Six questions most pricing tools make you answer separately — your price, your margin, your markup, your break-even, where the money goes and what a discount really costs. Enter your costs once below and all six answer at the same time.
Book a free discovery call Start with your numbersChange anything on the left and watch every figure on the right move together. That is the point — a price is not one number, it is a set of consequences.
Margin here is gross margin on direct costs. It excludes VAT, which is never yours, and corporation tax, which comes out of what is left.
A tradesman told to "add 30%" adds 30% markup and believes he has a 30% margin. He has 23%. On £200,000 of sales that is £14,000 of profit he thought he had and does not.
| What you add | On a £100 cost | Margin you get | What you thought you had |
|---|---|---|---|
| Add 20% | £120.00 | 16.7% | −3.3pts |
| Add 30% | £130.00 | 23.1% | −6.9pts |
| Add 50% | £150.00 | 33.3% | −16.7pts |
| Add 75% | £175.00 | 42.9% | −32.1pts |
| Add 100% | £200.00 | 50.0% | −50.0pts |
| Add 150% | £250.00 | 60.0% | −90.0pts |
Live — the row matching your markup is lit. Click any row to load it into the workbench.
To hit a margin, divide. Never add. For a 40% margin on a £60 cost, the price is £60 ÷ 0.60 = £100 — not £60 + 40%, which is £84 and leaves you 28.6%. The workbench above does the division for you; this table is here so you can check it in your head on site.
A discount does not come off your price. It comes off your profit, and it comes off all of it. Move the discount slider in the workbench and watch the break-even volume climb — that is how much more you must sell to stand still.
| Discount | 25% margin | 30% margin | 35% margin | 40% margin | 50% margin |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5% | 150vs 120 at full price | 144vs 120 at full price | 140vs 120 at full price | 137vs 120 at full price | 133vs 120 at full price |
| 10% | 200vs 120 at full price | 180vs 120 at full price | 168vs 120 at full price | 160vs 120 at full price | 150vs 120 at full price |
| 15% | 300vs 120 at full price | 240vs 120 at full price | 210vs 120 at full price | 192vs 120 at full price | 172vs 120 at full price |
| 20% | 600vs 120 at full price | 360vs 120 at full price | 280vs 120 at full price | 240vs 120 at full price | 200vs 120 at full price |
| 25% | ∞impossible | 720vs 120 at full price | 420vs 120 at full price | 320vs 120 at full price | 240vs 120 at full price |
Live — unit counts use your own volume, and the cell matching your margin and discount is outlined. Click any cell to try it.
Why this differs from the break-even above. The workbench shows break-even — the units needed to reach zero profit, after overheads. This table shows something else: the units needed to be no worse off than before you discounted. If you were losing money before the discount, this figure restores that same loss rather than clearing it. Two different questions, and a seller needs both.
This is the arithmetic for one product. Running it across every product, every month, from your real figures rather than estimates, is the job. A half-hour call will tell you whether your reported margin and your real one agree.
