Quoted at a 51.7 per cent margin, delivered at 36 per cent. Nobody decided that, it just happened 65 hours at a time
Project Profitability Calculator
Overburn does not announce itself. Put your fee, budgeted hours and honest loaded cost rate in, then the hours actually worked, and see the planned margin, the real one, and what the extra time cost you in pounds while the job was still open.
Project Profitability Calculator
The quote against the hours actually burned, at honest cost rates: the margin the project really made.
The margin story every agency repeats
The demo project was quoted at £24,000 against 200 budgeted hours: a 51.7 per cent planned margin. It burned 265 hours, 32.5 per cent over, and landed at 36 per cent. Still profitable, quietly £3,770 poorer, and nobody decided that on purpose.
Cost rates must be honest: £58 an hour is the loaded team cost with overheads in, not a salary divided by convenient hours. Flattering rates make every project look fine and the year-end look confusing.
The comparison to run weekly is burned hours against budget while the project is alive: the Project P and L Tracker holds the portfolio version, and change control turns overburn into invoices.
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This computation in Excel plus the portfolio tracker pattern for every live project.
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