standard package covered most of their needs straight away, and a few reports were later tailored to the specifics of the chain.

This route has one more advantage: you order bespoke reports after you have been working with the data for a few months and know exactly what is missing.

Questions that help you decide

1. Is my accounting system Rivilė, Finvalda or R-Keeper?
2. Are standard financial and sales metrics enough for me?
3. Do I need data from just one system?
4. How quickly do I need results?

If you answered “yes” to the first three, start with a ready-made package.

How the options differ in practice

In practice, the risk row matters most. A ready-made package lets you see results before making a bigger decision, whereas a bespoke project requires you to commit up front.

The most common mistake when choosing

Companies reach for a bespoke project not because standard reports fall short, but because it isn’t clear in advance what they need, and it seems the project will sort that out.

In practice, the opposite happens. When the requirement is undefined, the project drags on because the goal keeps shifting along the way. In that situation, a ready-made package is the cheaper way to find out: after two months of working with real data, people usually know exactly which three reports are missing.

The bespoke work then becomes short and specific rather than open-ended.

Can you switch later?

Yes, and that is the usual path. A ready-made package is not a dead end: the same data, the same connection, with new reports simply added on.

Nothing needs to be rebuilt. The data model is already working, so a bespoke report is built on top of it rather than from scratch. That is exactly why the hybrid option works out cheaper than a project started from the beginning.

Where to find out more

You will find report lists and prices on the pricing page, and the specific packages on the Rivilė, Finvalda and R-Keeper pages.