Contractor economics feedback loop
Bid vs Actual Profit Calculator
Compare an Original Bid or Revised Approved baseline with comparable final actual revenue and job cost. See profit, cost, revenue and margin variance without pretending to replace accounting or WIP software.
Compare final job economics
Chosen bid/approved baseline → final actual revenue and cost → profit and variance.
Why compare bid vs actual
A finished job closes the loop between pricing assumptions and financial reality.
Bid vs Actual compares a chosen financial baseline with comparable final job revenue and cost. It shows cost variance, revenue variance, profit variance and margin drift without pretending to replace accounting or job-costing software.
Baseline choice
Original Bid and Revised Approved answer different business questions.
Original Bid uses the accepted original pre-tax selling price and modeled job cost. Revised Approved uses the final approved financial baseline after accepted changes. Approved change orders belong in Revised Approved when you deliberately choose that baseline. The calculator never selects a baseline automatically.
Compare like with like
Variance is only meaningful when both sides use comparable definitions.
Compare pre-tax revenue with pre-tax revenue, contractor economic cost with contractor economic cost, the same overhead layer on both sides, and true employer labor cost with true employer labor cost. Do not compare customer billable labor revenue with labor cost.
Profit
Baseline profit and actual profit remain valid even when one is a loss.
Profit is revenue minus total cost. Negative derived profit is preserved. If actual revenue is 8,000 and actual cost is 9,000, actual profit is −1,000; it is not clamped to zero.
Cost variance
Positive cost variance means actual cost is over baseline.
Cost variance is actual total cost minus baseline total cost. Positive is over baseline; negative is under baseline. The percentage is available only when baseline cost is above zero.
Revenue variance
Revenue variance is separate from cost variance.
Revenue variance is actual pre-tax revenue minus baseline pre-tax revenue. Its percentage is undefined when baseline revenue is zero, but the amount remains valid.
Margin drift
Margin drift is measured in percentage points, not percent change.
When both margins exist, ProjectFigures subtracts baseline margin from actual margin and reports the difference in percentage points. A move from 20% to 15% is −5 percentage points.
Category variance
Category mode shows where cost variance appears without inventing causation.
Materials, direct labor, subcontractors, equipment, fees, delivery, disposal, allocated overhead and other job cost are compared independently. A large materials variance is a mathematical observation—not proof that materials caused the overall profit outcome.
Approved change orders
Approved changes belong in a Revised Approved baseline only by explicit user action.
Change Order Pricing may send an approved change locally, but Bid vs Actual shows the amount before applying it and requires an explicit Revised Approved transition. An unapproved calculated change is never treated as approved automatically.
Completed-job boundary
Do not mistake incomplete WIP figures for final profitability.
In-progress jobs can have missing revenue, committed cost or labor still to post. V1 does not calculate cost-to-complete, earned value, percent complete, progress billing, retainage or WIP.
Pre-tax revenue
Sales tax, VAT and GST collected for government stay outside revenue.
Use the pre-tax job revenue your business uses consistently for profitability analysis. ProjectFigures does not decide cash vs accrual treatment, revenue recognition, retainage, recoverable purchase tax or bookkeeping classification.
Worked example
10,000 / 8,000 baseline vs 10,000 / 8,500 actual.
Baseline profit is 2,000 at 20% margin. Actual profit is 1,500 at 15% margin. Cost variance is +500, revenue variance is zero, profit variance is −500 and margin drift is −5 percentage points.
Common comparison mistakes
Avoid mixed tax bases, mixed labor semantics and incomplete actuals.
Do not compare tax-inclusive actual revenue with a pre-tax baseline, a baseline including overhead with actual cost excluding overhead, customer billable labor revenue with true labor cost, or an incomplete job with a financially final baseline.
FAQ
Bid vs actual profit questions
What happens when revenue is zero?
Profit still calculates, but margin is unavailable. ProjectFigures never fabricates 0% for an undefined ratio.
Does a large category variance prove the cause of lower profit?
No. The category shows where numeric variance appears. V1 does not perform causal attribution.
Does changing currency convert values?
No. USD, GBP, CAD and AUD are labels only. Existing financial numbers are not FX converted.
Is this accounting or tax advice?
No. It is a transparent final-job mathematical comparison, not accounting, tax, bookkeeping or revenue-recognition guidance.
Related tools
Carry the feedback loop into the next pricing decision.
Contractor Job Pricing ·Change Order Pricing ·Overhead Recovery ·Markup vs Margin
Final-job mathematical comparison using your figures — not accounting, tax, bookkeeping or WIP advice.