Executive Overview — For Decision-Makers

Audience: Board, management, finance, compliance — no technical background required.
Purpose: Transparency on platform operations, costs, risks, and items that may need approval.
Detail: Each section below links to the full technical document for audit and due diligence.

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Operations & Infrastructure

Services & Costs

Executive Summary

In brief: Single page listing every vendor (Render, Cloudflare, Resend, Anthropic/OpenRouter, GitHub, monitoring) with indicative prices.

Why it matters: Finance and board need one place for “what do we pay?” and “what should we add for optimal operations?”

Cost: Production ~€90–120/mo; staging ~€25–40/mo; AI and email variable — see full table on linked page.

Status: Live stack documented; Sentry, uptime alerting, GitHub Team still optional.

Decision needed: Review monthly platform budget (~€100–220 fixed + AI/email variable)

Platform Ecosystem

Executive Summary

In brief: The Governance Portal runs in the EU (Frankfurt) on Render, with data in PostgreSQL and files in Cloudflare R2.

Why it matters: Ensures GDPR-aligned hosting and clear ownership of domains, billing, and access for the NGO.

Cost: Render production ~€90–120/month (frontend, backend, database); Cloudflare R2 usage-based (currently low).

Status: Production live; DNS still on a private Cloudflare account — migration to MQA org pending.

Decision needed: Approve DNS migration to MQA Cloudflare org (no extra hosting cost)

Roadmap

Executive Summary

In brief: Prioritised checklist from basic reliability to enterprise-grade operations.

Why it matters: Shows what is done vs. open — useful for budget planning and risk discussions.

Cost: Most Phase 1 items are process/config (no new vendors). Phase 3+ may add monitoring tools (~€0–50/month).

Status: Foundation partly complete; staging and automated backups still open.

Decision needed: Prioritise Phase 1 items (Cloudflare ownership, branch protection, monthly backups)

Environment Inventory

Executive Summary

In brief: List of all configuration keys (no secret values) used by the application and hosting.

Why it matters: Audit trail for “what the system needs” without exposing passwords; supports handover and compliance reviews.

Cost: No direct cost — documents existing services.

Status: Maintained with each infrastructure change.

Decision needed: None — informational

Backup & Restore

Executive Summary

In brief: How database backups are taken, stored, and restored if something goes wrong.

Why it matters: Protects audit data, donor records, and governance documents against loss or ransomware.

Cost: R2 storage for backups — typically a few euros per month at current volume.

Status: Manual scripts documented; automated monthly backup not yet scheduled.

Decision needed: Approve automated monthly backup to R2 (minimal storage cost)

Deployment Checklist

Executive Summary

In brief: Standard smoke tests run after each production deployment.

Why it matters: Reduces risk of shipping a broken release to staff and partners.

Cost: Developer time only (~15 minutes per release).

Status: In use.

Decision needed: None — operational procedure

Staging Setup

Executive Summary

In brief: Separate test environment mirroring production for safe testing before go-live.

Why it matters: Prevents experiments from affecting live data; required for professional change management.

Cost: Additional Render services (staging frontend, backend, database) — estimate ~€25–40/month.

Status: Services deployed; OAuth and full test discipline still being finalised.

Decision needed: Confirm staging budget (~€25–40/month additional Render services)

Staging Status

Executive Summary

In brief: Live list of staging URLs, services, and remaining setup steps.

Why it matters: Single page to verify “is our test environment ready?” without reading setup guides.

Cost: Covered under staging budget above.

Status: Staging online at staging.portal.mqa.group.

Decision needed: None — status report

Cloudflare Migration

Executive Summary

In brief: Move domain DNS and file storage from a private account to the MQA organisation account.

Why it matters: Team access, billing transparency, and clean offboarding — not tied to one individual.

Cost: R2 migration completed (no migration fee); DNS change has no recurring cost increase.

Status: File storage (R2) migrated ✅; DNS zone migration still open.

Decision needed: Approve DNS cutover to MQA Cloudflare account; revoke old keys after T+7

Resend (Email)

Executive Summary

In brief: Transactional email for approvals, invitations, and notifications from governance@mqa.group.

