Read profit instead of revenue
Build a daily and weekly contribution model that includes every recurring cost.
Decision first
Expand only from repeatable net income after stock, wages, rent, marketing, delivery, debt and taxes.
Profit analysis should begin only after confirming the save is on Build 3674 or later and separating fixed launch bugs from business performance.
Confirm Build 3674 or later.
Complete operating playbook
- ARTICLE LENGTH
- 5,160 words
- DEEP-DIVE SECTIONS
- 15
- RESEARCH LEDGER
- 10
Use the Build 3674 reporting baseline
Profit analysis should begin only after confirming the save is on Build 3674 or later and separating fixed launch bugs from business performance.
Big Ambitions 1.0 launched on 28 August 2026, followed by Build 3672 and the 3674 hotfix. Build 3672 corrected the tax projection rate, several loan calculations, MarketInsider neighborhood opening, logistics sorting, and assorted interface problems. Build 3674 fixed an employee quit-state defect that could interrupt training, imports, and deliveries. A stockout or idle worker observed on the affected launch build can therefore contaminate revenue, COGS, and labor conclusions.
Advance through the next day after applying 3674, then collect fresh observations. Do not blend a pre-hotfix loss day with a post-hotfix operating baseline unless the purpose is to measure the outage. The same rule applies to converted Early Access saves: 1.0 changed banking, tax deductions, export price response, inventory distribution, rival aggression, and other economics. Mark the conversion day and start a new comparison window.
Official notes do not publish universal profit tables. Difficulty changes wages, COGS, tax rates, and more, according to a developer reply. Dynamic rival prices, MarketInsider demand, traffic, marketing, opening hours, import prices, factory export pressure, and employee skill make an unversioned promise such as 'this store always earns one hundred thousand' unusable. The correct unit of evidence is a labelled save test with build, difficulty, district, traffic, promotion, hours, prices, capacity, and date range.
Action checklist
- Confirm Build 3674 or later.
- Advance one day after updating.
- Start a clean post-update measurement window.
- Record difficulty and custom sliders.
- Separate converted-save history from new results.
- Reject universal profit claims without test conditions.
| Control | Why it matters | Minimum note |
|---|---|---|
| Build | Fixes can alter flows and displays | 3674 or later |
| Difficulty | Changes wages, COGS, taxes, and more | Preset or every custom slider |
| District | Changes demand, traffic, competition, and prices | Neighborhood name |
| Time window | Daily and seven-day views differ | Exact game days |
| Mods | Can change economy or reporting | List or disabled |
The profit equation
Analyze a business from revenue through contribution and fixed costs instead of jumping directly to the final green or red number.
For retail, revenue equals units sold times realized selling price, summed across products. COGS equals units sold times their recognized unit resource cost. Gross profit equals revenue minus COGS. Contribution after variable selling costs subtracts bags, ingredients, consumables, or other costs that rise with sales. Operating profit then subtracts wages, rent, marketing, licenses, cleaning, security, and other recurring business expenses shown by the current report.
For services, the unit can be a haircut, gym customer, consulting hour, ticket, or other service event. Revenue still equals volume times price, but COGS may be small or represented by consumables. Labor capacity is often the binding cost. For factories, use finished units times internal or export value minus raw-material COGS, production labor, premises, logistics, and supporting overhead. Version 1.0 makes excessive exporting depress that item's import/export index for the remainder of the week, so a constant export price assumption is unsafe.
Keep financing and portfolio items outside store operating profit when comparing formats. Loan proceeds are financing, not revenue. Principal repayment is a cash outflow, not a store operating expense. Taxes, investments, building purchases, and central HQ costs affect company cash and owner return, but mixing them into one branch can hide whether its basic unit economics work. Use a second bridge from store operating profit to total company cash change.
Action checklist
- Calculate revenue by product or service.
- Recognize COGS only for consumed or sold resources.
- Separate variable and fixed operating cost.
- Keep loan proceeds out of revenue.
- Track central costs in a portfolio layer.
- Use changing export prices in factory analysis.
| Level | Formula | Management question |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue | Volume x realized price | Are customers buying? |
| Gross profit | Revenue - COGS | Does the offering have margin? |
| Contribution | Gross profit - variable selling costs | Does another sale help? |
| Operating profit | Contribution - fixed operating costs | Does the branch pay for itself? |
| Owner cash result | Operating cash - tax - debt - capital spend | Did liquidity improve? |
COGS is not a duplicate charge
The most common reporting error is subtracting inventory purchase cash and EconoView resources as though both were new costs on the same day.
