Excel templates · For every business
Contribution Margin Template (Excel) — Per Product, Free
One column per product, every variable cost on its own row, and the contribution margin per unit and per month at the bottom. It is the sheet that tells you which of your bestsellers is actually paying for the company.
The download
Free download
Download: Contribution margin per product
- Six product columns, extend as far as you need
- Payment fees calculated off the price, not guessed
- Return cost as a cost per unit, where it belongs
- Margin per unit, margin percentage and margin per month
No email, no sign-up. Formulas already wired up.
The sheet itself
- Six product columns, extend as far as you need
- Payment fees calculated off the price, not guessed
- Return cost as a cost per unit, where it belongs
- Margin per unit, margin percentage and margin per month
| A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Contribution margin per product | |||||||||||||
| 2 | Fill in the blue cells — every other cell is a formula and works itself out. foreqast.app | |||||||||||||
| 3 | Product A | Product B | Product C | Product D | Product E | Product F | ||||||||
| 4 | ||||||||||||||
| 5 | €79.00 | €129.00 | €49.00 | €199.00 | €34.00 | €89.00 | ||||||||
| 6 | 420 | 180 | 960 | 65 | 1,400 | 310 | ||||||||
| 7 | €33,180 | €23,220 | €47,040 | €12,935 | €47,600 | €27,590 | ||||||||
| 8 | ||||||||||||||
| 9 | €31.00 | €54.00 | €18.00 | €88.00 | €12.00 | €37.00 | ||||||||
| 10 | €4.90 | €6.90 | €3.90 | €9.90 | €3.50 | €4.90 | ||||||||
| 11 | €2.53 | €4.13 | €1.57 | €6.37 | €1.09 | €2.85 | ||||||||
| 12 | €3.20 | €7.40 | €1.60 | €12.50 | €0.90 | €3.80 | ||||||||
| 13 | €41.63 | €72.43 | €25.07 | €116.77 | €17.49 | €48.55 | ||||||||
| 14 | ||||||||||||||
| 15 | €37.37 | €56.57 | €23.93 | €82.23 | €16.51 | €40.45 | ||||||||
| 16 | 47.3 % | 43.9 % | 48.8 % | 41.3 % | 48.6 % | 45.4 % | ||||||||
| 17 | €15,695 | €10,183 | €22,973 | €5,345 | €23,114 | €12,540 | ||||||||
The blue cells are yours to fill in. Every other cell is a formula and works itself out.
How to use it
- 1
One column per product, net prices only
Take the price the customer actually pays after your usual discount, minus VAT. A list price nobody pays produces a margin nobody earns.
- 2
Fill in every cost that scales with a sale
Purchase or production cost, shipping and packaging, and the return cost per unit. Rent and salaries do not belong here — they are what the contribution margin has to cover.
- 3
Check the fee rate against your provider
The fee row is a formula on the price at 3.2%. Stripe, PayPal, Klarna and a marketplace all differ, and marketplace commission can be ten times a card fee.
- 4
Sort by margin per month, not by margin per unit
The product with the best percentage is rarely the one carrying the company. Multiply by volume and the ranking usually changes completely.
A worked example
The best percentage against the biggest earner
- Product C — margin per unit
- €23.93
- Product C — margin %
- 48.8%
- Product C — margin per month
- €22,973
- Product D — margin per unit
- €82.23
- Product D — margin per month
- €5,345
Product D earns €82 a unit and Product C earns €24 — but C sells 960 units a month against D's 65, and contributes four times as much. Cutting the “low-margin” product to focus on the “premium” one would remove €23,000 of monthly contribution to gain €5,000.
The mistakes that break it
Leaving returns out
A 12% return rate on a product with a 40% margin eats a quarter of it. Returns are a per-unit cost of selling, not an operating expense.
Putting salaries into the variable rows
The contribution margin exists to be compared against fixed costs. Mixing them in makes the number meaningless and always too pessimistic.
Using the purchase price from last year
Purchase costs, freight and packaging move every few months. A sheet nobody re-prices is a sheet that reports a margin you stopped earning some time ago.
Where the template stops
It says nothing about whether the company is profitable
The contribution margin only covers fixed costs — it does not tell you whether it covers them. That needs the break-even, and the profit plan behind it.
Break-even calculatorIt is only as current as your last evening with it
Every number in here is typed in. The month you skip is the month the sheet quietly stops describing your business — and it never says so.
A margin is not cash
A product can earn a healthy contribution margin and still starve you, because the stock is paid three months before the customer pays you.
12-month cash-flow planWhat comes after the spreadsheet
Monitor marginA margin you recalculate by hand is a margin you find out about late. Foreqast keeps it live as costs and prices move.Calculators