Start with the question, not the dashboard
“Which clients are profitable?” sounds simple until one report uses invoices, another uses collected cash, and a third spreads every salary evenly across the client list. Choose the decision first. For service pricing, you need the cost of delivering that service. For cash planning, you need receipts and payments. Those are related views, not interchangeable answers.
Write down the basis
Use one reporting period and one currency. Document whether revenue is recognized, invoiced, or collected. Exclude pass-through ad spend when comparing service margins, or show it separately. Record credits and refunds in the same basis. A beautiful dashboard cannot repair a numerator and denominator drawn from different months.
Allocate effort before celebrating margin
Estimate a loaded delivery rate from salary, employer costs, and benefits divided by realistic productive hours. Apply it to the hours each client consumes. Track contractor invoices and direct software costs separately. Account for recurring revisions and client communication; invisible effort still costs something.
Keep contribution and profit distinct
Service revenue minus direct delivery costs gives a useful contribution view. It does not automatically equal company profit. Office costs, sales, leadership, and other overhead still exist. Show the chosen definition beside the result so account managers and finance do not argue over two different meanings of margin.
Review exceptions every month
Pick the clients with the largest unexplained changes. Check scope creep, missing time, credits, paused contracts, and staff changes before making a pricing decision. The output should be an action: adjust scope, simplify delivery, improve the handoff, or have an honest renewal conversation.
An operating framework, not a claim of measured Almanac customer results.