How Do I Know If a Job Made Money?
You know you billed $1,800. You do not know whether you netted $900 or $200. That gap is normal, and it is not a math problem. It is that the money leaves a job in a fixed order, and most people stop counting after the first deduction. Here is one job, taken from the invoice to what you actually keep.
How Do I Know If a Job Made Money? Take It off in Order
Made-up round numbers, our own arithmetic. A job billed $1,800, paid by card. The card company keeps 3%, $54. Your sub bought $350 of parts. Your sub's cut is 50% of the profit. Your ads cost $180 for this job (your month's spend divided by the jobs you booked).
| Step | Amount | What is left |
|---|---|---|
| Billed and collected | $1,800 | $1,800 |
| Card fee | minus $54 | $1,746 |
| Parts | minus $350 | $1,396 (job profit) |
| Sub's cut, 50% of profit | minus $698 | $698 |
| Ads for this job | minus $180 | $518 |
The sub also gets his $350 parts back, so he receives $1,048 in all. You keep $698 before ads and $518 after. Of $1,800 billed, $518 is yours. That is about 29 cents on the dollar.
Where the Number Usually Gets Lost
1. The Cut Is on the Wrong Base
Change one sentence. If the sub is on 60% of the total, not 50% of profit, his cut is $1,080 and he is owed $1,430 with his parts. You keep $316 before ads and $136 after. Same job. Check it: which base did you agree on?
2. Parts Are Counted Once, or Twice
Receipts in a glove box are not in your number. Check it: add every part receipt for the job, and note who paid.
3. The Card Fee Is Invisible
It comes out of the deposit, so it never shows on an invoice. Check it: compare the invoice total with what landed in the bank.
4. Ads Are Treated as Overhead
Ads that brought the job are part of its cost. Check it: divide the month's spend by the jobs you booked and take that off each one.
5. Cash Held by the Sub
If the customer paid your sub, he is holding your money. It does not change what the job made, but it changes who pays whom. Check it: who took the payment?
What to Do
Pick last week's three biggest jobs and run the table above for each. Write the base you agreed with your sub at the top. Do it by hand once and you will see where your own number goes missing.
HeadHoncho prints this working on a job's Money tab: money in, parts, each person's share, and the check that everyone's take-home adds back to the money in. The Jobs table can show the cut and what the job made as columns, and you can filter for Losing money. The sub side is in How to Pay a Subcontractor on a Split. The ads side is in How to Work Out Your Cost per Booked Job. See the definition in What Is Gross Margin Per Job?, and the overview on HeadHoncho for the Solo Operator.