Profit Margin Calculator

This profit margin calculator will be your go-to tool for determining how much you can earn from a specific product or solution in your business.

When it comes to operating a successful business, one of the biggest challenges for modern teams is figuring out how to keep profits high. The longer you spend in your company, the more you’ll encounter new potential opportunities and sales avenues to explore. However, choosing to invest in the wrong solution could mean you end up earning less than you expect.

A profit margin calculator (like the one we have here), can simplify the process of sorting through numbers like revenue, cost of goods sold, and overheads, to ensure you know exactly how much you can stand to make when someone purchases your product.

How Do You Calculate Profit Margin?

Calculating your profit margins can feel like a tricky process, because there are so many numbers to consider, from your markup amount to your selling price, and so on. To calculate profit margin, you’ll need to start by finding out your “Cost of Goods Sold” or “COGS”.

Let’s take a look at how the process generally works:

  • Calculate your COGS (Cost of Goods Sold): This is the amount you pay to produce the products you’re going to sell to your audience. It includes the cost of the materials, the labor, and any other expenses that go into development.
  • Find out your revenue: Your revenue is the amount you sell the item for. For instance, if it costs $30 to make a product, you might decide to sell that item for $60.
  • Calculate gross profit margin: Your gross profit is the exact amount you’ll earn in a percentage. To get the gross profit margin, subtract the COGS from the revenue, and divide the gross profit by revenue: 60-30 = 30, then 30/ 60 = 0.5 = 50% gross profit margin

Once you know how to calculate gross profit margin, you can calculate the amount of net profit margin you’re making. To do this, subtract the cost of the goods you’ve sold, operating expenses, and other costs (as well as taxes) from your income, then divide the result by your revenue, and convert the figure into a percentage by multiplying it by 100.

To calculate revenue, you take the number of units sold and multiply it by the average price you sell those units for.

Profit Margin FAQ:

If you’re not 100% confident with numbers and financials, profit margin can be difficult to understand. There are a lot of numbers to get your head around. When you combine that with all the different terms in finance, like revenue, gross profit margin, and more, it’s easy to see how people can get lost. Here are some quick questions and answers to help you.

What’s the difference between margin and markup?

The term “gross margin” refers to the ratio of profit to sale price, while markup refers to the ratio of your profit to the initial purchase price, or the cost of goods sold. In other words, your profit is usually known as either margin or markup when you’re dealing with the raw numbers of your business, rather than looking at percentages.

What’s the difference between gross and net profit margin?

Though the terms might look similar, gross and net profit margin aren’t exactly the same thing. Your gross profit margin is your profit divided by your revenue (the full money you make, without taxes and other expenses). With net profit margin, you take all expenses into account, including wages, taxes, rent, and other essentials. Net profit margin looks at the money that ends up in your pocket. An investor will be more likely to look at your net profit.

Is it possible to have a profit margin that’s too high?

In an ideal world, you’d be able to charge anything you’d like for your products. However, the reality is there is a limit to how much you can expect someone to pay. Ultimately, you need to consider how much your customers are willing to pay. When it comes to net profit margin, remember that more money in your pocket means more taxes to pay. This could mean it’s better to invest your cash back into your business.

How would you calculate a 20% profit margin?

The profit margin formula is pretty simple once you get the hang of it. To start calculating profitability you’d switch the 20% to a decimal (0.2) then extract that from 1 (the full price of your item). You’ll end up with 0.8, then you can divide the full price of your original item by this number to get the cost you should charge to earn at 20% profit margin.

Can you calculate a profit margin in excel?

There are slightly easier calculators and tools out there to help you find your profit margin, net income, total revenue, and other pricing points for your small business. However, if you’re familiar with Excel, you can use that too. Start by inputting the costs of the goods you sell into the first cell (A1) and input the revenue for the product into cell B1.

Calculate the profit by subtracting the cost from the revenue and labelling it “profit” – In C1, writing =B1-A1. Divide the profit by the revenue in D1 and multiply the end number by 100with the formula =C1/B1*100 and label that margin. Right click on the last cell and choose “format cells”.

In the box for formatting your cells, under number, choose percentage, and specify the number of decimal places you’re comfortable with.

How would I calculate markup from margin?

You can use a markup calculator to get your markup options pretty quickly. There are also things like sales tax calculators available to help you minimize your expenses as much as possible. To get your markup from your margin, convert your too a decimal. You can do this by dividing your percentage by 100. So, 20% would become 0.2.

Subtract the decimal from 1 and divide 1 by the product of the subtraction. Take 1 away from the product of this step, and you’ll end up with your margin in the form of a decimal. If you want to have markup in percentage form, multiply it by 100.

Is Margin the Same as Profit?

Profit margin is a term used to determine the amount of money you can earn after depreciation for your goods and services. However, there’s also a difference between gross margin percentage and margin calculation, and the process of calculating profit.

Margin metrics are generally given in percentage values, and deal with the concept of relative change. Alternatively, profit is considered explicitly in terms of currency. The profit margin is where you look for a high profit by converting your earning potential into a percentage.

You should never have a negative gross margin or net profit margin, as this indicates you’re losing money on your net sales. It’s important to track all the metrics surrounding your operating costs and profits. A good operating profit margin should be over 20%. Around 10% is manageable, but business owners may need to consider how to reduce their operating costs if the margin goes beneath 10%.

For a new business, it’s worth noting that your profit margin may be initially lower. It’s important to track things like your income statement, pricing strategy, and the cost of the product to determine where you can reduce costs. Sometimes a high profit can take time to build. 

shopify-first-one-dollar-promo-3-months