Margin Temperature™
How much of each dollar you keep after costs. The clearest measure of whether growth is adding value or consuming it.
Why It Matters
Revenue can rise while profits quietly shrink. Margins compress from rising costs, pricing pressure, and scope creep — often invisibly. By the time most owners notice, the damage is already done.
61
Score
Margin Temperature
38¢
kept per dollar
Margin by Product Line
Custom Cabinetry
54¢
+6% this quarter
Kitchen Countertops
41¢
Stable
Standard Vanities
28¢
−8% this quarter
Builder Grade Install
9¢
−14% this quarter
Blended Margin Trend
Last 6 months
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
Here's the uncomfortable part: Your busiest product line is your least profitable one. Builder Grade takes a third of your labor and returns 8 cents. Custom work returns 42 cents.
What the Numbers Don't Say Out Loud
The month was busy. Fewer complaints. And somehow the account felt smaller.
Plywood went up 12%. You ate it on the Riverside job because they're a repeat client. Then the rush install needed Saturday overtime. Then the new guy took longer on finishing work.
None of it showed up as a problem. Each decision made sense at the time. But by month-end, you'd worked harder to keep less.
Real Example
Two jobs from last month:
Largest job this month
Riverside Builders — 42 Vanity Units
$47,600
Revenue
$4,284
Profit
9¢
Per Dollar
One custom kitchen
Morrison Residence — Full Remodel
$18,400
Revenue
$9,936
Profit
54¢
Per Dollar
The smaller job made 2.3× more profit. Same crew. Same week.
Where the Money Goes
You probably already sense where the problem is. You're just not willing to bet payroll on a hunch.
These are the four places margin typically leaks. Most owners know one or two. The third one usually surprises them.
Cost Creep
Plywood's up 8%. Hardware's up 12%. You haven't raised prices since March. The math changed — you just haven't run it yet.
Discount Accumulation
5% here, 10% there, free delivery for the good client. Individually reasonable. Collectively, it's a second job you're not getting paid for.
Product Mix Drift
Your busiest line might be your least profitable one. Some owners discover they'd make more money doing less work.
Quote-to-Actual Gap
What you quoted. What you actually kept. When that gap widens, the job that looked good on paper wasn't.
What Shows Up in Your Inbox
Not a dashboard. A diagnosis.
Once a month, you get a plain-English breakdown of where margin went and what you can actually do about it. No login required. No charts to interpret. Just answers.
61
Score
Margin Temperature
38¢
kept per dollar (down from 40¢)
What's Driving This
Hardwood lumber up 12%
Pacific Lumber adjusted pricing in October
−3¢
Riverside volume discount: 18%
42-unit order priced to win contract
−2¢
22 overtime hours
Henderson rush install — labor unrecovered
−1¢
What this means: One-third of your crew's time went to work that returns 8 cents on the dollar. The custom jobs return 42 cents. Same hours, different math.
What To Do About It
Knowing where the leak is
doesn't fix the pipe.
Every diagnosis comes with a specific action. Not theory — a move you can make this month, with the numbers to back it up. Sometimes the fix is obvious once someone shows you. Sometimes it's not what you expected.
This Month's Move
Pull one crew off Riverside. Put them on residential custom work.
Your B-crew spent 34% of their hours on builder-grade vanities that returned 8% of profit. Moving them to custom kitchen installs — work you're already quoting — recovers margin without hiring anyone.
1
Crew Shift
45¢
Margin Gain
$14.2K
Monthly Recovery
What changes: Contribution goes from 36¢ to 42¢ per dollar. Same crew. Same hours. Different allocation.
Fair Questions
Things people ask before they sign up.
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Your accountant tells you what happened after the quarter closes. That's their job. Ours is showing you what's happening now — while you can still do something about it. Different timing, different purpose. Most of our clients still have accountants.
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"I've bought software I never logged into."
So have we. That's why the diagnosis comes to your inbox — not a dashboard you have to remember to check. If you want to dig deeper, the detail is there. But the answer arrives whether you log in or not.
Built by someone who watched 400 businesses fail in real-time.
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