Most BI projects end at launch — and that's exactly when the real work starts. New questions arrive every week. A data source changes and a dashboard breaks. Someone needs a new report before the board meeting. Refreshes fail overnight. Without ongoing support, dashboards slowly fall out of date, and teams drift back to spreadsheets.
Our BI support retainer keeps your reporting accurate, current, and useful every month. For a predictable monthly fee, our BI team fixes issues, builds new reports and metrics, maintains data models and refreshes, manages access, and automates the reporting work your team still does by hand — in Power BI, Tableau, Looker, or Looker Studio.
What is a BI support retainer? A BI support retainer is an ongoing monthly service in which a business intelligence team maintains and improves an organization's dashboards and reports. It typically covers fixing broken reports and refresh failures, building new reports and metrics, maintaining data models, managing user access, optimizing performance, and automating recurring reporting, within an agreed number of hours and response times each month.
BI Support Retainer at a Glance
Question | Answer |
|---|---|
What it is | Ongoing monthly maintenance and improvement of your dashboards and reporting |
What's covered | Fixes, refresh failures, new reports and metrics, data model changes, access management, performance tuning, reporting automation |
BI tools | Power BI, Tableau, Looker, Looker Studio, Metabase |
Data sources | Data warehouses, databases, spreadsheets, CRM, ERP, marketing and finance tools |
Model | Monthly retainer with agreed hours, priorities, and response times |
Best for | Teams without a dedicated BI developer, or BI teams that need extra capacity |
Signs You Need Ongoing BI Support
Report requests pile up. Business teams wait weeks for simple changes.
Dashboards break and nobody notices. Users find stale or wrong numbers first.
Your BI developer left. Nobody fully understands the reports or data models.
Reporting is still partly manual. Someone exports, edits, and emails files every week or month.
Dashboards are getting slow. Data has grown, but models haven't been tuned.
Access is messy. People who left still have access, and new starters wait for it.
What the Retainer Covers
Fixes and refresh monitoring
We monitor scheduled refreshes, investigate failures, and fix broken visuals, measures, and data connections.
New reports and dashboards
Within your monthly hours, we build new reports, pages, and dashboards as business needs change.
Metrics and data model changes
We add new KPIs, adjust calculations, and extend data models, keeping definitions consistent and documented.
Performance tuning
We optimize slow reports through model, measure, and query improvements.
Reporting automation
We replace manual exports and spreadsheet reports with scheduled, automated reporting.
Access and governance
We manage user access, row-level security, workspaces, and content clean-up.
User support
We answer "how do I…" questions and help business users get more from self-service reports.
Monthly reporting and planning
You receive a monthly summary of work completed, issues fixed, and recommended improvements, and we agree priorities for the next month.
Retainer vs Hiring vs One-Off Projects
BI support retainer | Hiring a BI developer | One-off BI project | |
|---|---|---|---|
Time to start | Days | Months to recruit | Per project |
Skills | A team covering Power BI, Tableau, Looker, SQL, and data engineering | One person's skills | Specific to the project |
Ongoing changes | Included each month | Included | New quote each time |
Cost | Predictable monthly fee | Salary and benefits | Per project |
Retainer Plans
Plan | Typical scope | Best for |
|---|---|---|
Essentials | Refresh monitoring, fixes, and a small monthly allowance for changes | Stable reporting that needs reliable upkeep |
Growth | Fixes plus regular new reports, metrics, and automation | Growing teams with frequent reporting requests |
Dedicated BI capacity | A larger monthly allocation working as part of your team | Companies replacing or extending an in-house BI role |
Hours, response times, and scope for each plan are agreed upfront and reviewed regularly.
How It Works
Step 1: Review
We review your BI environment, data sources, key reports, and open issues.
Step 2: Onboard
We set up access, refresh monitoring, and a request process, and document what we find.
Step 3: Prioritize
We agree the first month's priorities with you.
Step 4: Deliver
We fix, build, and improve within the monthly allocation.
Step 5: Report
You receive a monthly summary and recommendations.
Step 6: Adjust
We review the plan regularly and adjust hours or scope as your needs change.
What You Get
Reliable dashboards with monitored refreshes
A steady flow of new reports and metrics
Faster, tuned reports
Less manual reporting work
Clean, controlled access
Monthly reporting and a named point of contact
Who This Is For
Small and mid-size businesses | Teams whose BI developer left | Busy BI teams | Finance and operations teams |
|---|---|---|---|
Need BI expertise without a full-time hire | Need continuity and documentation fast | Need extra capacity for maintenance and requests | Need month-end and management reporting kept reliable |
Why Work With Codersarts
BI support works best when the same team understands both the reports and the data behind them. Our team covers Power BI, Tableau, Looker, SQL, and data pipelines, so we fix problems at the right layer. We document as we go, so knowledge stays in your business, and we keep priorities aligned with what your teams actually need.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a BI support retainer?
It's a monthly service where a BI team maintains, fixes, and improves your dashboards and reports within an agreed allocation of hours and response times.
Which BI tools do you support?
Power BI, Tableau, Looker, Looker Studio, and Metabase, along with the databases and warehouses behind them.
Can you support reports someone else built?
Yes. We start with a review and onboarding period to understand and document existing reports and models.
What happens if we need more hours one month?
We can add extra hours for busy periods, or adjust the plan if your needs change long term.
How quickly do you respond to issues?
Response times are agreed per plan and based on issue severity, and are written into the agreement before work starts.
How much does a BI support retainer cost?
Pricing is a monthly fee based on the number of reports, data sources, BI tools, response times, and monthly hours. We quote after a short review.
Can the retainer cover data engineering as well?
Yes, for BI-related pipeline work. For broader platform support, see managed data services.
Related Data Services
Business Intelligence — BI strategy, KPIs, and implementation
Dashboards — new dashboard development
Looker Consulting — LookML and Looker support
Data Quality — keep the data behind your reports accurate
Ready for Reporting That Stays Up to Date?
Tell us which BI tools you use and what keeps going wrong. We'll recommend a retainer plan and what it would take.
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