Contribution margin and full costs
Gross profit does not tell you whether you are earning.
A mark-up of two hundred per cent sounds healthy. But it knows only the goods input — not the working time, not the equipment, not the floor space. That is why in many businesses it is precisely the best seller with the highest mark-up that ends up in the red. Steering a product range by gross profit alone means steering past profitability.
This page is not about the procedure
It is the only one of the ten that cites no legal provisions — because here there are none. Contribution margin and full costs are business economics, not procedural law. The benefit nevertheless runs both ways: what you learn about the profitability of your range is worth more in daily business than in proceedings — and the survey behind it is the same one.
What each measure knows
| Measure | What it knows | What it does not know |
|---|---|---|
| Gross profit mark-up | the goods input | working time, equipment, floor space, energy, packaging |
| Trade margin | selling price and cost price | everything that arises between purchase and sale |
| Contribution margin | the variable costs per product | the fixed costs of the business |
| Full costs | variable and fixed costs per product | nothing material — which is why it is the yardstick |
| By division | which area carries and which consumes | the spread within the division |
| By sales channel | what takeaway really brings in | nothing — provided costs are recorded separately per channel |
Price changes as a period of their own
A mid-year price change is rolled over in most analyses: the new price applies retrospectively to the whole period, and the result is right for neither part of it. We run each part separately — split by internal and external costs, aggregated by division and sales channel. Only this makes it possible to say whether a price increase actually worked.
Have it once and you have both
It is the same survey from which the forensic full calculation arises. Complete goods input, recipes, quantities, sales data — the same data, two analyses. Anyone who had to gather them for proceedings receives the business analysis without additional survey work. And the other way round: anyone who keeps them for commercial reasons is prepared for an audit without having set out to be.
What we contribute
We calculate per product: contribution margin, full costs, trade margin and mark-up side by side, split by internal and external costs, aggregated by division and sales channel. Every figure leads back to a document — the same requirement as in proceedings, even where no proceedings are running.
How calculation and stock control are checked against each other →
The legal provisions cited here are given for information and do not replace legal advice.