Profit methodology
Know exactly where your profit number comes from.
TradeProfit keeps the math simple enough to check: cash in, cash out, job revenue, job cost, gross profit, gross margin, and the items still waiting for review.
Trust rule
A profit number is only as trustworthy as the transactions behind it. TradeProfit highlights unreconciled items because they can still move job profit and company profit.
Daily cash
Cash in adds transactions marked as inflow. Cash out adds transactions marked as outflow. Net cash is the difference for the selected day.
Job profit
Job profit uses recorded revenue and recorded costs assigned to the job. If payments or costs are missing, the job profit number is not final.
Gross margin
Gross margin shows how much of the revenue is left after recorded job costs. If actual revenue is zero, margin shows as zero to avoid a misleading divide-by-zero result.
Reconciliation risk
Unreconciled bank or manual transactions may still need a category, job, vendor, customer, or no-job match before profit can be trusted.
Plain answers
Questions owners ask before trusting profit
These answers explain the practical limits of operational profit tracking. TradeProfit helps with daily decision making, not formal tax accounting.
Why can profit change after I match transactions?
Profit can change when a bank or manual transaction gets assigned to a job, vendor, customer, or category. Until matching is done, TradeProfit treats the number as useful but not final.
Does TradeProfit calculate tax profit?
No. TradeProfit focuses on operational gross profit, daily cash, job costs, and matching. Use an accountant or CPA for tax, legal, and formal accounting decisions.
Why does a job show zero margin when revenue is zero?
Gross margin needs revenue as the denominator. When revenue is zero, TradeProfit shows zero margin instead of creating a misleading percentage.
What makes the numbers more trustworthy?
Add customer payments, add job costs, categorize transactions, match each item to a job or no job, then close the day after reconciliation is complete.