A developer answered this directly: the resources line lists the cost of goods so the store's true profit can be calculated, but it is not deducted from cash a second time. Cash left when the company bought or imported the goods. Until sale, that value sits in inventory. When the customer buys the item, its cost is matched with revenue in the performance report. The accounting timing and cash timing differ.
Suppose one hundred units cost ten dollars each and are bought on Monday. Cash falls one thousand on Monday, but inventory rises one thousand. On Wednesday, sixty units sell for twenty-five dollars each. Wednesday revenue is one thousand five hundred and recognized COGS is six hundred, so gross profit is nine hundred. Do not subtract Monday's one thousand again from Wednesday profit. Forty units, costing four hundred, remain as stock.
This distinction exposes real problems. A positive gross margin can coexist with falling cash if the company purchases inventory faster than it sells. A rising bank balance can coexist with weak profit when old stock is liquidated without replacement. Track inventory movement as opening inventory plus purchases minus COGS minus losses equals closing inventory, allowing for game rounding and any transfers. Investigate theft, disposal, production consumption, or route movement when that bridge fails.
Action checklist
- Record inventory purchases as cash and asset movement.
- Use resources as recognized COGS.
- Never subtract the same purchase twice.
- Reconcile opening stock to closing stock.
- Separate theft and disposal from sales.
- Measure cash tied in slow products.
| Event | Cash effect | Profit effect |
|---|---|---|
| Buy 100 units at 10 | -1,000 | None until used or sold |
| Sell 60 units at 25 | +1,500 | Revenue 1,500; COGS 600 |
| Gross profit | None by itself | 900 |
| Closing stock | No new movement | 400 asset remains |
| Reorder another 100 | -1,000 | No immediate duplicate COGS |
BizMan, EconoView, and the bank tell different truths
Reconcile each interface according to its time window and purpose rather than demanding that every displayed number be identical.
In a January 2026 Steam thread, a developer inspected a player's save and explained that the BizMan figure was average daily income over the last seven days. The law office had paid workers before opening, and EconoView's recent daily history contained both gains and losses. The seven-day average was correctly negative even though an isolated day or achievement suggested profit. Startup days remain in the rolling window until they age out.
A separate developer explanation states that the old end-of-day profit display did not equal the midnight bank change. It could include COGS from goods bought earlier and omit imports purchased that day. The current release clarified banking presentation, but no interface can erase the timing distinction. Business EconoView is the primary daily economic breakdown; BizMan is a fast rolling overview; the bank is the source for immediate liquidity and dated financing or purchase movements.
Use a report bridge. Begin with business EconoView operating profit. Add or subtract timing differences for inventory purchased versus COGS recognized. Then add financing inflows, investment withdrawals, asset sales, and owner cash sources; subtract capital purchases, principal payments, tax payments, and investment deposits. The result should approximate the bank change. A residual may be rounding, a shared cost, a missed transaction, or a bug. Preserve the save and use F2 if it remains unexplained.
Action checklist
- Compare identical dates.
- Identify seven-day averages explicitly.
- Treat pre-opening wages as real startup cost.
- Use bank movement for liquidity reconciliation.
- Bridge inventory timing separately.
- Submit reproducible residuals through F2.
| Display | Primary interpretation | Do not use it as |
|---|---|---|
| BizMan overview | Rolling comparison of businesses | Exact today's cash movement |
| EconoView business | Daily operating breakdown | Full balance sheet |
| EconoView company | Portfolio flows and tax context | Product-level margin report |
| Bank balance | Cash available now | Accrual profit |
| Inventory/pricing | Units, prices, seven-day sales context | Complete expense statement |
Product and service unit economics
A profitable format is built from positive contribution per constrained unit, not from gross sales alone.
For each product, calculate unit contribution as realized price minus unit COGS minus per-sale consumables. Contribution margin percentage equals unit contribution divided by realized price. Rank products by contribution per scarce fixture slot, customer interaction, or delivery unit, not only by percentage margin. A high-margin cheap product can be inferior to a lower-percentage luxury item if customer capacity is the bottleneck; the reverse can be true when demand is thin.
