Pricing Ongoing Support & Maintenance for HRIS Clients

Why Ongoing HRIS Support is Essential (For You and Your Clients)

Ongoing support isn’t just a potential revenue stream; it’s a vital component of a successful HRIS implementation. For your clients, it ensures they maximize their investment, adapt to system updates, onboard new staff, and quickly resolve issues that could disrupt critical HR and payroll functions.

For your business, post-implementation services offer:

• Predictable Revenue: Moving beyond one-time project fees to recurring income.
• Increased Client Retention: Deepening relationships and becoming a trusted long-term partner.
• Opportunity for Upsells: Identifying needs for additional modules, integrations, or consulting.
• Market Differentiation: Offering comprehensive support sets you apart from firms that only do implementations.

Understanding this mutual value is the first step in effectively pricing HRIS support.

Common Models for Pricing Ongoing HRIS Support

Several pricing models can be adapted for ongoing HRIS support. The best choice depends on your business structure, client needs, and the complexity of the systems you support.

1. Hourly / Time & Materials: Clients pay for actual time spent on support tasks. Simple to track, but offers unpredictable costs for clients and can incentivize inefficiency.
2. Retainer (Block Hours): Clients pre-purchase a block of hours per month or quarter at a potentially discounted rate. Any unused hours might roll over (limited) or expire. Provides some predictability.
3. Tiered Packages (Managed Services): Offer predefined packages with varying levels of service, features, and allocated support hours per month (e.g., Bronze, Silver, Gold). This is increasingly popular as it allows clients to choose the level that fits their needs and budget, and it scales well.
4. Per-Employee Per-Month (PEPM): Pricing based on the client’s employee count. Common in payroll processing, this can work for basic HRIS support, especially for routine tasks. It ties your price directly to the client’s scale.
5. Value-Based Pricing: Less common for pure support but applicable for ongoing strategic consulting, reporting, or optimization services where the price is tied to the business outcomes achieved (e.g., efficiency gains, compliance improvements, cost savings).

Combining models is also possible, such as a base tiered package with additional hours available hourly.

Calculating Your Costs and Value

Before you set prices, you must understand your costs for delivering support. This includes:

• Labor costs (salaries, benefits for support staff).
• Overhead (office space, software, utilities).
• Software licenses you might maintain for support.
• Training for your team on system updates.
• Estimated time spent on common support tasks (password resets, basic troubleshooting, running standard reports, user setup).
• Time spent on less common but critical tasks (major issue resolution, complex queries).

Once you know your costs, add your desired profit margin. Remember, your price isn’t just about covering costs; it’s about reflecting the value of preventing downtime, ensuring compliance, and empowering clients to use their HRIS effectively. Saving a client from a payroll error or compliance fine is significant value!

Structuring Your Ongoing Support Offerings

Clearly define what is included and excluded in your support packages.

Typical Inclusions:

• Help desk/ticket system access.
• Support via phone, email, chat within business hours.
• Resolution of system errors/bugs.
• Assistance with basic user tasks (navigation, data entry).
• Troubleshooting standard system functionality.
• Guidance on applying minor system updates.

Potential Exclusions/Add-ons (Charge Separately):

• Custom report development.
• Configuration changes or system enhancements.
• Integration support for third-party systems.
• Advanced training for new modules or features.
• Onsite support.
• Support outside standard business hours.
• Strategic consulting or optimization services.

Packaging these into tiers (e.g., Basic support hours + Help Desk; Premier includes some custom reports and faster response times) makes your offering clear and allows clients to choose what they need. Consider adding setup fees for ongoing support contracts, especially if there’s an initial phase of knowledge transfer or system audit required.

Communicating Value and Presenting Pricing

How you present your pricing for HRIS support is almost as important as the price itself. Avoid simply listing hourly rates. Instead:

• Frame your pricing around the client’s needs and the value you provide (e.g.,

Presenting Complex Pricing with Confidence

If you offer multiple tiers, add-ons, or configurable options for your ongoing support (e.g., different response time SLAs, variable user counts, optional training credits), presenting this clearly in a traditional static PDF quote can be challenging and confusing for clients. This is where specialized tools come in.

While comprehensive proposal software like PandaDoc (https://www.pandadoc.com) or Proposify (https://www.proposify.com) handle the entire proposal process including e-signatures, their pricing can be higher and they may include features you don’t need if your primary challenge is presenting dynamic pricing options.

If your focus is specifically on giving clients an interactive way to see and select service tiers, add-ons, and see the price update live, a tool like PricingLink (https://pricinglink.com) is designed for this. It allows you to create shareable pricing links where clients can configure their desired support package. This streamlines the quoting process, saves you time, provides a modern client experience, and helps filter leads based on their selections. PricingLink is laser-focused on the interactive pricing presentation step, making it a powerful and affordable option if this is your main bottleneck.