The -400 months result that still said BUILD is a perfect warning. Division does not know what a negative saving means, and a comparison against a horizon will treat a large negative as a fast payback.

Returning never when upkeep eats the subscription, projecting seats and renewal uplift, and treating close as buy all match how we talk about this with clients. Cancelling a subscription is easy. Unbuilding a custom automation is not. The classification step first, payroll and payments stay bought whatever the sheet says, is also the right order.

When teams ask Ascendra Ventures whether to replace a tool with a fixed-price build, we start with that same filter: is this process specific to how you work, and will it still look like this in a year? Only then do the numbers matter.

How often does the projected answer change the verdict for you versus the flat formula?