Margin Analysis

For many users, being able to monitor and control the profit margin of individual bookings is a crucial option

In TBS there are several different options available to accomplish this

The initial Margin Analysis report is available from the Bookings --> Job Details screen, from the Reports menu of the top list :

This will print a margin analysis of any currently selected bookings in the Job Details list

You are firstly shown a standard set of printing options, and then an Options screen where you can alter what you wish to be used for your Margin Analysis :

The Include Detail option allows for a detailed report which can display the booking(s) line by line so you can accurately see exactly where your costs are, where not including detail will simply display the overall totals for the booking, and can be a useful option when printing multiple bookings.

The Show Folder Titles option will do what it indicates, and display Folder titles for each separate folder (where there are any items included) within a booking

The Include Our Contact Subtotals option is designed to allow the Margin Analysis report to be used to calculate totalled profitability sorted and subtotalled according to our job contact as saved within each booking. This makes the report into an ideal basis for commission calculations.

The Invoiced Items Only option allows for the report to ignore any items which have not been invoiced (i.e. those items which do not hold an invoice number in their entry) - typically non-chargeable items - although it is quite possible for non-chargeable items to carry a cost to the business which can affect the profitability of the booking

The Include Archived option will do what it indicates, and include bookings items which may have been archived at month end - if you have an ongoing booking with multiple monthly charges within one booking it may be appropriate to only view current charges, however normally this can be left as it defaults.

The Exclude Default Sales Cost will not include as a cost in the margin calculation where a stock description has a Daily Cost set or for a sales item, where there is a Sales Stock Buy Price set, or a Stock Description Buy In price

When all options have been set as desired, use the OK button to proceed, whereupon the report is produced :

 Costs can be introduced into a booking in one of several different ways, depending upon which method is most applicable in your own companies situation :

Firstly, if any bookings item is sub hired and such detail is noted via the creation of a Purchase Order (so either by allocating the line item in the Allocations tab to a known supplier with a daily cost and proceeding to create a Purchase Order from that, or by creating a Purchase Order via the Accounts / Purchase Orders / Orders screen and then when entering the order line item, by filling in the relevant bookings job number (which in reverse will create the allocations entry for you if appropriate - if the purchase order is not for a stock description based item, then the charge will simply show in the Margin Analysis after all stock descriptions as a cost against the job)

Secondly, against any stock description entry, you may enter a 'Daily Cost' to the business for that item. Whether this is determined to be a daily financial cost as in for example an amortised leasing cost of an asset, or perhaps simply a known approximate value of a cost like for example against a crew requirement entry where you know the average cost per day of such a crew person in advance. Such costs are however only 'theoretical' costs - and so not all users will want to utilise this option, where the margin analysis is used for more exact cash margins. However in some cases it can be very useful !

Note : for sales items, the Buy In Price is used in place of the Daily Cost, unless the item is the result of an Internal Sale (when the Internal Sale price is used), or if there is a Sales Stocks entry for the description which includes a Buy Price (when the Buy Price is then used)

 Thirdly, if any cost is entered in to the Purchase Ledger (if TBS accounting is being used) and the cost is noted as being against the specific bookings job number when entered in to the Purchase Ledger and this had not come from any previously created Purchase Order, it was simply an expense input to the accounts :

An analysis of a booking which has all of the above examples when printed on a margin analysis is :

If you wish to print out a report for commission calculation purposes, your search will in most likelihood be for bookings where the invoice date is in the current month for example (you can vary the search to your own criteria here), and the suggested options for your report would be along the following lines :

In this example, we do not need to see any of the detail lines for each booking, nor do we need to know the folder totals, and for commission purposes it is likely that you will only want to consider income and costs on lines which have actually been invoiced. By clicking the Include Our Contact Subtotals box, the report will then come out like the following example :

Much depends upon whether you wish to see a Margin Analysis with only 'known' anticipated costs, or if you prefer to see a margin analysis with full apportioned running costs against each item of stock as part of your margin.

But the choice is yours to follow as you wish.