Part-Time Data Analyst or Full-Time Hire? How to Decide

A part-time data analyst handles the reporting and analysis a company needs without the cost of a full-time salary. Whether that is the right choice comes down to one number: how many hours of real analysis your business generates each month. This page gives you the federal pay data and the arithmetic to work it out.

At Lightray Solutions, as part of our Power BI consulting services, the fractional data analyst is Edward Pinela, MBA, who has 20+ years in data and reporting and does the work himself. There is no pool of analysts to be assigned from.

The first step is a free 30-minute strategy call. Part-time analyst work runs on prepaid Power BI Flex Support hours, from $2,500 for 20 hours at $100 to $125 an hour, in 20, 40 or 80-hour blocks that never expire.

“Amazing! Lightray Solutions built us a Power BI dashboard based on my busy restaurant’s quickbooks data that allows me to see my entire business on a daily basis which has been a game-changer! Excellent communication and service!”

— Quinn R., Google review

What does a full-time data analyst cost?

The Bureau of Labor Statistics' Occupational Outlook Handbook puts the median annual wage for data scientists, the federal occupation that includes business intelligence analysts, at $120,230 in May 2025, or $57.80 an hour. The lowest-paid tenth earned under $67,240. Wages are only part of the cost: benefits were 30.0 percent of private employers' compensation costs in June 2026.

If benefits follow that average, a median-paid analyst costs an employer about $170,000 a year before recruiting, software and management time. A junior hire costs less, but usually needs someone senior to check the work, which is often the very gap you were trying to fill.

When is a fractional data analyst the better choice?

When the work is real but uneven: heavy at month-end and during planning, light in between. That fully loaded $170,000 buys roughly 1,360 to 1,700 consulting hours at the Flex rates, against about 2,080 paid hours for an employee. If your analysis fills fewer than 20 or 30 hours a week, the part-time route usually costs less.

The comparison runs the other way too. If the work fills most of a week, every week, or the role needs to sit in daily operations meetings, hire. A fractional analyst is often the right step before that hire: the reports and model get built properly first, and the new employee inherits something that works. The table sets the three options side by side.

What does a part-time data analyst do each month?

Most of the hours go on a predictable monthly routine: checking that the reports refreshed and agree with the books, explaining what moved, and keeping the data clean. The rest are held for the questions leadership asks between meetings. Companies that want a fixed monthly arrangement instead of prepaid blocks can compare a BI consulting retainer. A typical month looks like this, adjusted to your calendar and your systems:

• Month-end refresh and check. Confirm the reports refreshed, tie key totals back to the accounting system and flag anything that doesn't match before leadership sees it.
• KPI review. A short written note on what moved, what didn't and what looks unusual, so the monthly meeting starts with answers rather than questions.
• Ad-hoc questions. The why-did-this-drop and what-if requests from leadership or a department head, answered from the model rather than a fresh spreadsheet.
• Data quality checks. Exception lists of CRM, ERP or accounting records that are missing or wrong, sent to whoever owns them.
• Dashboard health. Failed refreshes, slow pages and reports nobody opens, fixed or retired.
• One improvement. A new measure, page or data source each month, so the reporting gets better rather than just maintained.

How does part-time analyst work fit around your team?

Edward works remotely inside your Microsoft tenant, joins the meetings where numbers are discussed by video, and answers through email or Teams within 4 business hours. You see the hours used against each block as they are drawn down, so the cost of each request is visible.

Someone on your side still owns the definitions, usually written down during KPI dashboard creation, and acts on the findings; the analyst informs decisions rather than making them. If the gap is broader than one role, see how a virtual analytics team splits the work. Because the reporting runs in Power BI, the first block is low-risk: if you don't like working with us within its first 4 hours, you get your money back.

Further reading: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — Occupational Outlook Handbook: Data Scientists (pay, May 2025).