How it works

Using BreakEven Studio

A short guide to filling out the model and how each output number is calculated from your inputs.

Step 1

1 · Set the business profile

Choose your currency, projection horizon (in months, 1–60), and optionally enable daily analysis. When daily analysis is on, set production days per month and production months per year. These drive the per-day numbers in the summary panel.

Step 2

2 · Fill in guided sections

Each category groups related line items. Add, rename, or remove entries — calculations update live. Categories are typed, and the type controls how an item rolls up into totals:

  • Revenue — value × quantity per item.
  • Variable costs, labour — scale with units sold (or production days) and roll up into total variable costs.
  • Fixed costs, utilities, financing, miscellaneous, custom — treated as fixed-like and added to total fixed costs.
  • Capacity — used to estimate units when revenue items don't carry a quantity. Look-up by label keywords (capacity/production/units and utilisation/use).
  • Assets — sums into initial investment (used for ROI).

Each item has a basis: per_unit, per_production_day, or a plain quantity multiplier. Per-unit costs scale by total units; per-day costs scale by total production days.

Step 3

3 · Read the outputs

The summary panel and charts pull from a single calculation pass. Here is what each number means and how it is derived.

Classification

Fixed vs. variable costs

BreakEven Studio splits every cost line into one of two buckets so the contribution-margin and break-even math works correctly. Classification is by category type, not by item label.

Variable costs

Scale up or down with output / production days.

  • Variable costs — raw materials, packaging, consumables, freight per order, sales commissions, payment gateway fees.
  • Labour — wages tied to production volume: daily-wage workers, piece-rate operators, contract labour, per-shift staff hired only on production days.

Fixed costs

Recur regardless of how much you produce or sell.

  • Fixed costs — rent, lease, insurance, salaried staff, software subscriptions, statutory fees.
  • Utilities — base electricity, water, internet, telephone (the standing portion, not per-production-day surges).
  • Financing — loan EMIs, interest, overdraft charges.
  • Miscellaneous / custom — anything else that doesn't scale with output.

Rule of thumb: if shutting production for a month would still leave the bill on your desk, it's fixed. If the bill disappears (or shrinks proportionally), it's variable. Salaried staff on a monthly payroll go under fixed costs; daily-wage or piece-rate workers go under labour.

Formulas

Core totals

Total revenue

Σ (item.value × item.quantity) for all revenue items

Total units

Σ revenue-item quantities — falls back to capacity.production × utilisation% when no revenue quantities are set

Average selling price

totalRevenue ÷ totalUnits

Fixed costs

Σ totals across fixed_costs, utilities, financing, miscellaneous, custom

Variable costs

Σ across variable_costs and labour: per_unit items × totalUnits + per_production_day items × totalProductionDays + other items × quantity

Variable cost per unit

Σ of per-unit variable items, otherwise variableCosts ÷ totalUnits

Total costs

fixedCosts + variableCosts

Formulas

Break-even and profitability

Contribution margin

averageSellingPrice − variableCostPerUnit

Contribution margin ratio

contributionMargin ÷ averageSellingPrice (shown as %)

Break-even quantity

fixedCosts ÷ contributionMargin (null when contribution margin ≤ 0)

Break-even revenue

breakEvenQuantity × averageSellingPrice

Estimated profit

totalRevenue − totalCosts

Operating margin

estimatedProfit ÷ totalRevenue (shown as %)

ROI

estimatedProfit ÷ initialInvestment (shown as %; initialInvestment = sum of asset items)

Formulas

Daily analysis (optional)

Enabled from the business profile. Total production days = production days/month × production months/year. Total selling days = projection months × 30.

Units / production day

totalUnits ÷ totalProductionDays

Variable cost / production day

variableCosts ÷ totalProductionDays

Revenue / selling day

totalRevenue ÷ totalSellingDays

Profit / selling day

(totalRevenue − totalCosts) ÷ totalSellingDays

Break-even units / production day

breakEvenQuantity ÷ totalProductionDays

Method

Projection chart

Each month M1…Mn applies a ramp factor to base units: ramp = min(0.72 + 0.035 × i, 1.18). The ramp grows adoption from 72% in month 1 up to a 118% ceiling, modelling early demand build-up. Per-month values:

Period units

totalUnits × ramp

Period revenue

periodUnits × averageSellingPrice

Period variable costs

periodUnits × variableCostPerUnit

Period profit

revenue − (fixedCosts + variableCosts)

Cumulative profit

running sum of period profit

Method

Break-even chart series

The chart samples 9 evenly-spaced unit volumes between 0 and max(totalUnits × 1.6, 100). For each sample point it plots revenue (units × ASP), total cost (fixedCosts + units × variablePerUnit), and profit. The crossover of the revenue and cost lines is the break-even point.

Notes

Tips

  • Numbers are computed with decimal.js to avoid floating-point drift, then rounded to 2 dp for display.
  • If break-even shows blank, your contribution margin is zero or negative — raise price or lower variable cost per unit.
  • Use templates from the toolbar to start from a realistic baseline, then edit values.
  • Use Export at the bottom for a PDF or Excel snapshot of the current model and outputs.