What IT work would cost for a business like yours, at published prices
Appluex does not have IT clients yet, so nothing on this page happened to anyone. These are six invented, typical businesses, each with the headcount we assumed, the priced jobs we would propose, and the arithmetic. Use them to see how a quote is built. Your own quote starts from your own office, in writing, before any work.
Illustrations of how we scope and price, not proof that we did it
Every scenario below is labelled as an example scenario in its own heading. None describes a real company. We do not name businesses, count how many we have helped, quote anyone, or claim a result, because there is nothing to claim yet. What we can show honestly is the method: the problems typical of each kind of business, the published jobs we would use against them, and what those jobs add up to at our public prices.
The headcount in each scenario is the example's own assumption, chosen to be typical for that kind of office. If your office has more or fewer people, the per-user lines change and the arithmetic shows exactly how. The totals never include computers, servers, licences, certificates or shipping: you buy equipment and software directly from the vendor, and we plan, configure and test it, labour only.
The industry facts in each scenario come from the sources we studied: the Florida Bar, the FTC, the IRS, the FBI and Microsoft's and Intuit's own dates. The compliance programmes named here are the technical plan and controls. Your firm remains responsible for compliance, and none of this is legal advice.
An example total is a starting point for a conversation, not a quote. The quote is the one in writing, for your office.
Which of these looks like your business?
Each card below is an example scenario, not a client story, with its situation, the jobs, the cost, what stays in your name and the plan that would fit after.
Practice with an old server
A dental or medical office whose files, schedule and imaging sit on a server nearing the end of its support.
Small law firm
A handful of lawyers with client files in email and no written plan, looking at the Florida Bar's voluntary 25-1 dates.
CPA or tax preparer
A tax practice that needs a written security plan before the next filing season.
General contractor
An office plus crews on phones and tablets, with files on one desktop and a new Microsoft 365 account to set up.
Property manager
A management company whose staff pay invoices and change bank details by email.
Boat or auto dealer
An independent dealer that arranges financing and therefore handles customers' financial information.
Six typical businesses, what we would do, and what it would cost
Every card is an invented example. Totals are computed from the published price list with the arithmetic shown, and the headcount is each example's assumption.
Example scenario: a dental or medical practice with an old office server
- Example scenario, not a client story. The headcount is an assumption: a typical practice of eight people.
- Typical situation: schedule, charts and shared files live on a server in a closet. A server that runs out of disk or memory takes the whole schedule down, and Windows Server 2016 stops getting security fixes on 2027-01-12 (SQL Server 2016, under many practice systems, already did on 2026-07-14).
- Typical situation: the practice depends on outside vendors it cannot control. After the Change Healthcare attack in 2024, 80 percent of the 1,400-plus practices an AMA survey heard from lost revenue from unpaid claims.
- What we would do: Security basics for up to 10 users, and Files moved from the server to the cloud, with the server-copy option. Whether the practice software itself moves is the software vendor's decision, and we would plan around it.
- Cost at published prices, with 8 people assumed: $995 security basics + $1,295 file move (up to 10 users, 100 GB) + $195 for copying from a server in the office = $2,485 one time. No hardware or licences included.
- Stays in your name: the Microsoft 365 or Google account, the domain, the practice software contract and licences, and the server itself. You hold the admin login.
- Plan that would fit after: Help Desk Micro. Help Desk Micro is $299 a month for up to 5 users plus $59 for each user from 6 to 10, so $299 + 3 × $59 = $476 a month.
Example scenario: a small law firm
- Example scenario, not a client story. The headcount is an assumption: a typical small firm of six people.
- Typical situation: client files travel by email and sit on personal devices, and nobody has written down the firm's security rules. The lead drafter of the Florida Bar's guidelines said in 2025 that many practitioners are 'just winging it', and an ABA report found 29 percent of firms had a security breach.
- Typical situation: the Bar's Recommendation 25-1 is voluntary, but it sets dates a carrier or a court can point to: a data map and maturity assessment by about March 2027 and an incident response plan by about March 2028. Lawyers must also supervise their vendors under Rule 4-5.3.
- What we would do: the Florida Bar 25-1 starter (data map and incident response plan) and Security basics for up to 10 users. Both are the technical plan and controls; the firm remains responsible for compliance.
- Cost at published prices, with 6 people assumed: $1,495 25-1 starter + $995 security basics = $2,490 one time.
- Stays in your name: the email and file accounts, the practice management subscription, the domain, and every client file. Your own people stay the Bar's responsible supervisors.
- Plan that would fit after: Help Desk Micro. Help Desk Micro is $299 a month for up to 5 users plus $59 for each user from 6 to 10, so $299 + 1 × $59 = $358 a month.
Example scenario: a CPA or tax preparer before tax season
- Example scenario, not a client story. The headcount is an assumption: a typical tax practice of seven people.
