SUPPORT SORTED — HELP DESK COST WORKSHEET
Companion: https://supportsorted.co.uk/guides/calculate-help-desk-total-cost/
Method version: September 2026. Reader-entered assumptions, not a quote.

PLAN AND EVIDENCE
Product / exact feature-eligible plan:
Provider pricing URL / quote reference:
Prices checked (month/year):
Input currency / output currency:
Exchange rate (output currency per 1 input currency):
Billing term / renewal conditions / notice:
Required capabilities documented / excluded / unresolved:
Minimum billed seats / cap / replying users:
Seat monthly price for selected term / platform monthly equivalent:
Monthly integrations and other add-ons:
Mandatory one-off vendor fees:
Unknown or quote-only amounts (not zero):

UNITS
Ticket counting rule / monthly allowance / block size / block price:
AI counting rule / monthly allowance / block size / block price:
Carryover / expiry / automatic tier-change rules:
If annual pools, tiered bands or combined ticket/AI charging apply, model them
separately rather than using the page's monthly block calculation.

MONTHLY INPUTS (fill all twelve; same month order)
Month     Tickets    AI units    Base    Add-ons    Ticket extra    AI extra
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12

FORMULAS
Base = max(replying users, minimum billed seats) x seat price + platform fee.
Extra charge = ceil(max(0, usage - allowance) / block size) x block price.
Monthly software = base + add-ons + ticket extra + AI extra.
Annual recurring software = sum of twelve monthly software charges.
Year-one vendor cost before tax = annual software + one-offs.
Internal effort value = (setup + training + migration + exit hours) x hourly value.
Year-one cash = vendor cost before tax + assumed tax cash.
Economic cost = vendor cost before tax + internal value + unrecoverable tax.
Base commitment = base x 12 if annual; base x 1 if monthly.
An annual monthly equivalent is not an invoice schedule.

INTERNAL TIME (not automatically cash payments)
Setup hours / training hours / migration hours / exit provision hours:
Internal hourly value:
Year-two annual internal hours:
If exit work belongs to a later year, exclude it from year-one provision.

TAX AND RESULTS
Assumed tax rate / recoverable or treated as cost / invoice-specific exceptions:
Recurring software / one-offs / tax cash / internal effort value:
Year-one cash / year-one economic cost:
Year-two run rate (same usage and prices, no one-offs; not a renewal quote):
Normal month / peak month / next-user cost or next-tier quote needed:
Decision and unresolved inputs:

Tax treatment is your budgeting assumption, not a determination of VAT owed.
Use the provider's actual terms and appropriate invoice treatment before buying.