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Pricing & profitability

Break-even revenue calculator

Every month starts with a bill to pay before you earn a cent for yourself. Find the revenue floor your business has to clear — and how many jobs it takes to get there.

Your monthly numbers

What the business costs to run each month, and what a typical job looks like.

Monthly business overheads

Rent, vehicles, fuel, insurance, phone, software, accounting, office wages — every cost that turns up whether or not you do a single job. Don’t include job materials.Your own monthly wage

What you need to pay yourself each month. It’s a real cost — a business that can’t pay the owner isn’t breaking even.Gross margin on jobs

What’s left of each job after materials, subbies and direct labour, as a percentage of the price. Most trades land somewhere between 30% and 55%.Average job value (ex GST)

Rough average invoice value — used to turn the revenue number into “jobs per month”.Target monthly profit

Optional — profit you want left in the business after all costs, on top of your wage.

Break-even revenue per month

$41,250

At a 40% gross margin you need $41,250 of work each month before the business makes a single dollar of profit.

Per week$9,519

Per working day$1,904

Jobs per month at $650 average63.5

Break-even revenue per year$495,000

Revenue to clear $2,500 profit/month$47,500

traqR shows revenue, costs and margin live on every job and a running monthly total — so you always know whether you’re ahead of break-even or behind it.

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How it works

Add up your fixed costs

Overheads plus your own wage is what the business must cover every month before profit — these bills arrive whether you’re flat out or quiet.

Divide by gross margin

Only the margin on each job pays those bills. At a 40% margin, every $100 of revenue contributes $40 — so you need your fixed costs divided by 0.40 in revenue.

Turn it into jobs

Dividing by your average job value converts the revenue target into a number you can plan a week around: how many jobs you need on the board.

Frequently asked questions

What counts as a fixed cost vs a job cost?

Fixed costs (overheads) turn up regardless of work: rent, vehicle finance, insurance, phone, software, registrations, office or admin wages, your own wage. Job costs scale with each job: materials, hired plant, subcontractors and the labour hours spent on site. Job costs are already accounted for inside your gross margin, so don’t double-count them here.

How do I work out my gross margin?

Take a typical job: (price − materials − subbies − direct labour cost) ÷ price × 100. If you charge $1,000 and the job costs $600 to deliver, your gross margin is 40%. Our markup & margin calculator converts between markup and margin if you price with markups.

Why should my own wage be included?

Because “profit” that only exists because you didn’t pay yourself isn’t profit. Pricing off a break-even that excludes your wage is one of the most common reasons trades businesses feel busy but never get ahead.

My revenue is above break-even but there’s no cash. Why?

Break-even is about profit, not cash. Slow-paying customers, upfront material purchases, GST and tax set-asides and loan repayments all drain cash even when the P&L looks fine. Invoicing the day the job finishes and chasing payment automatically makes the biggest difference.

This calculator is a general guide, not financial advice. It assumes a constant gross margin across jobs and excludes tax timing, loan principal repayments and seasonal swings. Check your numbers with your accountant.

Know where you stand, every day

traqR tracks revenue and job costs live, so you can see whether the month is ahead of break-even or behind it. Try it free for 14 days.

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