- Typical situation: the FTC Safeguards Rule covers tax preparers, and the IRS has said tax pros must have a Written Information Security Plan (WISP). Nearly 300 tax professional data breaches were reported in the first half of 2025.
- Typical situation: the Safeguards Rule asks for a named Qualified Individual, a written risk assessment, MFA, encryption, a plan for incidents and staff training, and writing that paperwork is what most small practices do not know how to start. QuickBooks Desktop 2023 also lost support on 2026-05-31.
- What we would do: the Safeguards and WISP programme (a year, up to 10 users) and Security basics for up to 10 users. They produce the technical plan and controls; the firm remains responsible for compliance.
- Cost at published prices, with 7 people assumed: $1,995 programme for the year + $995 security basics = $2,990 for the first year. The programme is yearly; the basics are one time.
- Stays in your name: the tax software and client portal subscriptions, the Microsoft 365 account, the domain, your client data, and the Qualified Individual role, which a person at the firm holds.
- Plan that would fit after: Help Desk Micro. Help Desk Micro is $299 a month for up to 5 users plus $59 for each user from 6 to 10, so $299 + 2 × $59 = $417 a month.
Example scenario: a general contractor with an office and field devices
- Example scenario, not a client story. The headcount is an assumption: twelve people, each with a computer or tablet.
- Typical situation: plans, photos and job files sit on one desktop in the office, while crews use their own phones and tablets. Construction spends little on IT, about 2.1 percent of revenue for companies under 250 staff, so cost matters.
- Typical situation: there is no managed email account yet and nobody can wipe a lost tablet. Connecting job software such as Procore to accounting is a software job, quoted separately, and is not in this total.
- What we would do: Microsoft 365 setup for the whole crew, devices managed from one place (Intune), and files moved to SharePoint.
- Cost at published prices, with 12 people assumed: Microsoft 365 setup $795 for the first 5 + 7 × $49 = $1,138. Devices $1,795 for 10 + 2 × $45 = $1,885. Files $1,295 for 10 users + 2 × $49 = $1,393. Total $4,416 one time, no hardware or licences.
- Stays in your name: the Microsoft 365 account and its admin login, the domain, the phones and tablets, the job software subscriptions, and all project files.
- Plan that would fit after: Managed Office, $149 a user, so 12 × $149 = $1,788 a month.
Example scenario: a property management company fighting payment fraud
- Example scenario, not a client story. The headcount is an assumption: ten people, and two domains (the company's and a second one used with owners).
- Typical situation: staff pay vendor invoices and change bank details on the strength of an email. The FBI puts business email compromise losses at 3.05 billion dollars in 2025, 86 percent of it moved by wire or ACH, and 275 million of it in real estate. One brokerage owner told the National Association of Realtors they were hit 'weekly to biweekly'.
- Typical situation: nothing stops a criminal sending email that appears to come from the company's own domain, and nobody has written down who calls whom before a bank detail changes.
- What we would do: the Payment Fraud Shield (a second sign-in step on every account, full protection against anyone sending as you, alerts, a practised call-back rule, a lookalike-domain watch and the first-hour playbook), plus full protection for the second domain.
- Cost at published prices, with 10 people assumed: $1,295 Shield setup (up to 10 users) + $395 second domain to full protection = $1,690 one time. Monitoring is 10 × $19 = $190 a month (minimum $95).
- Stays in your name: the domains and their registrar login, the mail accounts, the bank relationships and the call-back rule, which your own people follow. The condo website duties some Florida associations have are a separate web project, quoted separately and not in this total.
- Plan that would fit after: Help Desk Micro. Help Desk Micro is $299 a month for up to 5 users plus $59 for each user from 6 to 10, so $299 + 5 × $59 = $594 a month, plus $190 monitoring = $784 a month. Managed Office would be 10 × $149 = $1,490 a month.
Example scenario: an independent boat or auto dealer that arranges financing
- Example scenario, not a client story. The headcount is an assumption: nine people, and six hours of written-plan work, which is also an assumption.
- Typical situation: the FTC Safeguards Rule covers dealers that arrange financing or leases, including boat dealers, and since 2024-05-13 a breach of unencrypted data on 500 or more consumers must be reported to the FTC within 30 days. A firm with data on fewer than 5,000 consumers is excused from four items but not from MFA, encryption, access control or training.
- Typical situation: closings move large wires, and attackers who break into a broker's or buyer's email send new wiring instructions before the money lands. MarineMax notified 123,424 people after a ransomware attack in 2024.
- What we would do: the Payment Fraud Shield for the wire and email side, and written-plan work for the rest of the Safeguards items, quoted in writing before it starts at the published engineering rate. Any outside penetration test would be bought from a specialist.
- Cost at published prices, with 9 people and 6 hours assumed: $1,295 Shield setup + 6 × $155 an hour = $2,225 one time. Monitoring is 9 × $19 = $171 a month.
