A healthy monthly P&L can hide a shop that is busy on losing work. Accounting averages everything: good installs subsidize bad service calls, one fat week covers three thin ones, and you only find out at tax time. The P&L is necessary. It is not enough for pricing and dispatch.
What the P&L is good at
- Whether the company made money this month
- Cash vs accrual timing, tax, and overhead totals
- Banker and CPA conversations
It is a rear-view summary. It cannot tell you which tickets, techs, or channels produced the profit.
What job-level profit shows
Per-job costing answers: did this dispatch cover burdened labor, travel, vehicle, materials, overhead, and leads? A month can look fine while half your calls are below target and a few installs carry the books. That mix is fragile — lose one install and the "good month" disappears.
Why owners feel busy and still broke
- Revenue is up while net per hour is down
- Unprofitable job types are never cut because the total still nets out
- Payroll hits weekly; the P&L is reviewed monthly
If you only look at the monthly statement, you will keep selling the same losing services.
A weekly ticket review
- Pick 8–12 completed jobs from the week (mix of service and installs).
- Cost each in the job profitability calculator with honest inputs.
- Sort by net margin and profit per hour — not by invoice size.
- Change price, routing, or mix on the lines that miss. Leave the P&L for month-end.
Frequently asked questions
Why can a healthy monthly P&L hide losing jobs?
Averages mix winners and losers. A good month can still include job types that lose money every time they run.
What should owners review weekly instead of only the books?
Ticket-level net profit, profit per hour, and which services or sources dragged the week — not vanity revenue.
How do I find the losing job types?
Cost a sample of each common ticket the same way and sort by net. Patterns show up faster than waiting for the monthly close.
Check this week's tickets
The free calculator shows net profit and margin per job so the P&L cannot hide weak work.