Costing & FinanceFree worksheetPDF, Excel, Word export

Messaging Channel Cost Comparison Worksheet

Choosing between WhatsApp, SMS, email and chat for ERP notifications is mostly a cost per delivered message question. This worksheet puts each channel in a row so you can see spend, delivered volume and the real price of a message that actually arrives.

Download:

Monthly spend	Delivered	Cost per delivered
$240	11,400	0.02
$180	3,880	0.05
$54	1,152	0.05
$30	29,400	0
$0	7,920	0

Total sent

55,200

Total monthly spend

$504

Total delivered

53,752

Blended cost per delivered message

0.01

Blended delivery rate

97.4%

Rates in the example rows are placeholders, not quotes. Replace them with your provider rate cards, add tax and any platform fees as separate rows, and keep one row per category and country.

Want a channel strategy for ERP notifications?

An optional review of which events should go to which channel and what fallback to use.

Optional. The tool and every export work without this. No spam.

How to use the worksheet

Add one row per channel and use case, for example order updates versus one time passcodes, because rates differ by message type and country. Enter monthly volume, the rate from your provider invoice, and the delivery rate from your delivery receipts. The sheet calculates monthly spend, delivered messages and the cost per delivered message, then totals and blends across rows. Export to Excel to share with procurement.

One row per category and country
Use invoiced rates, not list prices
Add platform and number rental fees as extra rows

The calculation

Monthly spend is volume times rate. Delivered is volume times delivery rate. Cost per delivered message is the rate divided by the delivery rate, so a 0.045 SMS with 90 percent delivery really costs 0.05 per arrival. Blended cost is total spend divided by total delivered. Some channels bill on sent messages and some on delivered, so check the contract, because that changes whether delivery rate matters for spend.

Common mistakes

Comparing price alone ignores whether the recipient can use the channel. A cheap email that nobody reads is not cheap. Also do not forget fallback logic: if you retry a failed WhatsApp message over SMS, count both attempts. Finally, free internal channels such as Teams still cost integration and maintenance time, which belongs in your business case even if the message rate is zero.

Include fallback sends as separate rows
Check whether billing is on sent or delivered
Add integration run costs for internal channels

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does delivery rate change cost?

If you pay per sent message, every failed delivery is wasted money, so the effective price per arrival is the rate divided by the delivery rate. If billing is on delivered messages, enter 100 for billing purposes.

Where do I get delivery rates?

From delivery receipts or status webhooks of each provider over a representative month. Do not use marketing figures.

Does it handle multiple currencies?

Work in one currency and convert provider rates first. For several countries, keep one row per country with its converted rate.

Can I add columns?

Export to Excel and extend it there, for example with tax or volume discount tiers.

If you want a single notification layer that picks the right channel from ERP events and logs delivery back to the record, Netray can design it with you.

Talk to an Expert Explore More Free Tools

Related Tools

AI Agents & Automation

More Costing & Finance tools

See all

Back to All Tools