# Why I charge for the audit before the build Source: https://getstartedwithai.net/blog/why-i-charge-for-the-audit Site: Get Started With AI Tagline: Build AI automations that actually run your business. Audience: solo professionals, freelancers, consultants and AI implementers in training Contact: hello@getstartedwithai.co.uk This Markdown companion is generated from the prerendered page for AI crawlers. # Why I charge for the audit before the build AI audit cost UK in 2026: a paid AI implementation audit runs £1,500 for a single-workflow small business audit, £2,500 for a multi-stakeholder audit, and up to £4,000 for a multi-workflow audit covering the whole operational layer. The deliverable is a costed candidate list, a Time Tax calculation per workflow, and a written one-page recommendation with a proposed first build. Most UK AI consulting practices in 2025 ran free audits as a sales-funnel step, which produced one-in-ten conversion to engagement. I charge for the audit because the audit is the work, the work is worth being paid for, and the conversion runs three to four times higher when prospects have already bought something. This post is the rationale, the deliverable, the price ladder, and how a paid audit qualifies the buyer better than a free one. ## What the audit actually is A WIRE Method audit is two hours of structured conversation with the founder and the named owner, a candidate list with each process costed using the Time Tax pattern, and a written one-page recommendation with the proposed first build. It is not a sales pitch. It is not a 60-page deck. It is a piece of work that produces a deliverable the prospect can act on with or without me. The recommendation includes the workflow chosen for the first build, the rough scope (one to three weeks), the price band (£3,500 to £9,000), and the named owner who will run the build past the engagement. The audit conversation is conducted on Zoom or in person; the written recommendation is delivered within five working days. ## Why charge for it: three reasons The audit takes my time and produces something useful; that is what work is, and work that produces value should be paid for. The prospect arrives ready, because they are paying, and they send the right people to the conversation. The conversion to engagement is higher, because the prospect has already bought a piece of work, not booked a meeting. Free audits sound generous and they are usually a polite way to do a sales pitch dressed up as a deliverable. The honest practitioner read: free audits attract prospects who do not value the work and the engagement fails downstream. Paid audits attract prospects who arrive ready to own the build. ## The price ladder - Audit Mini at £1,500: one workflow, two-hour conversation, single-page recommendation. Right for solo and very small businesses. - Audit Standard at £2,500: two to three workflows, multi-stakeholder conversation across founder and operations lead, two-page recommendation with prioritised candidate list. Right for most SMBs. - Audit Plus at £4,000: full operational layer audit covering five-plus workflows, three-hour conversation across the leadership team, written recommendation including a 90-day implementation plan with budgets per build. Right for the medium SMB scaling AI across the operations team. - No discounting on the audit. The audit is itself the trial of the working relationship; discounting it sends the wrong signal about the value of the build engagement that follows. ## Why the audit fee is not a discount on the build A common pricing trap: roll the audit fee into the build engagement so the prospect feels they are getting it free. The trap is structural. When the audit is rolled into the build, the audit conversation becomes a sales conversation rather than a piece of work, the prospect feels less accountable to attend properly, and the recommendation becomes harder to deliver honestly because the consultant is biased toward saying yes to the engagement. When the audit is paid as its own piece of work, the recommendation can honestly say not yet or different shape or smaller first or work with a different consultant. About 15 percent of my audit recommendations are honest no-build recommendations; the prospect leaves with a one-page document that helps them, and they often come back six to twelve months later when the situation has changed. ## How a paid audit qualifies the buyer better than a free one A free 90-minute conversation produces a polite yes to a follow-up that often never lands. A paid two-hour audit conversation, with a written deliverable, produces a working assessment of fit on both sides. The prospect sees how I work in detail; I see how the prospect works in detail. The conversion from paid audit to a paid build engagement runs at about one in three. The conversion from a free audit to a paid build engagement runs at about one in ten. The audit fee at £1,500 to £4,000 does not cost the build; it pays for the qualification of the build, on both sides. ## What the deliverable looks like in writing - One paragraph framing the candidate workflow, with the inputs and outputs the team currently runs. - Time Tax calculation: how often the workflow runs, how long it takes, who does it, costed at the rate of the person, multiplied to a quarterly figure in pounds. - Fastest Win selection: which of the candidate workflows scores best on cost, risk and feasibility for the first build. - Proposed first build: tool stack (Custom GPT, Make scenario, Notion AI Q&A), rough scope, named owner candidate, success metric. - Price band for the first build engagement, in pounds, with two to three options. - Risk flags: the parts of the workflow most likely to break, and what the team can do about them before the build. ## What changes when prospects pay They send the right people to the conversation, including the named owner who will run the build. They arrive prepared, having read the audit scoping document. They ask sharper questions because they are spending money to ask them. They take the recommendation seriously even when the recommendation says do not build yet. The conversion to engagement runs at three or four times what the free version produced. The post-engagement satisfaction also runs higher, because prospects who pay for the audit signed up for the working relationship rather than the polite conversation. The same buyer behaviour shows up across professional services. Paid steps qualify; free steps attract. ## When a free audit is the right move Two cases where I will run a free conversation. The first is for prospects who genuinely cannot afford the audit fee but have a clear repeatable workflow; for those, the free Starter Kit and a 30-minute Time Tax conversation usually cover the right ground. The second is for partners, referrers and existing clients adding a new workflow to an existing engagement, where the audit is a margin item already paid for through the retainer. Outside these two cases, the audit is paid. The fee filters out the prospects who are not ready, which is the work the fee is doing. ## Build your first AI system live with Richard A 60-minute live build with Richard Batt. Bring one repeatable task. Leave with a mapped automation, success metrics and a deploy plan you can test the next morning. Free seat, no upsell. ### Live build session The next live session covers the WIRE Method end to end on a real audience build. [Join the next session](/webinar) ## Questions people ask before they start ### undefined undefined ### undefined undefined ### undefined undefined ### undefined undefined ### undefined undefined ### undefined undefined