Project Profitability Calculator
Model price, fees, taxes, direct costs, and hours to see gross margin, net profit, and effective hourly yield.
📖 Understand this document
This calculator tells you whether a project actually made you money. Input your quoted price, actual hours spent, expenses, and hourly rate to see your real profit margin and effective hourly rate.
Key components
- Revenue — what the client paid you.
- Costs — your hours × rate plus any direct expenses.
- Profit margin — the percentage of revenue that's actual profit.
- Effective hourly rate — what you actually earned per hour worked.
Compare plan vs reality. Floor rate is your minimum acceptable effective hourly from the hourly rate calculator.
(5.0 hrs over)
Direct costs
97.6%
Gross margin
| Metric | Quoted (40h) | Actual (45h) |
|---|---|---|
| Project price | $5,000.00 | $5,000.00 |
| Platform fee | $0.00 | $0.00 |
| Net revenue | $5,000.00 | $5,000.00 |
| Direct costs | $120.00 | $120.00 |
| Overhead allocated | $0.00 | $0.00 |
| Total costs | $120.00 | $120.00 |
| Gross profit | $4,880.00 | $4,880.00 |
| Gross margin % | 97.6% | 97.6% |
| Tax est. | $976.00 | $976.00 |
| Net profit | $3,904.00 | $3,904.00 |
| Effective hourly | $97.60 | $86.76 |
| ROI | 3253.3% | 3253.3% |
| Realization rateⓘ | — | 88.9% |
ROI = (Net profit ÷ Total costs) × 100. Your ROI: 3253.3%
Budget burn
Budget burned: 112.5% | Project complete: 50% | Status: Over budget
Projected final hours at this pace: 90.0 h
Hours vs budget
Completion
Industry benchmarks (professional services)
- Gross margin: 50–70% typical | Your project: 97.6%
- Net margin: 10–20% typical | Your project: 78.1%
- ROI: >25% healthy | Your project: 3253.3%
- Effective hourly vs floor: Above
✓ This project is financially healthy. Your gross margin of 97.6% is above the 20% minimum benchmark, and your effective hourly rate of $86.76/hr exceeds your floor of $75.00/hr.
What-if price (+0%)
Center = current price. Drag to preview margin impact.
What-if actual hours (+0%)
Saved projects
Pick A and B on two different projects to compare in the center column.
Works well with
Capacity Planner
Model weekly capacity against project commitments, see an eight-week forecast, and sanity-check new work before you say yes
Income Tracker
Log payments, chart progress toward an annual goal, export CSV, and celebrate milestones — multi-year view with browser-only storage
Hourly Rate Calculator
Find the minimum hourly rate you need to hit your income goals
Frequently asked questions
Gross margin compares gross profit to revenue after fees. Net margin reflects net profit after tax assumptions as a share of revenue. Both are simplified planning views, not tax advice.
Quoting a big flat fee feels great until actual hours and software subscriptions erode the win. This tool keeps quoted and actual columns side by side so variance is visible before you sign the next contract.
Scope creep shows up here as rising hours—jump to the scope creep calculator when you need a client-ready change order email.