What is the real margin of a mission, and which figure is a fact?
Two margins per mission — direct and after overheads — the documents behind each figure, the visible allocation rules with their five bases, the “Not invoiced” block and the “By client” tab.
What you get
- The margin of every trip, down to the document line.
- You see which clients and trips really feed the company.
- Assumptions under control, not hidden in formulas.
Transcript
A trip’s margin is not a single number. In the report, every trip has two: the direct margin and the margin after overheads.
The direct margin is a fact: what was billed to the client, minus the supplier bills that point to this trip. Click the trip, and every document opens: the client invoice, fuel, the ferry, tolls, subcontracting.
The margin after overheads is an assumption. Bills with no trip — rent, payroll, insurance — can only be allocated. The rules are in plain view, on a tab of their own, with five bases: by kilometre, by days, by hours, equally, or by revenue. About revenue, the system warns you outright: such a rule makes every trip equally profitable.
Turn a rule off, and the second figure moves, while the first one does not budge.
Here is a trip in the black before overheads and in the red after. Trips like this eat the year: profitable on paper, they do not cover their share of overheads.
A trip with no invoice does not turn red: it sits in its own block, “Not invoiced”. That is a reminder to bill, not a verdict on the route. And the period cuts trips, not documents: the August trip also carries the ferry bill from the fourth of September.
The “By client” tab shows who brings in revenue, but hardly any margin.
Two figures, and you always know which one is a fact.