The three ways to pay
Most offices of 5 to 25 people without an IT person buy support in one of three ways: by the visit or hour when something needs fixing, with a prepaid block of hours, or through a monthly managed-services contract priced per user or per device.
For reference, our own prices: an on-site visit is $179 for up to 2 hours, then $100 for each additional hour, agreed with you first. A remote session is $99. Common jobs have flat rates, such as $399 for a small office network setup or $149 for virus removal.
Pay per visit
You call when something breaks or needs setting up, and pay for that visit or session. There is no commitment and nothing to pay in a quiet month.
It suits offices whose setup is fairly stable and whose problems are occasional. The trade-off is that nobody is watching your systems between visits, so preventive work, such as checking backups and updates, only happens when you book it.
Prepaid blocks of hours
You buy a set number of hours up front and draw them down for visits or remote work. Our blocks are 5 hours for $750 and 10 hours for $1,350.
Blocks suit offices that know they will need regular help, such as onboarding new staff or a planned move, and want a fixed budget for it.
Monthly managed IT contracts
A managed service provider charges a monthly fee, usually per user or per device, for monitoring, updates, and a help desk. Contracts often run for a year or more.
This suits offices that need someone watching systems continuously, have strict compliance requirements, or have more devices than an occasional visit can keep up with. For a small office with a stable setup, it can mean paying every month for coverage you rarely use.
What drives the total
- How many people and devices are involved.
- Whether the work needs someone on site or can be done remotely.
- The age of the equipment. Old routers and computers take longer to troubleshoot.
- Whether passwords, accounts, and the network are documented.
- How urgent it is. Work squeezed in during an outage is less efficient than planned work.
How to keep IT costs down
- Keep a list of your accounts and who has admin access to each.
- Replace consumer routers in the office with equipment meant for a business.
- Turn on automatic updates for computers and phones.
- Set up backups before you need them, and test a restore.
- Group small requests into one visit instead of booking several.
Which one to choose
If you have a small team and no IT person, start pay-as-you-go and get a picture of your risks first. Move to a contract only if you find you need someone watching your systems all the time. The first 30-minute consultation with us is free, and it is a good place to ask which model fits your office.