I guess you need to figure out the company's attitude to what they're doing. If they're trying to build a software product then they're often happier to spend i

I guess you need to figure out the company's attitude to what they're doing. If they're trying to build a software product then they're often happier to spend if they know they'll get quality. If the company is not actually tech related at all, they likely see internal tool development as a cost center to be minimised where possible. Likely they do not know the difference between high and low quality code and might be willing to take a dip in quality for a greater dip in cost. Of course, I did meet up with a successful businessman not that long ago that credited the high valuation and subsequent sale of his non-tech company with their impressive internal tooling and management system. Despite not being a tech guy (beyond being above-average computer literate), he totally understood the value of it. So, it's not a hard and fast rule unfortunately.