How to calculate break-even when you sell several services

A single break-even figure can mislead when your services earn different contributions. Use the expected mix of completed sales, not an unweighted average of prices or percentage margins.

Define one sale and one period

In this hypothetical monthly plan, Service A sells for 200 and has variable costs of 120. Service B sells for 500 and has variable costs of 250. The contribution per sale is therefore 80 and 250. Fixed operating costs are 6,000 per month. The labour included in variable costs changes with each sale; do not also include the same labour in fixed costs.

Build a sales basket

Suppose you expect three A jobs for every two B jobs.

Five-job basket	Revenue	Variable cost	Contribution
Three A jobs	600	360	240
Two B jobs	1,000	500	500
Total	1,600	860	740

The weighted contribution is 740 ÷ 5 = 148 per job. Continuous break-even is 6,000 ÷ 148 = 40.54 jobs, but you cannot sell a fraction of a job. If the exact 3:2 mix must hold, round baskets instead: ceil(6,000 ÷ 740) = 9 baskets, or 45 jobs. Contribution is then 6,660, leaving 660 after the stated fixed costs.

You can reproduce the continuous estimate in the break-even calculator with fixed costs 6,000, average price 320 and average variable cost 172. Check the actual integer mix before committing capacity.

Test a less favourable mix

If demand changes to four A jobs for every B job, the basket contributes 4 × 80 + 250 = 570. Eleven whole baskets are needed to cover 6,000, which means 55 jobs rather than 45. Both services remain profitable at the contribution level; the lower-contribution mix simply needs more volume.

An average contribution margin percentage also needs weighting by revenue. Here the original basket ratio is 740 ÷ 1,600 = 46.25%, not the simple average of the two services’ margin percentages.

Check whether break-even fits the calendar

If A needs two hours and B needs five, the original basket consumes 16 hours. Nine baskets require 144 productive hours. Compare this with available hours after travel, administration and unavailable time. A 120-hour capacity limit means this exact mix cannot reach break-even without a change in price, cost, capacity or mix.

Keep the forecast and actual mix side by side. Update it when booked work differs from the plan. Continue with capacity planning before treating break-even volume as an achievable target.

Method and scope

All amounts above are hypothetical teaching figures in one currency, excluding tax unless stated otherwise. These are original scenarios, not market prices, benchmark targets or professional recommendations. The references support the underlying concepts, not the example assumptions. This AI-assisted explanation has not had independent professional review. Calculation methods and limitations.