For services, calculate contribution per staffed workstation hour. If a lawyer produces one paid consultation while another workstation remains idle, adding workers raises cost without increasing revenue. Contribution per staffed hour equals service revenue minus consumables divided by productive paid hours, then compare with wage and shared fixed cost. The developer has emphasized using Insights and the Yesterday hourly view because office demand can disappear rapidly outside ideal hours.
Worked mix: Product A sells two hundred units at twenty dollars with eight-dollar COGS, giving two thousand four hundred contribution. Product B sells forty units at eighty dollars with fifty-dollar COGS, giving one thousand two hundred. A has sixty-percent margin and twelve dollars per unit; B has thirty-seven and a half percent but thirty dollars per unit. If display space constrains units, test contribution per shelf and stockout. If customers constrain transactions, test basket contribution and whether offering B displaces A.
Action checklist
- Calculate contribution by SKU or service.
- Use realized price, not a target price.
- Include bags, ingredients, and consumables.
- Identify the constrained resource.
- Rank by contribution per constraint.
- Remove products that add complexity without return.
| Metric | Product A | Product B |
|---|---|---|
| Units | 200 | 40 |
| Price | 20 | 80 |
| Unit COGS | 8 | 50 |
| Unit contribution | 12 | 30 |
| Total contribution | 2,400 | 1,200 |
| Margin percent | 60% | 37.5% |
Capacity, traffic, and conversion
Building customer capacity is a ceiling; traffic, promotion, demand, hours, price satisfaction, and operations determine how much of it is used.
A developer has explained that Traffic Index is a rate or flow factor rather than a hard cap. A building with capacity seventy-five and traffic fourteen will not receive the same customers as one with stronger traffic merely because both list the same capacity. MarketInsider demand reflects competition: opening another same-type business can lower remaining demand and divide customers. Marketing helps promotion but cannot manufacture infinite market demand.
Build a funnel with potential district demand, traffic and promotion exposure, customers arriving, customers served, transactions completed, and units per transaction. Lost sales may occur because there are too few arrivals, a queue is full, required equipment is absent, stock is empty, employees are missing, prices damage satisfaction, or opening hours miss demand. Each failure needs a different fix. Marketing cannot repair a stockout; another register cannot repair zero traffic.
Measure utilization as customers served divided by staffed service capacity, by hour. Measure conversion as completed transactions divided by customers entering when the game exposes both values. Measure sales per customer and contribution per customer. If utilization is low, cut idle labor or improve demand and promotion. If utilization is high with queues, add equipment or staff. If customers arrive but basket contribution is weak, revisit product availability and prices.
Action checklist
- Record traffic and promotion.
- Check MarketInsider demand and competitors.
- Inspect Yesterday by hour.
- Distinguish arrival, service, and stock constraints.
- Calculate contribution per customer.
- Expand only the binding capacity.
| Symptom | Likely constraint | First test |
|---|---|---|
| Empty store, spare staff | Traffic, demand, hours, or price | Hourly arrivals and satisfaction |
| Long queue | Register or employee capacity | Add one staffed station |
| Customers leave without item | Stock or fixture requirement | Inventory by hour |
| Sales rise, profit falls | Price or COGS | Unit contribution bridge |
| Full capacity, high profit | Building or equipment ceiling | Incremental expansion test |
Price testing without stale tables
The correct price is a measured response in the current neighborhood, not a number copied from an old guide.
Version 1.0 added an HQ Pricing Manager who can update an item across a neighborhood and, at higher skill, suggest prices each day. Suggestions are an operational aid, not a guarantee of maximum profit. Rival prices, district demand, shortage conditions, satisfaction, and customer flow move. Use the recommendation as the center of a controlled price test and read actual contribution.
Hold staffing, hours, marketing, and stock constant for comparable days. Change one product or a coherent product group by a small step. Record price, units, revenue, COGS, contribution, customers, and satisfaction. Price elasticity over the test equals percentage change in units divided by percentage change in price. Contribution response matters more than revenue response: a price increase can reduce volume yet raise total contribution, while a discount can raise revenue and destroy profit.
