Break-even calculator. The number of sales a month where the doors pay for themselves. Below it every month costs you; above it every sale is profit.
Australian figures, checked 19 September 2026. Nothing you type leaves your browser.
One number to run the month by.
Every business has a number of sales that covers the rent, the wages, the van and the insurance. Below it, the month lost money. Above it, each extra sale drops most of its price straight to profit, because the fixed costs are already paid. Knowing that number turns "how did we go" into "how many more do we need", which is a question you can do something about on a Tuesday.
The sum is simple: fixed costs divided by what each sale contributes after its own costs. What's hard is being honest about the inputs, and putting your own wage in the fixed costs is the one most people skip.
Moving the number.
Raise the price
The most powerful lever. A 10% rise on a $450 job with $180 of costs lifts the contribution 17%, and the break-even drops the same.
Cut the cost of each sale
Suppliers, wastage, card fees. Every dollar saved per sale is a dollar of contribution, same as a price rise the customer never sees.
Cut the fixed costs
Slow, but permanent. Subscriptions nobody uses, a bigger space than you need, the hours of admin that need a person.
Sell more
Obvious, and usually the hardest. Answering every call is the cheapest way; most businesses miss a third of them.
Watch the mix
An average sale hides a lot. Run the calculator per product or job type and see which ones actually carry the place.
Per day
Break-even per working day is the number to put on the wall. Thirty a month is one and a half a day.
Fixed costs that aren't a person.
A lot of fixed cost is admin that has to be done by someone: the phone, the quotes, the invoices, the follow-up. When an AI does it, that cost drops out of the fixed line and the break-even comes down with it, without a price rise the customer notices. That's the business case for most of what we build, and the ROI calculator will put a figure on it.
Questions people ask.
How do I calculate break-even?
Fixed costs divided by the contribution from each sale. Contribution is the price minus what the sale itself costs you. $8,000 of fixed costs a month, a $450 average job that costs $180 to do: $270 contribution, so 30 jobs a month to break even.
What are fixed costs?
What you pay whether or not you sell anything: rent, wages, insurance, vehicle, phone, software, loan repayments, your own wage. They don't move with sales, at least not month to month.
What are variable costs?
What one more sale costs you: materials, subcontractors, packaging, delivery, card fees, commission. If you did one fewer job, you'd save it. Wages for staff who are on the roster regardless are fixed, not variable, even though they do the work.
What if the calculator says "never"?
Each sale costs more than it brings in, so more sales dig a deeper hole. Either the price goes up, the cost of each sale comes down, or that product stops. It's more common than people think in businesses that price to match a competitor.
Should the owner's wage be in fixed costs?
Yes. If you don't pay yourself, the break-even point looks lower than it is, and the business "breaks even" while you're working for nothing. Put in the wage you'd pay someone else to do your job.
Is break-even before or after tax?
Before. Break-even is the point where profit is zero, so there's no income tax to pay at it. Above it, tax comes out of the profit. GST is separate again: use figures without it.
Photo to come: Cal.
Calum Buchanan.
Melbourne. Ran the systems behind a services business, the phones, the invoices, the marketing, the reporting, and spent the last few years handing them to AI that works. This is that, for yours.