BI software buyer’s checklist for 2026

How to use this checklist

This is a tick-box list for the evaluation itself — print it, take it into each trial, and score every tool on the same lines. For the wider questions to settle before you shortlist anyone (who the users are, what success looks like, build or buy), start with how to choose a BI tool: 12 questions to ask. Then come back here.

One rule above all: run every check on your own data, with your own messy spreadsheet and your largest table. Every product looks good on its demo dataset.

Data and connections

• ☐ Connects to every system you report on today — ERP or accounting, CRM, e-commerce, databases, spreadsheets — and to the one you plan to add next year.
• ☐ Lets you choose, per table, between querying live and importing for speed.
• ☐ Relates tables from different systems (by customer, product, branch) once, for every dashboard.
• ☐ Stays fast on your largest table, not just on a sample.
• ☐ Shows when each dashboard’s data was last updated.
• ☐ Warns before someone saves a query heavy enough to slow everyone down.

People, permissions and trust

• ☐ Row-level permissions: each manager sees only their branch, region or clients — on dashboards, downloads, scheduled reports and AI answers alike.
• ☐ Column masking for salaries, cost prices and personal data.
• ☐ Metrics defined once and reused everywhere, so two dashboards never disagree on “revenue”.
• ☐ A history of who changed what, and the ability to roll back.
• ☐ Works in the languages your team reads, including right-to-left Arabic if you need it.
• ☐ A business user can build a simple chart in the trial without training.

AI

• ☐ Answers to plain-language questions are real charts from your data, not paragraphs with numbers in them.
• ☐ The AI uses your saved metrics, synonyms and certified tables.
• ☐ The AI respects the asker’s row and column permissions.
• ☐ Every AI output is a draft; nothing is saved, sent or scheduled until a person saves it.
• ☐ The AI runs only when someone clicks, and shows its cost before the click.
• ☐ Admins can choose which tables the AI may use, or switch it off.
• ☐ Clear answers on which features see your data and which see only table and column names.

More on each line in AI in business intelligence.

Sharing and delivery

• ☐ Dashboards schedule as PDF or image to email — and to WhatsApp, Slack or Telegram if that is where your team reads.
• ☐ One schedule sends each recipient only their own rows.
• ☐ Alerts fire when a number crosses a line, with the value in the message.
• ☐ Dashboards can be shared by public link or embedded in your own product, if you need either.
• ☐ Dashboards read properly on a phone.

Pricing and contract

• ☐ The price is published, not “contact us” for every line.
• ☐ You can work out next year’s bill: price per user, per seat type, and what happens when you add 20 viewers.
• ☐ A cheaper seat exists for people who only view, filter and download.
• ☐ No minimum number of users, and no surprise add-on for speed, AI or permissions.
• ☐ AI usage is metered in a way you can predict and see.
• ☐ Storage limits and the cost of more are stated.
• ☐ You know what help is included to get connected, and whether someone can build the first dashboards for you.

Hosting and security

• ☐ A hosted cloud for those who want nothing to run.
• ☐ A self-hosted option on your own servers if your data must stay in your country or network — with the whole product, AI included, working there.
• ☐ Read-only access to your source systems; the tool never writes to them.
• ☐ Sign-in, password and session controls your IT team is happy with.