Example: at twenty dollars, a store sells five hundred units with eight-dollar COGS, producing six thousand contribution. At twenty-two dollars it sells four hundred sixty, producing six thousand four hundred forty. Revenue and contribution both improve despite lower volume. At twenty-five dollars it sells three hundred fifty, producing five thousand nine hundred fifty, so the second increase overshoots. Repeat across matched weekdays because demand patterns differ by day.
Action checklist
- Use current Pricing Manager advice as a test input.
- Change one variable at a time.
- Compare matched weekdays.
- Prevent stockouts during the test.
- Measure contribution, not revenue alone.
- Restore the best validated price after rival events.
| Price | Units | Revenue | COGS | Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 | 500 | 10,000 | 4,000 | 6,000 |
| 22 | 460 | 10,120 | 3,680 | 6,440 |
| 25 | 350 | 8,750 | 2,800 | 5,950 |
| Decision | - | - | - | 22 wins this controlled sample |
Labor productivity and opening hours
Payroll often turns a good gross margin into a weak business because schedules are built for maximum coverage rather than measured demand.
Calculate sales per paid hour, contribution per paid hour, and customers per staffed station hour. Separate productive front-line wages from cleaning, security, management, and HQ support, then allocate support costs consistently. An employee can satisfy a staffing requirement yet be economically idle when scheduled outside customer hours. The cost remains even if no one arrives.
Use the EconoView or Insights Yesterday toggle to map customers by hour. A current developer reply says Event Planning and Travel Agency demand has different ideal hours from the original office businesses and dries up quickly outside them. Retail and entertainment also vary by weekday. Build shifts around observed peaks, preserve required cleaning and security coverage, and test one-hour boundary changes rather than jumping to twenty-four-seven operation.
Worked schedule: fourteen open hours require two seven-hour customer-service shifts at twenty-five dollars per hour, costing three hundred fifty. If the first two hours produce only one customer with fifteen dollars contribution, closing those hours saves fifty dollars while sacrificing fifteen, improving daily profit thirty-five. If a cleaner or guard must still be present, include that cost before deciding. Recheck demand after marketing or rival changes.
Action checklist
- Map customers by hour and weekday.
- Calculate contribution per paid hour.
- Count support wages separately.
- Close hours with negative incremental contribution.
- Maintain mandatory cleaning and security.
- Retest after demand or marketing changes.
| Hour block | Contribution | Avoidable wages | Incremental result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 08:00-10:00 | 15 | 50 | -35 |
| 10:00-14:00 | 400 | 100 | 300 |
| 14:00-18:00 | 520 | 100 | 420 |
| 18:00-22:00 | 260 | 100 | 160 |
| Decision | - | - | Close only first block in this example |
Marketing increment analysis
Marketing is profitable only when the contribution from additional customers exceeds the campaign's incremental cost.
Do not judge marketing by sales growth alone. Incremental marketing return equals additional contribution attributable to the campaign minus additional marketing cost. Return on marketing spend equals incremental contribution divided by incremental marketing cost. Because traffic, day mix, stock, and rivals change, use a control period of matched days and keep operations stable.
Suppose baseline contribution after COGS is twelve thousand with two thousand marketing. A larger campaign raises contribution to fourteen thousand five hundred and marketing to three thousand five hundred. Incremental contribution is two thousand five hundred and incremental marketing cost is one thousand five hundred, so incremental profit is one thousand and gross return on added marketing is 1.67. If the extra customers cause overtime, bags, cleaning, or urgent orders, subtract those too.
Promotion cannot exceed one hundred, and extra marketing can be wasted when traffic plus campaigns already hit that ceiling, when demand is fully served, or when registers and stock constrain sales. Conversely, a high-traffic site may need less paid marketing for the same exposure. Test stepwise. Stop at the last campaign tier whose added contribution exceeds all added costs and whose capacity remains reliable.
Action checklist
- Capture a matched baseline.
- Change only one campaign tier.
- Measure additional contribution.
- Subtract extra labor and logistics.
- Check the promotion ceiling.
- Stop when marginal profit turns negative.
| Case | Contribution | Marketing | Net after marketing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baseline | 12,000 | 2,000 | 10,000 |
| Expanded campaign | 14,500 | 3,500 | 11,000 |
| Increment | 2,500 | 1,500 | 1,000 |
| Added gross return | - | - | 1.67 per marketing dollar |
Inventory, stockouts, and hidden lost profit
A daily total can look acceptable while short stockouts erase the most valuable trading hours.
