| Line Item | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | YTD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ▶ Revenue | ||||||
| Sales Revenue | £31,657 | £32,554 | £75,243 | £95,214 | £108,088 | £342,757 |
| ▶ Cost of Goods | ||||||
| Trade Materials | (£27,800) | (£40,273) | (£39,190) | (£64,020) | (£57,285) | (£228,568) |
| Gross ProfitGross Profit = sales minus the cost of materials and direct job costs. It's profit before office and running costs. | £3,857 | (£7,721) | £36,055 | £31,194 | £50,802 | £114,189 |
| Gross Margin %Gross Margin % is gross profit shown as a percentage of sales. It tells you how much of each £1 of work is kept after direct costs. | 12.2% | -23.7% | 47.9% | 32.8% | 47.0% | 33.3% |
| ▶ Operating Expenses | ||||||
| Total OpExOperating Expenses (OpEx) are the costs of running the business that aren't tied to a single job — things like office, admin, insurance and vehicles. | (£13,770) | (£8,472) | (£16,241) | (£18,991) | (£13,764) | (£71,240) |
| ▶ Profitability | ||||||
| EBITDAEBITDA is operating profit before interest, tax and accounting write-downs — a clean measure of how profitable the core trading is. | (£9,913) | (£16,193) | £19,813 | £12,203 | £37,039 | £42,949 |
| EBITDA Margin %EBITDA Margin % is operating profit as a percentage of sales. M&E contractors typically aim for 12–18%. | -31.3% | -49.7% | 26.3% | 12.8% | 34.3% | 12.5% |
| NET PROFITNet Profit is the final bottom line — what's left after every cost. This is the money the business actually keeps. | (£9,913) | (£16,193) | £16,048 | £9,885 | £30,002 | £34,789 |
| Net Margin %Net Margin % is net profit as a percentage of sales — the share of every £1 of work kept after all costs. | -31.3% | -49.7% | 21.3% | 10.4% | 27.8% | 10.2% |
The line below is your forecast bank balance to August. Drag the slider and watch a withdrawal pull the whole curve down — when it touches the amber buffer line, you're into the contingency cash that keeps you running if the work dries up.
Say a job costs you £88 to do and you charge the client £100. You keep £12. That £12 is the same money - these two numbers just measure it differently.
In short: markup is on top of cost, margin is part of the price. The green or red tag shows how each job is really doing against the margin you originally quoted - green is better than planned, red is worse.
Price a single job properly. Enter what the job costs you and the calculator works out the quote that covers your costs, your share of overheads, a risk buffer, and the profit you want to keep. The overhead, jobs-per-month and target margin are pre-filled from your live dashboard - change anything to explore.