Profitability Dashboard
Know exactly where your money's going - and whether you're actually making any. The profitability dashboard tracks budgets against actuals so you can catch problems early and learn from every job.
The Big Picture
At the top you'll see three key numbers:
- Expected Profit - What you should make based on quotes and budgets
- Actual Profit - What you've actually made (or lost)
- Variance - The gap between the two
Green variance = you're doing better than expected. Red = time to dig into the details.
Gross Margin
This is the number that matters. We calculate it as:
Gross Margin = (Revenue - Direct Costs) / Revenue × 100Most healthy contractors sit between 20-35% gross margin. If you're below 15%, something's off - either pricing or cost control needs attention.
Project-by-Project Breakdown
Each project shows:
| Metric | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Budget | Original quote amount |
| Actuals | What you've spent so far |
| Variance | Over or under budget |
| Stage status | Where the money went |
Click into any project to see the stage-level breakdown.
Recording Actuals
As costs come in, record them against project stages:
- Open a project
- Go to Financials tab
- Click Record Actuals next to a stage
- Enter material costs, labor hours, subcontractor costs
- Save
The dashboard updates automatically. Do this weekly for best results - monthly is too slow to catch problems.
Variance Analysis
When a stage shows red variance, drill in to see what happened:
- Materials over - Did prices go up? Did you order more than estimated?
- Labor over - Took longer than expected? Rework?
- Subcontractor over - Change orders? Scope creep?
This is how you get better at estimating. Every job teaches you something.
Filtering and Exporting
Filter the dashboard by:
- Date range
- Project status (active, completed, all)
- Manager
- Client
Export to Excel for reporting or accountant reviews.
Tips from the Trenches
Review weekly, not monthly Catch issues while you can still do something about them.
Tag your reasons When recording variances, add a note. "Client changed spec" is more useful than just seeing red numbers.
Compare similar jobs Look at completed projects of similar size/type. Are you consistently off in the same areas?
Use it for bidding Your historical data is gold. If you always run 10% over on electrical, factor that into your next quote.