Why it matters: Auditors and staff rely on timely email; domain reputation affects deliverability.

Cost: Free tier 3,000/mo → Pro $20/mo if needed.

Status: Live in production.

Decision needed: Upgrade to Resend Pro ($20/mo) only if volume exceeds 3,000 emails/month

AI Services

Executive Summary

In brief: Portal AI uses Anthropic API or OpenRouter — not a Claude Pro chat subscription.

Why it matters: Avoids confusion between developer chat costs (~$20/mo) and application inference (usage-based).

Cost: Typically €5–200+/month depending on adoption; set caps in Anthropic/OpenRouter dashboard.

Status: API keys on Render; OpenRouter optional alternative.

Decision needed: Monitor API spend monthly; Claude Pro subscription is separate from app API billing

Monitoring

Executive Summary

In brief: How we detect outages and where logs are reviewed.

Why it matters: Early warning if portal or API is down — affects staff, auditors, and partners.

Cost: Render includes basic metrics; external uptime tools from €0 (free tier) to ~€20/month.

Status: Basic Render health checks; formal alerting playbook partially documented.

Decision needed: Decide if paid uptime alerting (e.g. UptimeRobot Pro) is needed

Security Status

Executive Summary

In brief: What security controls exist and what is still being improved.

Why it matters: NGO handles sensitive governance and financial data; donors and auditors expect reasonable safeguards.

Cost: Security hardening is mostly engineering time; optional Cloudflare Access for docs ~€0–7/user/month.

Status: Critical audit findings fixed; three HIGH items remain on the roadmap.

Decision needed: Review open HIGH items (JWT storage, legacy uploads, IDOR review) — no new vendor required

GitHub Flow

Executive Summary

In brief: How code changes are reviewed, tested, and merged before production.

Why it matters: Prevents unreviewed changes reaching production; standard for grant-funded IT projects.

Cost: GitHub free for private repos; branch protection rules may need Team/Pro (~€4/user/month).

Status: CI and templates in place; branch protection on main/develop pending GitHub plan.

Decision needed: Approve GitHub Team/Pro if branch protection on private repo is required (~€4/user/month)

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Architecture

AI Content Editing

Executive Summary

In brief: How AI-assisted editing works in the portal, including versioning and rollback.

Why it matters: Explains use of AI for content — relevant for data protection and cost control policies.

Cost: Anthropic API (usage-based); budget caps configurable in the application.

Status: Implemented in production features.

Decision needed: Anthropic API usage — monitor monthly spend in Render/env

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Application

Permission System

Executive Summary

In brief: Who can see and change what in the portal (roles and permissions).

Why it matters: Segregation of duties — finance, management, and field staff see only what they need.

Cost: No additional licensing.

Status: Live; aligned with MQA role model.

Decision needed: None — reference for access governance

Database Restore

Executive Summary

In brief: Step-by-step recovery if a database restore from backup is required.

Why it matters: Business continuity — complements the backup runbook for disaster scenarios.

Cost: Downtime cost only; no extra vendor fee for restore itself.

Status: Documented; tested manually.

Decision needed: None — technical procedure for IT

API Clients

Executive Summary

In brief: How external systems or future integrations connect to the portal API.

Why it matters: Transparency for any future integration budget (mobile apps, reporting tools, etc.).

Cost: No cost until an integration is built.

Status: Reference documentation.

Decision needed: None — developer reference

Performance

Executive Summary

In brief: Known performance considerations and tuning options.

Why it matters: Informs decisions if users report slowness — may justify higher Render plan tiers.

Cost: Scaling up Render plans increases monthly hosting (see Ecosystem doc).

Status: Baseline acceptable; tuning ongoing as usage grows.

Decision needed: None — optimisation notes for developers

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How to use this page

If you need…	Action
Quick risk/cost picture	Read the summaries above only
Audit or due diligence	Follow links to full documents
Approve a budget line	Check Cost and Decision needed in each box
Monthly steering update	Compare Status fields to previous month

Last updated: August 2026 · Maintained with each docs deploy.