- Stays in your name: the dealer management system and its contract, the bank and floor-plan relationships, the domain, the mail accounts, and the Qualified Individual role. The firm remains responsible for compliance.
- Plan that would fit after: Help Desk Micro. Help Desk Micro is $299 a month for up to 5 users plus $59 for each user from 6 to 10, so $299 + 4 × $59 = $535 a month, plus $171 monitoring = $706 a month.
Example totals at published prices
One time unless the note says a year. Each headcount is the example's assumption, and no total contains hardware, licences, certificates or shipping.
| Practice with an old server (8 people)$995 + $1,295 + $195. Then $476 a month. | $2,485 |
|---|---|
| Small law firm (6 people)$1,495 + $995. Then $358 a month. | $2,490 |
| CPA or tax preparer (7 people)$1,995 a year + $995. Then $417 a month. | $2,990 |
| General contractor (12 people)$1,138 + $1,885 + $1,393. Then $1,788 a month. | $4,416 |
| Property management company (10 people)$1,295 + $395. Then $784 a month with monitoring. | $1,690 |
| Boat or auto dealer that arranges financing (9 people)$1,295 + 6 h × $155. Then $706 a month with monitoring. | $2,225 |
These are illustrations of how a quote is built. Your quote is written for your office, names its assumptions, and nothing extra is done without your written yes.
From a first call to a quote in writing
This is the method behind every example above. It is the same for a real office, with your numbers instead of ours.
You tell us what you have
Who works there, which accounts and software you use, and what hurts or what date is coming. A short call is enough to start.
We write down the facts
Headcount, accounts, devices, servers and anything unusual. Anything we have to assume goes on the quote as a written assumption.
We choose from the published jobs
Every job has a public scope and price list. If no priced job fits, we quote the published hourly rates and say the work is quoted in writing before it starts.
You get the quote in writing
Jobs, arithmetic, assumptions, what stays in your name and which plan would fit after. Equipment and licences are bought by you from the vendor.
You approve, then we work
Nothing starts without your written yes, and each job ends with written documents you keep.
Example scenarios. Questions owners ask
Are these real clients?
No. Appluex does not have IT clients yet, so none of these six businesses exists. They are invented, typical offices, labelled as example scenarios, built to show how we scope and price work. We do not name businesses, quote anyone or claim a result, and we will only publish a case study once a real client has agreed to one.
Why publish examples if you have no clients?
Because a price list alone does not show how a quote is built. The examples take the published jobs, pick a typical headcount for each kind of business and show the arithmetic, so you can check our method against your own office before you call anyone.
Will my quote match the example total?
Not exactly, and it should not. Your headcount, accounts, devices and servers differ from the example's assumptions, and your quote lists its own assumptions. The per-user lines in each example show how your total would move if you have more or fewer people.
Do the totals include computers, servers or software licences?
No. We do not sell hardware, licences at a markup or shipping. You buy equipment and software directly from the vendor or carrier, and we plan, configure and test it, labour only. That is why none of the totals above contains any equipment.
Does buying a compliance programme make us compliant?
No. The Safeguards and WISP programme, the Florida Bar 25-1 starter and the Payment Fraud Shield give you the technical plan and controls. Your firm remains responsible for compliance, and none of this is legal advice. Ask your own lawyer or accountant what the rules require of you.
Can we buy only part of what an example shows?
Yes. Every job is priced on its own, so you can start with one, for instance security basics alone, and add the rest later from the same public price list. A plan such as Help Desk Micro can start at any point after the jobs or without them.
What does the monthly plan in each example cover?
Help Desk Micro is $299 a month for up to 5 users plus $59 for each user from 6 to 10; Managed Office is $149 a user, with a minimum of 5 users. Each example names the plan that would fit its headcount, and the plans page lists exactly what each includes and what the variations cost.
Where do you work in person, and what about the rest of Florida?
Support is remote anywhere. In-person visits are inside the city limits of Cape Coral, Fort Myers, Estero, Bonita Springs and Naples. In Cape Coral and Fort Myers the minimum is 1 hour and there is no travel charge. Visits in Estero, Bonita Springs and Naples have a 2-hour minimum, which covers the drive. Every example above could be done fully remotely, because the jobs are accounts, plans and settings rather than equipment.
What do you need from me to produce a real quote?
The number of people, which email and file accounts and business software you use, whether you have a server in the office, and any date you are worried about. We confirm the rest in a short call and put the quote, with its assumptions, in writing before any work starts.
Other ways we can help
Something isn't working?
Email stopped, a computer will not start, the internet is down at the office: call and tell us what is happening, in English or Spanish. You will know the price before any work starts.
In person in Cape Coral, Fort Myers, Estero, Bonita Springs and Naples. Remote support anywhere.