Costs, staffing, and ownership
Budget an internal service for about 41 staff. Separate cash spending, staff opportunity cost, recurring support, and unpriced agency requirements.
Estimate basis
All amounts are USD. Estimates cover a new internal SNAP Negative production build through a controlled pilot and initial cutover. Other program builds, DCA implementation, historical migration, and certified external submission are separately authorized work. The 26-week delivery model assumes named internal allocations and available approved infrastructure. Allow 6 to 9 calendar months if access, approvals or capacity create waits. Re-estimate after discovery.
Build effort by stage
| Stage | Weeks elapsed | Total person-weeks | Labor value at $75 to $125/hour |
|---|---|---|---|
| A. Discovery and decisions | 3 | 6 | $18,000 to $30,000 |
| B. Internal platform foundation | 4 | 13 | $39,000 to $65,000 |
| C. Complete SNAP Negative slice | 8 | 32 | $96,000 to $160,000 |
| D. Assurance and release preparation | 4 | 16 | $48,000 to $80,000 |
| E. Controlled pilot | 4 | 12 | $36,000 to $60,000 |
| F. Initial cutover and handover | 3 | 9 | $27,000 to $45,000 |
| Total | 26 | 88 = 3,520 hours | $264,000 to $440,000 |
| 20% effort contingency | No fixed added duration | 17.6 = 704 hours | $52,800 to $88,000 |
| Total labor envelope | Subject to gates | 105.6 = 4,224 hours | $316,800 to $528,000 |
The contingency is an estimate allowance for discovered work. It is not a second full project or a spending approval. Use the same effort basis in the roadmap. The first meeting asks only for stage A, then a fresh decision at its gate.
Named internal staff capacity
| Role | Allocation model across the 26 weeks | Person-weeks | Accountability |
|---|---|---|---|
| Technical lead / senior engineer | 1.0 FTE for 26 weeks | 26 | Architecture, implementation, review and service ownership. |
| Application engineer | 1.0 FTE for 22 weeks | 22 | Review UI/API, data model and integration contracts. |
| QA / test engineer | 0.75 FTE for 16 weeks | 12 | Independent acceptance cases, automation, defects and release evidence. |
| Product owner / business analyst | 0.35 FTE for 26 weeks | 9.1 | Scope, decisions, staff workflow and acceptance. |
| Infrastructure / database engineer | 0.6 FTE for 12 weeks | 7.2 | Internal deployment, storage, monitoring, backups and recovery. |
| Security / privacy specialist | 0.5 FTE for 8 weeks | 4 | Control baseline, threat review and assessment evidence. |
| QC policy and operations SMEs | 0.35 combined FTE for 15 weeks | 5.25 | Independent rules, defect map, field authority, process validation. |
| UX / accessibility specialist | 0.35 FTE for 7 weeks | 2.45 | Dense-form usability, keyboard/assistive tests and training. |
| Total | Average 3.38 FTE, with different roles needed at each stage | 88 | Distinct responsibilities can share staff where skills fit. |
The allocation table is a total capacity model, not a fixed weekly rota. The lead schedules the listed effort to meet the stage totals. Some specialist reviews occur alongside the build. Protect independent security and QA decisions. If only one part-time builder is available, the 26-week plan is not credible. Do not assign all delivery, policy approval, testing and support to the proposer.
Cash costs and service allocation
| Category | Proposed allowance or treatment | What must be priced |
|---|---|---|
| Internal app, DB and private document hosting | Existing approved services first. Use $300 to $1,500/month only as a provisional combined infrastructure allocation. | Compute, storage/IO, backup, logging, worker jobs, internal TLS/DNS and environment count. This is not a quote. |
| Agency identity | Use existing agency identity where supported. Incremental cost unknown. | App registration, MFA/SSO integration, lifecycle services and any platform licensing. |
| Security/accessibility assessment | Internal specialist effort is in labor. Outside testing, if required, is unpriced. | Required independence, test scope, procurement and remediation. |
| Hardware/software purchases | No new purchase assumed. Unknown until IT reviews capacity. | Additional equipment, approved database/OS licenses, scan engine, monitoring or backup products. |
| Training and change management | Staff preparation is partly in delivery. Trainee time is an additional operational commitment. | Example: 41 people × 4 hours = 164 staff hours, excluding trainers and repeat sessions. |
| Legacy coexistence and migration | Pilot reconciliation effort is included. Broad migration is excluded. | History volume, source quality, legal retention, Access disposition and rework. |
| Development tools and AI coding | Use approved agency tools. Incremental seats unknown. | Licensing and allowed use. Do not submit SPII to unapproved tools. |
The infrastructure allowance equals $3,600 to $18,000 per year and $1,800 to $9,000 across a six-month build if charged for the whole period. Record actual internal service allocations and new cash separately. These ranges can rise if the required controls need new services or equipment. There is no fully priced total until those inputs are known.
