Accountants - need info on P&L

[adelicatequestion]

I run a small business limited company and was wondering if there is a % of net profit that is acceptable.

When costing jobs, I am factoring in profit and don;t know whether to make this 10%, 25%, 50% etc. What would be deemed acceptable.

I do training.

acceptable to whom?
You could look at the HMRC business notes and see if there is one for your sector to get an idea of averages.

Surely the starting point is "what is acceptable to your customers" - what are others in your line of business charging for jobs? That is what your market will bear plus or minus whatever. Your costs are your actual costs for each job. The profit is the difference between the two.

In a service industry I used to add 100% of salary for overheads (but we were big west end firm you're would probably be less) then 15% profit margin.

and agree that you need to look at it against what your competitors charge.

Thanks Kewcumber, ChasingSquirrels, Catinthehat. Great contributions I thought - I very much value your input.

I though that was the OP and was just about to rant at them!

Tee hee!
Oh the people skills you need to work in training!

Hi

Thanks for the input everyone - and thanks catinthe hat for beating me to it!

Posted this late and night and have only just squeezed a few minutes to come back.

I was trying to find out if any accountants had experience of training companies and from the P&L's could give me the % of profit compared to turnover.

I can price up the jobs, but want to compare how we are performing compared to other training companies takin into account overheads, staffing etc.

I am incredibly busy at the moment looking after 3 young children, running a business, moving offices - so forgive me if I can't spend every waking hour on mumsnet andtry not to be too sarcy if I can't reply the second someone responds - I am appreciative of the replies.

Note for the future - people put their excuses in at the beginning of the thread if they are not going to be back for a bit, not when they've been caught out so blatantly.

Unfortunately, (and I spent a moment checking) you can be seen doing this quite a lot.

I am warned off your frequent question threads now.

Suggest you pick up the phone to soeone listed under "Accountant" in yellow pages if you want this kind of detailed info. It will cost you of course. You can claim it back as a business expense.

2 of your specific points:
Quite a lot of us are busy people as well as you.

You are also exaggerating, nobody expects a reply the second someone responds.

Hope that helps. Nothing sarky, all factual.

Catinthehat

I'm sorry if I've upset you. I did post the original question quite late at night and had every intention of looking the next day. Unfortunately that was not possible and at the time of posting had no excuses to report of and didn't feel I needed to.

I was not caught out - other things happening within my family took priority which meant I was not at a computer during that timescale (not something that I could have predicted).

I was very hurt by your comments and felt them to be unfair. You attacked me in a way that was not nice and was unnecessary without knowing the facts.

I know people are just as busy as me, but circumstances prevented me being here when I intended.

I have posted about 6 or 7 questions over the past year and thought that the whole point of mumsnet was to gain opinions from others. I have also contributed in other peoples questions where I have felt qualified to do so.

Don't make it sound like I am constantly posting questions and then disappearing - it is not something I do a lot.