With the illustrative inputs below, the result is 325 .
Try this with your own numbersFormula and worked example
Contribution = price − materials − hours × labour cost − other variable cost
| Input | Example |
|---|---|
| Revenue per rental booking | 800 |
| Materials or purchased services | 250 |
| Delivery labour hours | 5 |
| Burdened hourly labour cost | 35 |
| Other variable cost | 50 |
| Calculated result | 325 |
Choose reliable inputs
Account for turnaround, maintenance and available inventory before accepting another booking. For this event rental calculation, use rental contracts, asset records and maintenance logs and a consistent definition of one rental booking.
- Transport: include the portion belonging to this rental booking or reporting period, and record where the value came from.
- Setup: include the portion belonging to this rental booking or reporting period, and record where the value came from.
- Cleaning: include the portion belonging to this rental booking or reporting period, and record where the value came from.
Use the same currency for every money input. Do not mix weekly costs with monthly revenue, or count the same expense in both an itemised cost and allocated overhead.
Is contribution the same as net profit?
Contribution still needs to cover rent, management, software, and other fixed costs before there is net profit.
Include variable costs only here; fixed overhead is not deducted.
What if this input changes?
If revenue per rental booking rises by 10%, this example changes by 80 . This shows the effect of one change; it does not predict what will happen.
Open the calculator, save your baseline, then change the input supported by the least reliable estimate in your records. Compare both scenarios before committing to a price or capacity promise.