The shape of the year
Gross profit against break even and targetProject gross profit clears the £67,500 monthly target in August at £70,790, but it does not hold. By September it is back below the £47,500 break even line, and November swings to a loss of (£46,005) as 6 Staveley Road's final month runs at a cost. From December there is no project work, so the line sits at nil. The engineering payroll of about £32,000 a month still runs through those empty months, but as it buys no project work it is left out of this line and carried in the full profit and loss below.
Added up across the year, project gross profit climbs to about £193,000 by October, settles to £146,676 once November's project loss is in, and holds there, because from December there is no further work to add. Even at that level the line never approaches the flat £570,000 needed to break even. Winning the next jobs is what carries it up to that line and on towards the £810,000 target.
Quarterly profit and loss
Revenue down to net result| Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Q4 | Full year | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | £464,108 | £340,277 | £0 | £0 | £804,385 |
| Direct costs | (£349,869) | (£307,840) | (£96,495) | (£96,495) | (£850,699) |
| Gross profit | £114,239 | £32,437 | (£96,495) | (£96,495) | (£46,314) |
| GP margin | 24.6% | 9.5% | n/m | n/m | (5.8%) |
| Overheads | (£95,233) | (£96,959) | (£95,527) | (£95,425) | (£383,145) |
| Operating profit | £19,006 | (£64,522) | (£192,022) | (£191,920) | (£429,459) |
| OP margin | 4.1% | (19.0%) | n/m | n/m | (53.4%) |
| Finance costs | (£32,280) | (£32,280) | (£32,280) | (£32,280) | (£129,120) |
| Net result | (£13,274) | (£96,802) | (£224,302) | (£224,200) | (£558,579) |
| Net margin | (2.9%) | (28.4%) | n/m | n/m | (69.4%) |
Revenue solidity
Where it comes from and when it endsBy category
The November cliff
Craigens, the £500,000 contract that carried the June forecast through to April, has come out of the book and now sits at zero. With it gone, the last billing month is November, 6 Staveley Road. Every other project finishes in the autumn, so revenue ends halfway through the year and the second half has nothing to build. Refilling that book is the whole of the task in Sections 4 and 5.
Monthly revenue and labour capacity
Even at the summer peak the team runs at about two thirds of capacity, 66% in August; from December every one of the 227 days a month sits idle. Across the forward year only 576 of the 2,497 available labour days are used, 23%, leaving 1,921 spare — the capacity the new work in Section 5 has to fill. June's closed month adds £92,468 to bring full year revenue to £804,385.
The gap to close
Gross profit booked, and still to winThe won jobs bank of gross profit, the peak of the cumulative line above. Break even is gross profit of covering overheads and finance, the rounded planning hurdle of £47,500 a month; the overheads and finance in the waterfall total about £512,000. The £240,000 profit target sits at beyond it. The idle engineer payroll in the empty months is a real cost, shown on the chart, but it is not counted against this gap, because any job won brings its own labour in its costs.
What it takes to get there
Per engineer day, and the turnover behind itTwo ways to size the same gap by 31 May. First per engineer day: the won work already turns of gross profit for every day an engineer is on site. Break even asks less of the spare capacity than that, so filling the team's idle days at today's rate gets there on its own; the £240,000 target needs a higher rate, so it takes better margin work as well as more of it.
Booked, per engineer day
gross profit the won work turns, over the 576 days on site
To break even
needed on each of the 1,921 spare days to 31 May
To £240k target
needed on each of the 1,921 spare days to 31 May
Second as turnover: that gross profit has to be won as project work, and how much depends on the margin it runs at. At the 35% we plan to, Tetley's benchmark, break even takes about £1.21m; win it leaner and it takes proportionately more to bank the same gross profit.
Margin is the single biggest lever: winning the work at 25% rather than 35% adds nearly half a million of required turnover just to break even.
Track weighted pipeline against this requirement →Overheads and actions
Prepared July 2026Overheads — top five of £383,145
Full overhead budget, all 31 lines and monthly variance →Short term focus · Q1–Q2
Long term focus · Q3–Q4