Track on-hand units at opening, before peak, and after closing. Days of cover equals sellable units divided by recent daily units sold. Reorder point equals demand during supplier and delivery lead time plus safety stock. A stockout loss estimate equals unserved units times unit contribution, plus any customer-flow consequences that can be observed. Do not value lost sales at full price because COGS would have been incurred.
Build 3674 fixed a general employee-state failure affecting imports and deliveries, while 1.0 also prevents an import order from being cancelled merely because the purchasing agent is sick. Remaining failures can still arise from cash, order limits, shelf capacity, route order, vehicle capacity, driver schedule, wrong target, or full destination shelves. Diagnose the physical chain before concluding that demand fell.
Overstock has an opposite cost. Excess inventory ties up cash and occupies pallet or storage capacity, potentially blocking faster products. Calculate excess stock value at purchase cost, not selling price. Reduce targets gradually, especially for imports with box and weekly limits. A high gross margin does not justify unlimited stock if turnover is slow and loan or tax obligations need the cash.
Action checklist
- Measure stock around peak hours.
- Set reorder points from lead time.
- Estimate lost contribution, not lost revenue.
- Check cash and capacity before blaming routes.
- Value excess inventory at cost.
- Reduce targets without causing new stockouts.
| Inventory signal | Formula | Action |
|---|---|---|
| Days of cover | On hand / daily sales | Compare with lead time |
| Reorder point | Lead-time demand + safety stock | Trigger replenishment |
| Stockout loss | Lost units x contribution | Prioritize high-cost gaps |
| Excess cash tied | Excess units x cost | Release working capital |
| Shelf pressure | Used capacity / total capacity | Add space or cut slow SKUs |
Factory and export profitability after 1.0
A factory can become less profitable as output rises because version 1.0 makes exports influence the weekly import/export index.
Official 1.0 notes state that exporting goods now affects the import index: excessive exports reduce that item's import/export price for the rest of the week. This creates diminishing marginal revenue within a weekly market. A historical average export price multiplied by expanded capacity can therefore overstate profit. Measure price and quantity by day after each export batch.
Factory contribution equals export or transfer value minus raw materials, direct production wages, and incremental logistics. For goods transferred internally, use a consistent shadow value such as avoided current import cost, but also report the retail margin separately. Do not claim profit twice by treating factory output as external revenue and then recognizing the whole retail sale without eliminating the internal transfer in the portfolio total.
Run a ramp test at one line, then two, then more, holding recipes and staffing stable. Record units, raw-material COGS, export index before and after, realized proceeds, wages, route costs, and unsold accumulation. Stop adding capacity when marginal batch contribution becomes negative or when storage and transport disrupt higher-value internal supply. A September 2026 Steam thread documents a player whose jewelry exports turned negative after expansion and who observed the index movement; it is a launch-version observation, not a universal optimum.
Action checklist
- Record export index before every batch.
- Measure realized proceeds by day.
- Separate internal transfers from external sales.
- Eliminate double-counted intercompany revenue.
- Ramp capacity in controlled steps.
- Stop when marginal batch contribution is negative.
| Factory measure | Calculation | Interpretation |
|---|---|---|
| Batch revenue | Units x realized export price | Changes with weekly index |
| Batch contribution | Revenue - materials - direct labor - route cost | Value of one more batch |
| Internal value | Avoided current purchase cost | Use consistently |
| Capacity utilization | Actual output / possible output | Find idle equipment |
| Inventory accumulation | Production - transfers - exports | Signals oversupply |
Business-level sensitivity analysis
Model a range of customer, price, cost, and labor outcomes before expanding a branch.
Use base operating profit equal to volume times unit contribution minus fixed cost. Then calculate the effect of a change in each driver. Volume sensitivity equals change in units times current contribution. Price sensitivity is more complex because price can alter volume; test paired values from actual observations. COGS sensitivity equals units times change in unit cost. Labor sensitivity equals changed paid hours times wage.
Example: five hundred daily transactions, contribution sixteen dollars each, and fixed costs six thousand produce two thousand operating profit. A fifteen-percent volume fall removes one thousand two hundred contribution, leaving eight hundred. A two-dollar COGS rise removes one thousand, leaving one thousand. Forty excess labor hours at twenty-five dollars remove another one thousand. Combined, those three changes create a one thousand two hundred loss. The base green number was not robust.
