--- title: "Pricing and Margin Analysis for Owner-Managed Firms" url: https://www.everstonecpa.com/pricing-and-margin-analysis description: "Which work actually makes money, what a price rise does to volume, and where margin leaks between the quote and the invoice. Get decisions, with numbers." type: service-or-info updated: 2026-10-08 summary: "Pricing and margin analysis breaks the business down to the level decisions are actually made at — by job, product line, customer or crew — and shows where money is made and lost. It then tests what a price change, a cost change or dropping a line would do, before you do it." faq_count: 4 publisher: EverStone CPA Inc., a Chartered Professional Accountant firm registered with CPA British Columbia and CPA Alberta service_area: British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario and Manitoba language: en-CA contact: info@everstonecpa.com · https://www.everstonecpa.com/book-online --- [Home](https://www.everstonecpa.com/) [Fractional CFO & controller](https://www.everstonecpa.com/contract-cfo) Pricing and margin analysis CFO deliverable · Decisions # Pricing and margin analysis Updated 8 October 2026 Most owner-managed businesses know their overall margin and cannot tell you which jobs, products or customers produce it. That is the difference between a number and a decision. This is part of the **fractional cfo** half of a [fractional CFO or fractional controller engagement](https://www.everstonecpa.com/contract-cfo). [Get My Fixed Quote](https://www.everstonecpa.com/book-online) [See the full comparison](https://www.everstonecpa.com/contract-cfo) **Quick answer:** Pricing and margin analysis breaks the business down to the level decisions are actually made at — by job, product line, customer or crew — and shows where money is made and lost. It then tests what a price change, a cost change or dropping a line would do, before you do it. ## What pricing and margin analysis produces - **Margin by the unit you actually sell**: job, product, contract, customer or location. - **The cost to serve**, including the overhead most businesses never allocate. - **A break-even view**, so you know what volume a price change has to hold. - **Price sensitivity tested** before it is applied, not discovered afterwards. - **The leak between quote and invoice**, which in project work is usually where the margin went. - **A recommendation you can act on**, with the reasoning stated so you can disagree with it. ## Why the overall margin hides the answer A business at 30% gross margin overall is rarely at 30% on everything. It is usually at 45% on some work and 12% on other work, and the 12% is often the work that is easiest to win — which is why there is so much of it. The number that matters is margin after the cost to serve, and that means allocating the overhead nobody allocates: the time spent quoting, the rework, the customer who takes four calls per order. Businesses that skip that step end up growing the wrong line. ## What it depends on This is CFO-half work and it runs on the controller half underneath it. Margin by job needs job costing in the ledger; margin by customer needs revenue coded that way. Where the coding does not exist yet, that is a [close and chart of accounts](https://www.everstonecpa.com/month-end-close) question first, and it is worth fixing before the analysis rather than estimating around it. ## Who this is for, and who it is not **A good fit:** a business with more than one line, crew, product or location, where the overall margin is known and the mix behind it is not. **Not a fit:** a single-service business with one price and one cost, where the arithmetic fits on the back of an envelope and does not need a CPA. We say so on the first call rather than quoting for work you do not need. ## Common questions about margin work **How far back do you look?** Usually twelve months, so seasonality is visible. Less than that and a quiet quarter reads as a structural problem when it is a cycle. [Ask us →](https://www.everstonecpa.com/quick-question) **We do not have job costing. Can you still do it?** To a point. Line-level margin needs the ledger to carry the line, so the honest first step is often setting that up and then analyzing the following quarter properly. **Is this a one-off or ongoing?** The first analysis is a project. After that it usually becomes a page in [the monthly pack](https://www.everstonecpa.com/management-reporting), which is cheaper and far more useful than repeating the project annually. **Will you tell us to raise prices?** Only if the numbers say so, and often they say something more specific: raise on one line, leave another, and stop quoting a third. ### Starting fees Every fee is fixed in writing before any work begins. - **Controller or CFO support** controller from $1,650, CFO from $2,750 a month *This page* - **Monthly bookkeeping, GST/PST filing included** from $325 a month - **Payroll, remittances, T4s and ROEs** included in monthly bookkeeping - **Books, payroll and the year-end T2 together** $500–$700 a month - **Corporate year-end and T2 return** fixed fee, quoted in writing - **Personal tax return (T1)** from $125; self-employed or rental $275–$500 - **Catch-up bookkeeping** from $2,200 per year of records - **One-off advice call with a CPA** $225 plus GST [Get My Fixed Quote](https://www.everstonecpa.com/book-online?service=cfo#enquiry-form) ## Talk to a CPA about this One Chartered Professional Accountant, start to finish. Fixed fees, quoted in writing before any work begins, and no obligation from a first conversation. [Get My Fixed Quote](https://www.everstonecpa.com/book-online) [Ask a Free Question](https://www.everstonecpa.com/quick-question) Email info@everstonecpa.com ★★★★★ “…have been completing my bookkeeping, taxes and financials for the last 2 years and they have been amazing. Thank you!” R. H. · Google review --- Source: https://www.everstonecpa.com/pricing-and-margin-analysis Prices: https://www.everstonecpa.com/pricing · Contact: info@everstonecpa.com · https://www.everstonecpa.com/book-online