Monthly operating plan
Plan monthly profit before a full calendar plans it for you.
A revenue goal can hide weak pricing, impossible capacity, or unpaid owner time. Build the month from one job upward, then ask whether the schedule and economics can coexist.
The useful question is not only, “How much revenue should I make?” It is, “What does each completed job leave behind, how many can I deliver well, and what remains after the business and my time are counted?”
A monthly plan connects those questions before the calendar fills. It is a decision model, not a promise about demand.
Start with contribution per completed job.
Use collected price, not the menu price. Subtract the cash that changes because the job happened: supplies, route cash, and payment fees. The amount left is cash contribution per job.
Here is a fictional example used only to show the mechanics: $169 collected, $21 of supplies, $6 of travel cash, and a 2.9% plus $0.30 payment fee. The modeled cash contribution is $136.80 per job.
If those inputs are estimates, label them. Replace them with receipts and completed-job records as soon as they exist.
Calculate the two job counts the month must carry.
Cash break-even asks how many jobs cover fixed business cash costs. Owner-time break-even adds the value you assigned to the hours required for those jobs and the surrounding admin.
- Cash break-even jobs: monthly fixed cash costs divided by cash contribution per job, rounded up.
- Owner-time break-even jobs: solve for the job count where cash contribution also covers the owner-time value created by that volume.
If owner time rises with every job, treat it as a variable economic cost. Otherwise the plan can look healthy only because the owner is working for whatever happens to remain.
Check capacity before choosing volume.
A job target is not useful until it fits the hours, weather, route, service quality, recovery time, and selling work the month requires. Count full owner hours: travel, setup, detailing, reset, quoting, follow-up, and bookkeeping.
Write a conservative capacity first. Then decide what has to change—price, route density, service mix, process, or available hours—if the required job count is higher.
Read cash result and economic result together.
Using the same fictional inputs, 20 completed jobs create $2,736.08 of cash contribution. After $725 of monthly fixed cash costs, the modeled monthly cash result is $2,010.98.
If those jobs and their supporting work require 56 owner hours valued at $25 per hour, the modeled owner-time value is $1,400. The economic result after recognizing that time is $610.98.
These figures are fictional planning inputs, not an earnings claim or industry benchmark. Your prices, job costs, capacity, owner hours, and demand will differ.
Close the month with evidence, not a feeling.
- Record completed jobs and actual collected revenue.
- Replace estimated job cash with receipts and payment fees.
- Record full owner hours, including travel and admin.
- Compare actual cash and economic results with the plan.
- Change one operating assumption for the next month and write down why.
Keep the original plan beside the actual result. The gap is useful: it shows whether price, cost, time, volume, or collection timing needs attention.
Use your own numbers
Turn the idea into a monthly decision.
Start with the free calculator, then use the 12-month planner when one month is not enough.