Create thresholds. Break-even volume equals fixed costs divided by unit contribution. Maximum affordable fixed cost equals expected volume times stressed unit contribution. Margin of safety equals expected volume minus break-even volume divided by expected volume. Use the lower of a recent matched-day average and the current district capacity case. A branch with a five-percent safety margin should not finance a warehouse expansion on its own.
Action checklist
- Calculate break-even volume.
- Measure margin of safety.
- Stress volume and COGS together.
- Include avoidable labor hours.
- Use current district observations.
- Link expansion to stressed, not base, profit.
| Scenario | Volume | Unit contribution | Fixed cost | Profit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Base | 500 | 16 | 6,000 | 2,000 |
| Volume -15% | 425 | 16 | 6,000 | 800 |
| COGS +2 | 500 | 14 | 6,000 | 1,000 |
| Extra labor | 500 | 16 | 7,000 | 1,000 |
| Combined downside | 425 | 14 | 7,000 | -1,050 |
Portfolio allocation and shared overhead
A store can look strong before HQ, warehouse, logistics, purchasing, and tax costs are assigned to the portfolio that requires them.
Maintain two views. The controllable branch view includes revenue, COGS, branch wages, branch rent, direct marketing, and direct service costs. The fully loaded view adds a rational share of warehouse rent, drivers, logistics managers, purchasing agents, HQ workers, recruitment, and other shared resources. Never use fully allocated cost to claim that closing one branch saves costs that will remain.
Choose allocation drivers that reflect use: delivery stops or cargo volume for logistics, purchase value or order lines for purchasing, headcount for HR, and revenue or customer count for general administration. Show shared overhead as a separate line so the reader can recompute. Contribution to shared overhead equals branch controllable profit before allocated central cost. A branch with positive contribution may deserve retention even if arbitrary allocation makes it appear negative.
For closure, calculate avoidable profit: revenue lost minus COGS avoided minus wages, rent, marketing, and shared costs that actually disappear. Add closure cash effects such as inventory liquidation, equipment sale, contract termination, and taxes. Compare that with relocation or schedule reduction. Portfolio design should favor businesses that diversify demand and cash cycles, not just the one with the largest gross sales.
Action checklist
- Keep controllable and fully loaded views.
- Choose transparent allocation drivers.
- Identify costs that truly disappear on closure.
- Calculate contribution to shared overhead.
- Include closure cash and stranded stock.
- Diversify demand and operating risks.
| Shared cost | Suggested driver | Closure behavior |
|---|---|---|
| Warehouse | Pallet volume or delivery stops | May remain until capacity can shrink |
| Drivers | Route hours or stops | Avoidable only if shift removed |
| Purchasing | Order value or lines | Often step-fixed |
| HR | Branch headcount | May remain after one closure |
| HQ admin | Revenue or equal branch share | Usually not immediately avoidable |
Thirty-day test and tracking sheet
A disciplined log converts a noisy simulation into comparable operating evidence.
Record one row per business per day with build, difficulty, district, day of week, opening hours, traffic, promotion, competitors, demand, customers, units by product, realized prices, revenue, COGS, wages, rent, marketing, other expenses, profit, stockouts, theft, employee absence, rival attack, and notes. Add opening and closing bank cash in a company sheet. Mark every intentional change.
Use seven days as a minimum cycle because weekday patterns matter, then repeat to confirm. During a price test, keep hours, marketing, staffing, and stock stable. During a schedule test, hold price and promotion stable. During a marketing test, ensure service capacity can accept more customers. Exclude outage days from the steady-state average but report them separately as operational-risk cost.
At day thirty, summarize median and average profit, worst day, standard deviation or simple range, gross margin, labor percentage, marketing return, contribution per customer, stockout hours, and cash conversion. Compare the final seven matched days with the first seven. A recommendation should name the observed driver and confidence, such as 'closing 08:00-10:00 improved matched-day profit in two weeks,' not 'all gift shops should open at ten.'
Action checklist
- Log one row per business per day.
- Mark each intentional change.
- Run tests for matched weekdays.
- Report outages separately.
