The data hours worksheet
How much of the week goes on getting data ready to use?
It sits in no budget line and on no invoice, so nobody counts it. Fill in the departments. See what it costs.
Steps 1–3How to get honest numbers in three minutes per team lead›
1 · Ask
"In a typical week, how many hours does someone on your team spend getting data ready before they can use it?"
2 · Draw the line
Under 15 minutes: this is the job. Over 15 minutes: this is the tax. Count only the second side.
3 · Make it safe
Say it plainly: this is about the work, not their productivity. Rough beats precise. Nobody should open a timesheet.
If a number feels uncomfortable, you're probably close to the truth.
Write down what they tell you.
People × hrs = team hoursWork out what it's costing.
US 40, Israel 42, Colombia 42, Singapore and Brazil 44
Market median anchor. Edit it if you know your real average.
One average across every department. Fine for a first read, wrong in the detail. Split it by department.
Loaded cost multiplier
Weekly data hours
Working week
Full-time staff on data prep
Loaded salary
Cost a year
Why 1.4? Salary plus employer taxes, benefits, pension, equipment and workspace. What someone actually costs you. Most companies sit between 1.25 and 1.4.
Your data tax
€641k
every year, paid in salary for work that happens before any decision gets made.
Full-time staff on data prep
5.2
Weekly hours lost
207 h
One average, two different truths
In your sheet, Product and Marketing sit about 17% apart on median pay. The single average you typed puts Product at €186k when the market says closer to €184k, and Marketing at €124k against €105k. The total still looks right. The ranking underneath it does not, which is the part that tells you where to start.
Sign in to split salaries by department, market and seniority, and see which team is actually leaking the most.
The full breakdown
- Which departments carry the hours, ranked
- Hours a year and cost per working day
- Cost in money, department by department
- The two or three places to start
- A sense-check on your hours and salary inputs
Sharper numbers
Splitting salary by department, market and seniority sits behind an email. No password. We send a link, you click it, you come straight back to this sheet with everything still in it.
Pressure-test your number
That's your data tax. Now let's remove it.
30 minutes. Bring the sheet you just filled in. We'll find which data products generate those hours and what happens if you stop paying for them.
Prefer the role-by-role version? Open the FTE Debt Calculator