Break-even calculator

Worksheet

Fixed costs over the contribution each sale makes — and how many of them that takes.

Contribution, not profit

The figure that matters is what one sale leaves after its own variable cost. That is what is available to cover the rent, and it is the number most spreadsheets bury. This sheet puts it on the page beside the count so the arithmetic is visible rather than implied.

It refuses rather than divides

Where the contribution is zero or negative there is no break-even at all, and the sheet says so in words instead of printing a number that would be arithmetically true and practically nonsense.

Whole cents throughout

Fixed costs are summed in integer cents and the contribution is a cents figure, so the totals foot. The count of sales is carried to thousandths so a real answer survives rather than being rounded twice.

Alongside this: Markup & margin · Labor rate · Budget vs actual

A worksheet that does arithmetic on figures you entered. CompliMaint publishes no benchmark, suggests no target and gives no financial, accounting or tax advice. Everything runs on your device.

Questions people ask

What counts as a fixed cost?
Whatever does not change when you do one more job — rent, insurance, a vehicle payment, salaried wages, software. What changes with each job is the variable cost and goes in the header box instead. The line is yours to draw: this tool has no list of what belongs where.
Why is the answer not a whole number?
Because the arithmetic does not produce one. 333.333 jobs is what the figures say, and rounding it up to 334 is a judgment about whether a part-finished job counts — which depends on what you sell. The exact figure is shown and the decision is left with you.
It says there is no break-even. Why?
Because each sale contributes nothing or loses money, so no number of them covers the fixed costs. That is the honest answer, and it is more useful than a very large number. Either the price or the variable cost has to change.
Does it work out profit?
No. It answers one question: how many sales cover the fixed costs you entered. What you make above that, and what happens to it, is not something this page attempts.
Is any of this a benchmark?
No. There is no target margin, no suggested contribution and no comparison with anybody else. Every figure on the sheet is one you typed.