How Understanding Gross Profit Changed My Business
For a long time, I thought I was doing everything right. Work was coming in, the crew stayed busy, and the revenue numbers looked solid. But every month I was stressed about money and I couldn't figure out why. It wasn't until I really sat down and looked at my numbers that things started to click. I came across Tom Reber's work, and it completely changed the way I thought about pricing. The biggest thing I took from it was understanding gross profit — not just revenue, not just what a job "feels like" it's worth, but what's actually left after you pay for labor and materials. Once I understood that number, I realized I had been leaving a lot of money on the table for years. What I Learned Gross profit is the money left from a job after you cover your direct costs — labor and materials. That number has to be healthy enough to cover everything else it takes to run your business: your truck, insurance, tools, software, your time. If your margin is too thin, all of that comes out of your pocket and you never get ahead. For me, setting a clear gross profit goal on every job was the turning point. It gave me something to price toward instead of just guessing and hoping it worked out. What Changed I stopped pricing jobs to win them and started pricing them to actually make money on them. Some bids I lost. But the ones I won started feeling worth it. Cash flow got easier. I could actually see where the money was going — and more importantly, where it was staying. It wasn't an overnight fix, but getting honest about my numbers was the first step to building a business that felt sustainable instead of just busy. If you've been in that same spot — working hard, staying booked, but still wondering where the money went — start by looking at your gross profit on every job. It might surprise you.
Invoice update via API
Jobber does not allow invoices to be updated and closed/marked as paid from externally. We use Xero as our main accounting system as it hooks into or bank. Every time we mark an invoice as paid in Xero, we need to manually close the corresponding invoice in Jobber. I have raised this multiple times with Jobber but it is not on their roadmap. Hoping there are more people out there with the same requirement to help boost this post so that Jobber can do something about it. Unless someone has found another way to do it. This will save at 30+ hours a month of man hour to change every invoice.Anyone else realize they were breaking even or losing money after expenses?
I had a phase where we looked “busy” on paper, fully booked, money coming in, but when I actually broke down the numbers, some jobs were barely breaking even. Once I factored in true payroll burden (taxes, workers comp), supplies, insurance, and transaction fees, it was a wake-up call. There were jobs we were doing that felt productive day-to-day but weren’t contributing to profit at all. For us, it came down to tightening up pricing, being more intentional about which jobs we accepted, and really understanding our numbers on a per-job basis (not just overall revenue). Curious if anyone else has gone through this and what changes made the biggest impact for you?You Don’t Have a Lead Problem You Have a Follow-Up System Problem
You’re not losing jobs to competitors you’re losing them in your follow-up. Most HVAC businesses I’ve seen don’t have a lead problem… they have a system problem: missed calls, no follow-ups, and zero tracking. The ones scaling consistently are doing 3 things right: Capturing every lead in a CRM Automating follow-ups (SMS/email) Running simple local campaigns that bring repeat jobs Curious what system are you currently using to track and convert your leads? If you’re open, I can share a simple setup that’s working for other contractors.How can service businesses automatically add late fees or interest to overdue invoices?
Does anyone know how to add auto interest or late fees to invoices? Considering the scope of my work this would be real handy when my average invoice payment time is around 50 days. Because of this I have to finance my own payroll and if I could recoup some of these interest charges automatically. Too many invoices to manually add feesWhen is it time to hire an accountant?
I am wondering at what point some of you guys have hired an accountant? Did you hire one to grow? To maintain what you have? Or are you simply using one to file taxes at the end of the year? I am thinking about hiring an accountant to manage my finances for me and see where things go, but wondering when is the right time.How can I create an invoice for the deposit?
When doing certain commercial work the client will ask us to send them an invoice for the deposit. This isn't typically how Jobber works as the invoice isn't created until the job is closed usually. What is the best way to send a customer an invoice before having the quote signed, deposit paid, or the job completed? Hope that makes sense. Thanks in advance!How Much Should You Really Be Charging?
The number one question I receive is tied directly to the fact, most contractors are still guessing when it comes to pricing. Overhead. Profit. Labor rate. Trip fees. They think just because they throw a number they hear their competitors use, thats all that they need. It may work, but how and what do you divide these funds is just as important for your business health. If you don’t know how to do the math, you’re not building a business. You’re surviving check to check and think you need more work, when you do not. So here’s the plan: This Tuesday & Thursday on IG, I’m walking you through our Contractor Price Builder Worksheet FREE on instagram live. We will cover: - How to calculate your real hourly rate - The difference between markup and margin - Why profit is a non-negotiable - And how to price with confidence Join the session. Bring your numbers.
