Client Margin Calculator
Type one client’s fee, hours and costs — get gross profit, margin % and a red / amber / green health verdict instantly, with the working shown, so you can defend the number in the pricing conversation.
The working — take it to the pricing conversation
What would fix it
Track every client this way
Get the free Profit Margin Calculator (Excel) — one row per client or project, with the same maths already built in:
- Staff cost, total cost, gross profit and margin % — the formulas do themselves
- The same red / amber / green health lights — under-priced work jumps off the page
- A portfolio total — one blended margin figure for your whole book of work
- Standard .xlsx — opens in Excel, Google Sheets and Numbers
One client in, the whole picture out
Built by people who price this work every week — not an accounting exam. Four numbers in, and you know whether the client pays.
Margin as you type
Fee, hours, cost rate, tools — gross profit, margin % and the health verdict recalculate on every keystroke. No blank cells, no formulas.
Hours become real cost
Your blended rate turns effort into money, so over-servicing shows up as a shrinking margin — not a vague feeling at month end.
Red, amber, green
The same bands as our Excel margin tool: under 20% is at risk, 20–40% needs watching, over 40% is healthy. Problem clients jump out.
The working, shown
Every step of the maths, ready to paste into the pricing conversation — nobody argues with a number they can check line by line.
Client profit margins — questions
Two steps. Total cost = hours delivered × your blended staff cost per hour, plus any tools or other costs for that client. Gross profit = fee − total cost, and margin % = profit ÷ fee. For example: £4,000 a month at 45 hours and £32/hr costs £1,590 in total, leaving £2,410 profit — a 60.25% margin. This calculator does it instantly and shows the working.
For services work, a gross margin of 40% or more per client is the bar most agencies and consultancies aim for — it leaves room for overheads, management time and the odd overrun, and still turns a profit at the bottom line. Between 20% and 40% is worth watching, and under 20% usually means the work is under-priced or over-serviced. Businesses differ, so treat the bands as a working rule of thumb, not a law.
Everything an hour of delivery actually costs you: salary plus employer National Insurance and pension, divided by real working hours. As a quick rule, true hourly cost lands around 1.3–1.4× the raw salary-per-hour figure. If several people work on the client, blend their rates weighted by the hours each puts in.
This page answers for one client, instantly. The free Profit Margin Calculator (Excel) — the download above — tracks every client the same way: one row each, the same red / amber / green health lights, and a portfolio total that blends your whole book of work into one margin figure. Same maths, side by side across all your clients.
We make Landing — the all-in-one platform where time tracking, projects, CRM and invoicing live together, so margin per client is calculated live from real logged time. A genuinely useful free calculator is the best introduction we know; the answer is yours either way. No payment, no trial, no strings.
More free tools
Meet Landing — margin per client, live
A calculator answers today’s question with numbers you type in. In Landing, margin health per client is live: your team’s logged time becomes cost automatically, so every client shows its real margin as the month happens — alongside projects, CRM, invoicing and 40+ connected tools, for teams, agencies and growing businesses.
See Landing in action →Margin here is gross margin on delivery: fee minus staff time at your blended cost rate, minus tools and other costs attributed to this client. General overheads (rent, admin, sales time) are excluded — which is why 40%+ gross is the common bar for services work. Guidance, not accounting advice.