Free toolsBreak-even
Break-even point, in units and in revenue
How much you have to sell before the business covers its fixed costs — computed on contribution margin, and on cash as well as on paper.
Break-even
534 units a month
$25,626 of revenue a month. You are starting at 400.
- Contribution per unit
- $29.00
- Price less variable cost — what each sale puts towards the fixed costs.
- Contribution margin
- 60.4%
- Average monthly fixed costs
- $15,483
- Including loaded owner compensation, which is why this is higher than the figure you typed.
- First profitable month
- Month 9
- Cash-flow positive from
- Month 9
- Later than the profit date whenever you carry stock or receivables. Both dates matter; only one of them pays a supplier.
Revenue against total cost
- Revenue
- Total cost
How this is computed
Anyone pricing for the first time, and anyone whose plan has been asked when it stops losing money.
- Contribution per unit is price less variable cost. Break-even units are fixed costs over that; break-even revenue is fixed costs over the contribution margin ratio.
- The model is run for sixty months, so the month operating profit first turns positive is a result rather than an assertion.
- Fixed costs here include owner compensation. A break-even that pays the owner nothing is not a break-even.
What it will not tell you
A calculator that lists only what it does is a toy. These are the limits worth knowing before you quote the answer to anyone.
- Break-even on paper and break-even on cash are different dates when you carry receivables or stock. The product models both.
- A single blended price hides a mix. If two products have different margins, the answer is a range.
This number belongs in a document that agrees with it.
The full plan links every one of these together and blocks export until the prose and the model reconcile. Free to generate and read.