- Calculate average, median, and worst day.
- State build and conditions with conclusions.
| Sheet block | Fields | Output |
|---|---|---|
| Environment | Build, difficulty, district, day | Reproducibility |
| Demand | Traffic, promotion, rivals, hours | Customer context |
| Sales | Customers, units, price, revenue | Volume and mix |
| Costs | COGS, wages, rent, marketing | Margin bridge |
| Exceptions | Stockout, absence, attack, bug | Risk-adjusted result |
Profit audit checklist and decision rules
Finish analysis with explicit pass, repair, resize, relocate, or close criteria.
Pass when unit contribution is positive, comparable-day operating profit is positive, capacity and stock are reliable, and downside sensitivity stays above the owner's required margin. Repair when the business is structurally sound but a specific issue—stockout, empty shift, bad price, low skill, missing equipment, or weak security—has measurable cost. Resize when demand cannot support current labor or premises. Relocate when traffic or rival-owned property is the binding constraint.
Close when stressed contribution cannot cover avoidable fixed costs, corrective tests have failed, and released cash or capacity has a better use. Do not close solely because BizMan is red during the first seven days; identify pre-opening and ramp costs. Do not keep a branch solely because revenue is large; negative contribution means more sales can deepen losses. Do not use taxes as a reason to spend one dollar to save only a fraction of a dollar.
Document the decision. Include baseline dates, interventions, matched results, cash consequence, effect on warehouse and HQ, rival response, and review date. Preserve enough stock and staff transition time to avoid damaging other branches. After any closure or large schedule change, check MarketInsider and rival activity because competition and demand can react.
Action checklist
- Verify positive unit contribution.
- Use a complete comparable week.
- Quantify each repair opportunity.
- Distinguish avoidable from allocated cost.
- Model released cash and shared capacity.
- Schedule a post-decision review.
| Decision | Evidence threshold | Typical action |
|---|---|---|
| Pass | Robust positive profit | Maintain and monitor |
| Repair | Named correctable loss | Fix stock, price, staff, or equipment |
| Resize | Low utilization | Cut hours, workers, or space |
| Relocate | Site is binding constraint | Move after overlap plan |
| Close | Negative avoidable economics after tests | Exit and redeploy resources |
Research ledger
These links establish mechanics or provide a reproducible lead. Any balance-sensitive number still has to be checked in the current save.
Questions answered
Why is COGS shown after I already paid for inventory?
Because the report matches the resource cost to the goods sold so it can calculate profit. The developer confirms that it is not a second cash deduction.
Which number is my real profit?
Use business EconoView for the dated operating breakdown, while respecting its displayed period. Use BizMan for its rolling average and the bank for cash. Reconcile timing rather than forcing the three to match.
How long should I test a change?
Use at least one complete week of comparable days, and preferably a second repeated week. A seven-day block captures weekday differences but does not by itself prove causation. Keep prices, opening hours, marketing, staffing, stock availability, and layout stable except for the variable under test. Compare Monday with Monday rather than a weekend peak with a weekday trough. Label stockouts, employee absence, rival attacks, tax boundaries, converted-save days, and patch days instead of silently averaging them into the result. For a price test, record units, realized revenue, COGS, contribution, customers, and satisfaction. For a schedule test, record contribution and avoidable wages by hour. For marketing, confirm spare service capacity before paying for more traffic. Repeat the change in a second matched cycle, then restore the baseline if possible to see whether the result reverses. Report the build, difficulty, district, traffic, promotion, demand, competitor count, and exact game days. A result that survives two cycles and a reversal test is stronger evidence than a one-day gain, but it remains specific to those conditions rather than a universal profit guarantee.
Should I maximize revenue or margin percentage?
Neither in isolation. Maximize total reliable contribution from the constrained resource, then subtract fixed and shared costs. A lower percentage margin can create more dollars, while high revenue can still lose money. Name the constraint—customers, fixtures, staff hours, delivery capacity, or demand—and compare contribution per unit of that constraint across matched days.
Are current online price and profit tables reliable?
Only if they state build, difficulty, district, conditions, date range, and method. Dynamic demand, rivals, costs, hours, promotion, and the 1.0 changes make old fixed tables and guaranteed returns unsuitable. Reproduce a promising claim in a copied current save before committing capital.