Annual maintenance and continuity
| Responsibility | Annual capacity assumption |
|---|---|
| Engineering and defect/dependency work | 0.5 combined FTE across two trained maintainers, for example 0.3 and 0.2. |
| QA regression and rule releases | 0.2 FTE. |
| Infrastructure/database/restore support | 0.15 FTE. |
| Product/process ownership | 0.1 FTE. |
| Security/access review | 0.1 FTE. |
| Policy SME reviews | 0.05 FTE. |
| Total | 1.1 FTE = 2,288 hours/year at 40 hours × 52 weeks. |
At the illustrative internal rate, recurring labor value is $171,600 to $286,000 per year. Add the infrastructure allowance for a partial steady-state total of $175,200 to $304,000 per year. This covers routine service work and small updates. Large new programs, major integrations and a round-the-clock service desk are outside this allowance. Calibrate with actual incidents and releases after the pilot.
A 36-month planning window with a six-month build and 30 months of steady operation has a partial economic cost of $756,600 to $1,297,000. Formula: build labor with contingency $316,800 to $528,000 + six-month infrastructure $1,800 to $9,000 + 2.5 × annual labor/infrastructure $175,200 to $304,000. It excludes unpriced purchases, assessments, trainee time and later expansions. It is not a cash request.
Benefits and the break-even question
Use measured hours recovered, reduced reconciliation errors, reduced unsupported-workbook risk, and service continuity. Time recovered usually means capacity for other work, not payroll savings. Do not add per-review savings and per-person savings if they measure the same activity.
| Example input, not observed | Calculation | Illustrative annual value |
|---|---|---|
| 1,200 reviews/year, 15 minutes saved/review, $50/hour staff value | 1,200 × 15 ÷ 60 = 300 hours | $15,000 |
| 41 people, 30 minutes/week saved, 46 working weeks, $50/hour | 41 × 0.5 × 46 = 943 hours | $47,150 |
| Break-even against partial recurring cost at $50/hour | $175,200 to $304,000 ÷ $50 | 3,504 to 6,080 hours/year of value-equivalent time required. |
These small time-saving examples do not alone cover the proposed service cost. Management must either establish larger measured benefits, value continuity/control improvements, reuse shared agency capacity, or reduce scope/cost. The strongest case is evidence plus a stop/go gate, not an invented payback claim.
Supplier prices are background, not the production budget
The demo uses Clerk and Neon-related adapters and Vercel-related code. Public price pages checked on 5 October 2026 list Vercel Pro at $20/month plus metered usage and developer seats, and Clerk Pro at $20/month billed annually or $25 monthly. Those entry prices do not price the internal SPII service. See Vercel pricing and Clerk pricing.
Neon pricing could not be verified in this pass, so no Neon price is used. The confirmed production preference is agency-hosted and internal. Any external service would require a separate agency decision and approved data flow. A vendor compliance claim does not approve this application.
Estimate inputs to collect before committing
- Named internal staff and their real available weeks, cost method and backfill needs.
- Annual reviews by program/subtype, peak users, source batches, edit history, PDF volume and retention.
- Approved hosting, identity, scan, audit, backup and monitoring services with allocations.
- Required assessment and approval lead times.
- Certified output contracts and who operates each receiving system.
- Scope of legacy history migration, DCA, correspondence and program expansion.
- Support hours, restore targets and release cadence.