“Save time” is the promise of every project management tool. Few put a number on it, and almost none say what the number rests on. Here is the opposite: three typical situations, assumptions written out in full, a calculator for your own figures, and a method to measure the real gain in your team.
Contents
- What we count, and what we don't
- The starting assumptions
- Simulation 1: a 5-person team
- Simulation 2: a solo founder or freelancer
- Simulation 3: a 25-person company
- What if we're wrong? The range
- The calculator: your numbers
- Measure it in your team in one week
- What the numbers don't say
- The plans in one minute
- F.A.Q.
What we count, and what we don't
We only keep four time sinks, because they are frequent, easy to measure and directly targeted by the tool:
- The weekly status update: pulling together spreadsheets, e-mails and messages to find out where each project stands.
- Preparing team meetings: digging out topics, delays and decisions to make.
- Starting a project: turning a fuzzy goal into a clear list of tasks.
- “Where are we?”: each team member's questions and information searches.
We do not count avoided delays, avoided mistakes, or projects that no longer stall at the first difficulty. That is often the biggest gain, but also the hardest to put a figure on honestly, so we leave it out.
The starting assumptions
| Task | Before (spreadsheets, e-mails) | With FluidOps | Saved per month |
|---|---|---|---|
| Status update (project lead) | 2 h per week | 20 min per week (up-to-date board, Kanban and Gantt views) | ≈ 7 h |
| Preparing 4 meetings (project lead) | 30 min each | 10 min (AI assistant draft, to be reviewed) | ≈ 1.3 h |
| Breaking 2 projects into tasks (project lead) | 1 h each | 15 min (AI-suggested breakdown, to be corrected) | ≈ 1.5 h |
| “Where are we?” (each other member) | 15 min per week | ≈ 0 (everything is on the shared board) | ≈ 1 h |
Total for the project lead: ≈ 10 hours per month. For each other member: ≈ 1 hour per month.
To convert to euros we use €35 per hour (an average loaded cost, an order of magnitude). Replace it with your own in the calculator below.
Simulation 1: a 5-person team
One project lead and four colleagues
Business plan: 5 × €15 = €75 per month (€60 billed annually, at €12 per seat).
Break-even: €75 ÷ €35 ≈ 2.1 hours. The whole team only needs to save a little over two hours a month for the subscription to pay for itself.
Simulation 2: a solo founder or freelancer
When you work alone, the time you lose is time you don't have
Individual plan: €12 per month (€10 per month billed annually, i.e. €120 per year). Assumptions: 2 h per month saved on the backward plan and priorities (instead of rebuilding a file), 1 h on breaking big steps down with the AI.
Break-even: €12 ÷ €35 ≈ 20 minutes a month. And a freelancer's hour is often worth far more than €35.
Simulation 3: a 25-person company
One PMO and twenty-four colleagues
Business plan with the 15% volume discount from 25 seats: €12.75 per seat, i.e. ≈ €319 per month. Deliberately low assumption: adoption is more uneven in a large team, so we only count 1 hour per colleague per month.
Break-even: €319 ÷ €35 ≈ 9 hours a month for the whole company, a little over a quarter of an hour per person. The argument for management: fewer chasers, fewer status meetings, instant visibility.
What if we're wrong? The range
Let's take simulation 1 again, first removing half the gains, then doubling them:
Even in the cautious scenario, the time recovered is worth more than three times the price. If your own numbers fall below break-even, the honest answer is to stay on the free plan.
The calculator: your numbers
Change the team size, the hourly cost and the hours saved. The starting values are those of the simulations; prices are the monthly list prices, excluding VAT.
Break-even: 2.1 hours saved per month for the whole team. Calculated on the .
Measure it in your team in one week
- Week 1, before: note the time actually spent on the four tasks (status, meetings, project start, “where are we?”). A stopwatch or a spreadsheet is enough.
- Switch to FluidOps: create a real project, or import your tasks from a CSV. The free plan (2 projects, 3 members per project, 30 AI requests per month) is enough to test.
- Week 2, after: measure the same tasks with the same care.
- Calculate: (time before − time after) × hourly cost × 4.33 weeks. Compare with the price of the plan that fits you.
For project preparation, try the AI assistant in the demo and compare it with how you break work down today: that is where the gap shows up fastest.
What the numbers don't say
- Adoption is everything. If the team keeps a spreadsheet going in parallel, the gain falls to zero. A tool pays for itself when it becomes the single source of truth.
- Saved time is only money if it is reused. The 14 hours of simulation 1 are worth something if they go into moving projects forward, not into filling other meetings.
- The biggest gain is elsewhere. A project that bogs down costs weeks, not hours. The AI assistant and the methods in the toolbox are there to unblock these situations: breaking down a task that is too big, deciding as a group, spotting risks. That gain is not in our tables.
The plans in one minute
- Free: 2 active projects, 3 members per project, Scrum, Kanban and Gantt, 30 AI requests per month.
- Individual: €12 per month (€10 billed annually), up to 100 projects, 300 AI requests per month.
- Business: €15 per seat per month (€12 billed annually), no minimum number of licenses, volume discounts of 10% from 10 seats, 15% from 25 and 20% from 50, 1,000 AI requests per month per account.
Prices exclude VAT. Full details are on the pricing page.
F.A.Q.
Are these gains guaranteed?
No. They are simulations based on cautious assumptions, not measurements. Your real gain depends on how you work today and on how well the team adopts the tool. The measurement method above gives you your own numbers in one week.
Why €35 per hour?
It is an order of magnitude for a loaded cost (salary and charges) of a mid-level manager or project lead in a small business. Change it in the calculator: the break-even in hours changes, not the logic.
What if my team doesn't spend two hours a week on reporting?
Then lower the value in the calculator. If the gain falls below break-even, the free plan is made for you: it costs nothing and already includes Scrum, Kanban, Gantt and the AI assistant.