Include every billed seat. Equal allocation may be unsuitable when customer usage differs materially.
Try this with your own numbersFormula and worked example
Allocated monthly cost = (seats × licence fee + platform cost) / clients
| Input | Example |
|---|---|
| Paid seats | 25 |
| Monthly licence fee per seat | 20 |
| Shared monthly platform cost | 100 |
| Clients sharing the platform | 10 |
| Calculated result | 60 per client month |
Choose reliable inputs
Include software licences, delivery time, revisions and ongoing support when costing a project. For this paid media agency calculation, use project time logs, licence invoices and retainer scopes and a consistent definition of one client month.
- Account management: include the portion belonging to this client month or reporting period, and record where the value came from.
- Creative: include the portion belonging to this client month or reporting period, and record where the value came from.
- Reporting: include the portion belonging to this client month 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.
Do inactive paid seats still affect client cost?
Include every billed seat. Equal allocation may be unsuitable when customer usage differs materially.
What if this input changes?
If paid seats rises by 10%, this example changes by 5 per client month. 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.