# Client margin — one number for the owner and the engineer

Sales minus hours at the rate minus cost of goods. Krokul calculates it from the same records, so the owner, the project manager and the accountant get the same answer.

**In short.** Krokul is a B2B CRM that calculates client and project margin from its own records: revenue from invoices and completion certificates, costs from hours at the hourly rate (company or project) and from the weighted average cost of goods from supplier receipts. The client report shows hours, cost, revenue and margin as a percentage; the dashboard shows margin for the period. Cost and margin are visible only to roles allowed to see them, and this is enforced on the server, including in the API.

**Who it’s for:** IT integrators and service companies billing by the hour; distributors selling goods with installation; owners who want to see margin without Excel.

**Plan:** Available from the Margin plan, $399 per month, 5,000 transactions included

## What it looks like without Krokul

1. The project was “delivered at a profit”, but at quarter-end the accountant brought a spreadsheet showing a loss: forty engineer hours and delivery weren’t counted.
2. The project manager calculates margin at their rate, the owner at theirs, the CFO at a third. Three numbers, one meeting.
3. A rep sees the cost in the quote and discounts “down to zero”, thinking margin is just price minus purchase cost.

## What Krokul does

### One formula for everyone

Margin = revenue from invoices and completion certificates − hours × rate − cost of goods. The hourly rate is set by the company or the project; the formula can’t be changed, so the number is the same for everyone.

### Hours and goods from the same records

Hours come from the timer and project time entries, cost of goods as the weighted average of supplier receipts. Nothing is exported or entered twice.

### Client and project margin

For each project and each client over a period: hours, cost of hours, revenue, margin in UAH and as a percentage. Clients you lose money on are visible right away.

### Cost — by role

A rep sees price and discount, but not the line item’s cost and margin. The server checks this on every request, so a rep can’t get them through the API or the assistant either.

## How it works

1. **Set the hourly rate** One rate for the company — or a separate one for a project if the team or terms differ. The rate is what an hour costs you, not the price to the client.
2. **Hours and goods accumulate** Engineers log hours with the timer, each receipt updates the product’s average cost, invoices and completion certificates record revenue. Nobody does anything separately “for margin”.
3. **The report shows margin** By client, project or period: revenue, hours, cost of hours, cost of goods, margin. From a row — into the project and the records the number is made of.
4. **A dashboard for the owner** Margin for the month and by client on the dashboard, with drill-down into the list. “Which clients do we make money on?” gets an answer without a meeting.

## Result

- Project margin is known on the day the project closes, and there’s only one.
- Unprofitable clients show up within a month, not a year.
- A rep can’t “sell below cost” because they don’t see it, and the discount cap holds the price.

## What’s not included

This is operating margin from hours and goods, not the financial result: rent, taxes, payroll and depreciation aren’t included — that’s the job of an accounting system. The hourly rate is one for all engineers in the company or project; there are no per-person rates. A product’s cost is the weighted average of receipts across the company; FIFO is available on request.

## Questions

### Where does the cost of goods come from?

From supplier receipts: each receipt recalculates the product’s weighted average cost across the company, in the product’s currency. A backdated receipt takes its place in the sequence; write-offs don’t change the average. Until the first receipt, the purchase price on the product is used. FIFO is available on request. For services, cost is hours at the rate.

### Can different projects have different rates?

Yes: the company rate is the default, and a project can set its own.

### Who sees the margin?

Roles with access to cost — typically the owner, the manager and the CFO. Access is checked on the server, so the interface, the API and the assistant behave the same way.

### How is this different from the margin report in a PSA tool?

A PSA tool calculates margin from hours but doesn’t know the client’s goods, payments and debts. In Krokul margin sits next to the same client’s deal, invoice, payment, stock and tickets — it’s one database, not an integration.

### How much does it cost?

Margin, cost and the hourly rate unlock on the Margin plan — $399 per month, 5,000 transactions included. Hours and margin entries don’t count as transactions.

## Find out which clients you make money on

Set an hourly rate, turn on the timer on your first project — and within a month you’ll see margin for every client without a single spreadsheet.

On the Margin plan this unlocks together with cost and completion certificates.

## Next in the chain

- [Won the deal? Turn it into a project and track hours against what’s paid](https://krokul.com/en/solutions/projects/index.md)
- [Sales commissions calculated from the same payments](https://krokul.com/en/solutions/commissions/index.md)
- [Reports built on the same deals and payments your team works in](https://krokul.com/en/solutions/reports/index.md)
- [Prices by the client’s terms, not from a rep’s memory](https://krokul.com/en/solutions/price-lists/index.md)

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App: https://app.krokul.com/ · API: https://app.krokul.com/api/v1/docs