An engineering consultancy under 20 staff on Microsoft 365 already owns the platform for its three most painful admin systems: the project and fee register, site inspections, and RFI and variation tracking. Built on SharePoint lists they cost nothing in licences; the register moves to Dataverse (NZ$32.40 a user a month) once fees and invoices ride on it. The calculations stay in Excel and the engineering software, where they belong.
What a small consultancy actually runs on
Microsoft 365 for everything written; a practice or timesheet tool such as Projectworks, or a spreadsheet, for fees and hours; Xero for the accounts; the engineering software for the engineering; and a shared drive with a folder per project that is the real system of record. The admin pain is never the calculations. It is knowing which projects are at which stage, chasing the variation nobody approved in writing, and getting the site photos from the engineer's phone into the report before the client asks. Those are three record-keeping problems, and record-keeping is what the Power Platform is for.
The same three-build shape, for accounting practices and law firms.
The three builds, in the order they pay back
| Build | What it does | Home | Build cost | Licence per user per month |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Site inspection app | A phone form per inspection: checklist, photos straight into the project folder, defects with locations, signature, PDF generated by a flow and filed | SharePoint lists and a document library | $4,000 to $8,000 | $0 |
| 2. RFI and variation tracker | Every RFI and variation as a row with status, who is waiting on whom, the approval recorded, the reminder that fires at day five | SharePoint lists, Teams approvals | $4,000 to $8,000 | $0 |
| 3. Project and fee register | Projects, stages, fee, hours booked, invoiced to date from Xero, margin; the Friday report on a phone | Dataverse once money sits on it; lists until then | $8,000 to $18,000 with Xero joined | NZ$32.40 (Dataverse); Power BI Pro NZ$22.60 for the two who open the report |
The inspection app goes first because it removes the most hours for the least money and every engineer sees it working within a month. The register goes last because it is the one that changes how the firm bills, and it should be built on a year of tidy inspection and RFI data rather than before it. Prices from the services page and Microsoft's NZ list.
What to leave alone
- The calcs. Excel and the engineering packages. A Power App that reimplements a beam check is a liability with a nicer front end.
- Drawings and document control if you already run a proper document management system with revision control. SharePoint libraries can do it for a small firm; if you have something better, keep it.
- Timesheets if the practice tool does them adequately and pushes to Xero. Replace it only when the register is live and the tool is the last thing standing.
When Power Platform is the wrong answer: if the practice tool already does scheduling, budgets and document control well, do not rebuild any of that as a Power App. That duplicates a licence you already pay for and adds a second system nobody maintains. Power Platform earns its price on the workflow gaps around the project tool, not as a replacement for it. If a cheaper subscription fits, I will say so on the call, and if the real problem is that the practice tool itself has been outgrown, that is a bigger decision than any of these builds and a different conversation.
The licence trap for this sector
Engineers want the register on a real database from day one, which means Dataverse, which means NZ$32.40 a month for every person who opens it. For a 20-person firm that is NZ$7,776 a year before anything is built. Most of those 20 need to see their own projects and log an inspection, not edit fees; that is a SharePoint list app for 16 people at $0 and a Dataverse register for the four who run the money, or pay-as-you-go for the sixteen. The whole picture is on Power Platform pricing in NZ, and the list-or-Dataverse test is in SharePoint or Dataverse. If the register today is an Access database on the server, that migration is the first project instead.
What NZ engineering consultancies actually run
From the NZ small business software census, Kove's observed-signal tables on 5,357 NZ firms with a website on file, collected June to September 2026:
| Signal | Firms identified | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Website platform | 145 engineering consultancies | WordPress 68%, other platforms 32% |
WordPress runs more than two-thirds of the engineering consultancy websites Kove has a signal for, on par with the wider trades and professional services base in the census. The licensing point that decides a build's cost is separate from the website platform: every Microsoft 365 Business plan already carries the seeded Power Platform rights a flow runs on, at no extra cost, until the build touches full Dataverse or a premium connector. A consultancy that licenses every engineer for Power Apps Premium because a consultant suggested Dataverse has usually bought a database it does not need; most builds this size never touch it.
What it costs
- Workflow Review: $3,500, credited against a build started within 90 days. Most builds are scoped on the free 30-minute call without it.
- Each of the three builds above as a single app or automation: $4,000 to $8,000, or $8,000 to $18,000 for the register on Dataverse with Xero joined.
- Licences: $0 on standard connectors. A premium connector puts its owner on Power Automate Premium, NZ$24.30 a month, one licence, not one per staff member.
Every price is fixed and agreed before I start, with nothing added later for scope you did not ask for. Compliance reports are covered by build 1: the inspection app pulls site, client, inspection date and sign-off into a Word template and files the PDF. Lead follow-up and same-day enquiry replies are not part of the three; each is a separate single-process flow in the same $4,000 to $8,000 range, written up in following up leads without it feeling like spam and answering website enquiries the same day. Full tier detail on the services page.
Common questions
What can a small engineering consultancy build on Power Platform?
The three that pay back first: a project and fee register (every job, its stage, fee, hours booked and invoiced, on SharePoint lists or Dataverse); a site inspection app that works on a phone with photos and produces the PDF; and an RFI and variation tracker with the approval trail. All three run on the Microsoft 365 the firm already pays for if the data stays in SharePoint lists, at NZ$32.40 per user per month if it needs Dataverse.
Does an engineering firm need Dataverse or will SharePoint lists do?
Lists for the inspection app and the RFI tracker in most firms under 20 staff. Dataverse for the project register once fees, hours and invoices sit on it and the accountant reconciles it, because that is money on the records and it needs relationships and an audit trail. Many firms start all three on lists and move the register when it earns it.
What does it cost to build?
Each of the three is a single-process build: $4,000 to $8,000 on SharePoint lists, two to four weeks. The project register on Dataverse with invoicing joined to Xero is a bigger build at $8,000 to $18,000. Licences are $0 on lists, NZ$32.40 per user per month on Dataverse, and Power BI Pro at NZ$22.60 for the two people who open the fee report.
What should stay in Excel?
The calculations. Structural, civil and services calcs live in the spreadsheets and software the engineers already trust, and no Power App improves them. Power Platform is for the record-keeping around the engineering: which project, what stage, who approved what, where the photos are.
What is the best way to automate compliance report creation?
A flow that pulls the standard fields (site, client, inspection date, sign-off) into a Word template automatically, so the report is drafted, not typed from scratch each time. In the three builds that is the PDF the site inspection app produces, a single-process build at $4,000 to $8,000.
Where to start
Tell me how inspections get from the site to the report today, and how fees are tracked. One free 30-minute call and you get the first build named and priced, and a recommendation on whether the register needs Dataverse yet.