Verdict · September 2026
Profitable
40.5%gross margin on £92,152 of turnover
A bought and installed job. Materials were 82% of the cost and own engineers put in 39 days, so each day of labour returned £957 of gross profit, more than three times the £297 a day the business needs to hit its profit target. The margin edges past Squats Gym at 40.0% and Marton Mills at 36.5%, on three times their turnover and in three months rather than five, though both of those were struck on a £200 a day labour standard rather than actual wages.
Gross profit£37,304£36,954 after £350 of postage
Materials and parts£44,73548.5% of turnover
Labour days39P&H 32.5 · Electrical 5.5 · HVAC 1
Basis. Own labour is the wages Xero has journaled to the job, £3,292 for July and August, plus £1,500 carried for September with contingency: the July and August rate of £118 a day would give £1,293. The £1,230 of engineer overtime is added as cost without adding days, and Andy Carville's £200 sits in subcontract labour because he is a subcontractor. None of the September wages, the overtime or Andy Carville's £200 is in Xero yet, so Xero as it stands reads 43.7%. Marton Mills and Squats Gym were priced at a £200 a day labour standard, which would put this job's labour at £7,800 and its margin at 37.2%.
Job
Complete
ClientBBS Construction Ltd
ScopeWashroom refurbishment
Project refLCA0215-001LME
Turnover£92,152
On siteJuly to 7 September 2026
Engineers8across three trades
StatusComplete, awaiting payment
1 · Financial outcome
Actuals
| Turnover | £92,152.00 |
| Cost of sales | (£54,847.85) |
| Gross profit | £37,304.15 |
| Gross profit margin | 40.5% |
| Administrative costs · postage and carriage | (£350.00) |
| Operating profit | £36,954.15 |
2 · How the job was built
Cost mix
| Own labour | |
| Wages · July and August, 28 days, Xero | £3,292.18 |
| Wages · September, 11 days, estimate with contingency | £1,500.00 |
| Overtime · four engineers, cost only | £1,230.00 |
| Subcontracted works | |
| CIS labour · Xero | £1,105.00 |
| CIS labour · Andy Carville, not yet booked | £200.00 |
| Sub contractors | £2,785.31 |
| Materials | |
| Parts purchased | £40,767.29 |
| Sanitaryware | £3,968.07 |
| Total cost of sales | £54,847.85 |
Parts alone were 44% of turnover. The margin on this job turned on the price and on the buying of the parts, not on labour productivity: labour, overtime included, was 7% of turnover.
3 · Labour drawn and what it returned
Standard days, overtime excluded
| Trade | Jul | Aug | Sep | Days | Share of capacity |
|---|
| Plumbing & Heating | 16.0 | 8.5 | 8.0 | 32.5 | 11.5% |
| Electrical | 1.5 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 5.5 | 1.9% |
| HVAC | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 0.9% |
| Total | 17.5 | 10.5 | 11.0 | 39.0 | 5.7% |
Gross profit per labour day
£957for each of the 39 days, 3.22 times the £297 target
£209
£297
£957this job
£0£1,000 a day
Gross profit£37,304on 39 labour days
Share at target£11,583what 39 days at £297 should return
Surplus£25,721earned above that share
Capacity is standard hours, so the 39 days are what the job drew from the 681 days the crews had across the three months and the overtime stays in the cost only. Share of capacity is each trade's days against its own capacity for the period. Marton Mills returned £558 a day and Squats Gym £408, both on the £200 a day standard.
4 · Duration and cash
Jul – Sep 2026
Months3July to September on the books
Gross profit a month£12,43526% of the £47,500 monthly break even
Awaiting payment£92,152the client invoice, job complete
Three months for 39 days of labour is a tighter run than Marton Mills or Squats Gym, which both took five. The attendance pattern shows it: a block in July, a week at the end of August, and a week in early September to finish, with both HVAC engineers in for an evening on 7 September.
The cash exposure here is the materials rather than the subcontractors. £44,735 of parts and sanitaryware went out on supplier terms and the job is finished, so the whole £92,152 now rests on BBS Construction paying. Until it does the job is funding itself out of Leodis cash, which is worth knowing before the next one of this size is priced.
5 · Lessons and actions
For the next small work
Bought and installed jobs pay the best day rate. £957 of gross profit for every labour day, against £558 on Marton Mills and £408 on Squats Gym, because the value sat in the parts and the crews only had to fit them. Action: price and pursue more washroom packages of this shape while the major projects hold the crews.
Overtime added 26% to the wages. £1,230 on top of £4,792 of wages, spread across four engineers, with the evening shift on 7 September the visible part. £400 of it is still owed: Chris Kasher £250 and Nicky Cunningham £150. Action: confirm the overtime was programme driven rather than a habit, and settle the balance in the next payroll.
Xero is behind the job. September's wages are not yet allocated to the project, and neither the overtime nor Andy Carville's £200 of subcontract labour is booked. The July and August wage journals also do not follow the shift days month by month, £54 a day in July against £223 in August, because July's shifts sat on Untitled when that payroll was run. Action: allocate September's wages and the overtime to LCA0215 before the month closes.
Capture the estimate. With no priced build up we cannot say how much of the 40.5% was buying gain on £40,767 of parts and how much was priced in. Action: save the tender on the next small work so the buying can be measured.