Costing & Margins
Track cost prices, set margin targets, and monitor profitability per proposal — all invisible to clients.
What you'll learn
- ✓Configuring who can see cost data (owner/admin vs. sales)
- ✓Setting a default margin target and per-category overrides
- ✓Adding cost prices to catalog items and individual line items
- ✓Reading the margin summary panel and responding to alerts
- ✓Tracking overall profitability from the dashboard widget
Configure cost visibility
Go to Settings → Costing & Margins. The visibility toggle controls who sees cost data inside the editor: "Owner & Admin only" restricts it to those roles, while "Include Sales" lets the Sales role see costs and margins too. Cost prices are never shown on client-facing share pages or PDFs — this setting only affects internal team visibility.
Pro tip: Start with "Owner & Admin only" if your sales team is new. You can open it up to the full team once everyone understands how margin targets work.
Set margin targets
Enter your default target margin percentage in the "Default Margin Target" field — this is the minimum profit margin you want across all proposals. Below it, you can add per-category overrides: for example, Labor at 40%, Sub-hired Video at 20%, and owned Audio at 60%. Category overrides take precedence over the default when the margin summary runs its calculations.
Add cost prices
Cost prices can be set in two places. In the Catalog, edit any item and fill in the "Cost Price" field for sub-hired or purchased equipment. In the proposal editor, turn on the cost toggle (the eye icon next to the line items table) — a "Cost" column appears beside each line item where you can enter or override the cost for that specific job. Leave cost empty for equipment you own outright.
Pro tip: Sub-hired equipment almost always needs a cost price. Enter the supplier's rate so the margin panel reflects your true profit after paying them.
Monitor margins in the editor
With the cost toggle enabled, the margin summary panel appears at the bottom of the Equipment tab. It shows Revenue (your sale price), Cost (sum of cost prices), Profit (the difference), and Margin % for the entire proposal. Items below your target margin threshold are highlighted with an amber alert. Items with no cost price set show a "Missing cost" warning so nothing slips through.
Track profit from the dashboard
The dashboard profit summary widget shows aggregate revenue, cost, and profit for the current month across all won proposals. Use it for a quick financial health check without opening individual proposals. The widget respects the same visibility settings — Sales role members see it only if "Include Sales" is enabled in Costing & Margins settings.