Costs and pricing
Part of Budgeting for marketing attribution across cash, accounting and economic views
Attribution budget: buyer-side cost categories a supplier charge may omit
A non-ranked England method for holding an attribution budget: cost categories, indicative SFIA rates, official checks and a worked example on HOLD.
Method: review of official UK tax, data-protection, security, accessibility and evaluation records. Research date: 6 September 2026. Scope: cost categories an England attribution budget may need. Inclusions: buyer work and controls that a headline supplier charge may omit. Exclusions: no supplier endorsement, prevalence or workload estimate. Ranking: non-ranked. Conflicts: no supplier funded the draft.
What to take away
- A supplier charge covers a service, not the buyer tasks that make it usable.
- Use the worked example to hold the budget until each category has evidence.
- Treat platform credit, reconciliation, MMM and experiments as separate work.
- Compare any change with the buyer's original acceptance evidence.
Data preparation and reconciliation
Source mapping, event definitions, extraction, cleaning, identity rules, unmatched records and corrections need buyer ownership.
Indicative England rates for this work are £500 to £850 a day at SFIA level 4 to 5, taken from a buyer framework rate card. The exact figure depends on approved task quantities and loaded rates. Platform credit, reconciliation, MMM and experiments demand different work, so do not reuse one estimate across jobs.
Privacy and PECR assessment
Tags, pixels and similar technologies may require a purpose-specific review under the ICO's final storage and access technologies guidance, finalised on 29 April 2026. Later personal-data processing, roles, rights and retention need separate analysis.
Indicative England rates for this review are £600 to £1,000 a day at SFIA level 5 to 6, or a fixed-scope fee.
Security configuration and incidents
Authentication, least privilege, privileged supplier access, logs, vulnerability handling, monitoring, backup and recovery can create buyer tasks. The NCSC's SaaS security guidance, part of its Cloud security guidance and checked on 6 September 2026, makes clear that customer configuration and continuing operation remain relevant.
Indicative England rates for configuration and incident work are £550 to £950 a day at SFIA level 4 to 6. It supplies control questions, not prices or service assurance.
Accessibility evidence
Teams may need to test configuration, error recovery, reports and exports with the assistive technologies relevant to their users. GOV.UK's accessible technology guidance, in the GOV.UK Service Manual and checked on 6 September 2026, discusses procurement evidence in its public-sector context.
Indicative England testing rates are £450 to £800 a day at SFIA level 4 to 5, plus any assistive technology licences. A supplier statement does not remove the cost of checking the configured buyer tasks.
Statistical and causal review
Model specification, missingness, uncertainty, experiment design and counterfactual quality require competent review. HM Treasury's QPIE guidance, the Magenta Book annex and checked on 6 September 2026, distinguishes monitoring an outcome from determining cause in its government setting.
Indicative England rates for senior statistical review are £700 to £1,200 a day at SFIA level 6, or academic consultancy. Without that distinction, attributed revenue may be wrongly presented as incremental return.
Contract change, renewal and support
Model releases, connector retirement, revised limits, support scope, renewal notice and liability terms can create investigation or transition work. Capture the exact service, edition, evidence date and contract. Leave service levels and money blank until verified.
Indicative England rates for contract and supplier management are £500 to £900 a day at SFIA level 5 to 6.
Add a change log with the notice source, effective date, affected dependency, owner and decision. A change may reduce the usable scope even when the invoice stays the same. Compare the revised service with the buyer's original acceptance evidence rather than assuming continuity.
Export, deletion and continuity
Test schema, history, identifiers, model metadata, restoration and the manual fallback. The ICO's processor-contract guidance, titled "What needs to be included in the contract", was checked on 6 September 2026. It covers return or deletion when Article 28 applies and was marked under DUAA review at the research date.
Indicative England rates for engineer test work are £500 to £900 a day at SFIA level 4 to 6. A promise to export is weaker than retained restoration evidence.
VAT and accounting treatment
Currency, invoice timing, VAT treatment and recoverability affect the cash and accounting views. HMRC's VAT Notice 700/21: Keeping VAT records (checked on 6 September 2026) describes official record obligations, but a qualified adviser must apply tax rules to the specific buyer and supply. Indicative England rates for tax advice are £150 to £400 an hour, or a fixed fee.
Store the supplier quote, invoice and tax decision as separate records. Their dates and purposes differ. An invoice can evidence a charged amount, while it cannot establish that the project caused a saving or that the buyer may recover VAT.
Worked example: whole-life budget on HOLD
The example uses named tasks, quantities, a SFIA level 5 loaded day rate of £650 and an England framework range of £500 to £850. Blank cells are unset, not zero. The status stays HOLD until the owner replaces each blank with approved evidence.
| Category | Named task | Quantity | Rate | Blank value | Filled value | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Data preparation | Source map and event definitions | 5 days | £650/day | Blank | £3,250 | HOLD |
| Privacy and PECR | Purpose review and record update | 3 days | £800/day | Blank | £2,400 | HOLD |
| Security | Configuration review and log checks | 4 days | £750/day | Blank | £3,000 | HOLD |
| Accessibility | Assistive technology test cycle | 3 days | £600/day | Blank | £1,800 | HOLD |
| Statistical review | Experiment design and counterfactual check | 4 days | £900/day | Blank | £3,600 | HOLD |
| Contract change | Renewal and liability review | 2 days | £700/day | Blank | £1,400 | HOLD |
| Export and deletion | Restoration and fallback test | 3 days | £650/day | Blank | £1,950 | HOLD |
| VAT and accounting | Tax treatment advice | 1 day | £800/day | Blank | £800 | HOLD |
| Total | Buyer work in this example | 25 days | Mixed | Blank | £18,200 | HOLD |
To convert a category into an approval decision, record the source, owner, blank value, recheck date and status, then set it to approve, reject or unresolved only when the filled value has evidence.
Common questions
What does the worked example show for omitted amounts?
It shows a blank column for unverified items and a filled column for approved quantities. A category moves to approve only when the owner records evidence.
Why should one estimate not be reused across attribution jobs?
Platform credit, reconciliation, MMM and experiments demand different work, so the article says do not reuse one estimate across jobs. Data preparation costs also depend on approved task quantities and loaded rates, so a single figure cannot cover every category.
What does the article say about a supplier accessibility statement?
It says a supplier statement does not remove the cost of checking the configured buyer tasks. Teams may need to test configuration, error recovery, reports and exports with the assistive technologies relevant to their users, and GOV.UK guidance discusses procurement evidence in its public-sector context.
