Auto parts management software
- Margin on the line, percent
- 40
- Computed on this page from the inputs below
- Price actually charged
- $70.20
- Computed on this page from the inputs below
- Gross profit per line
- $28.20
- Computed on this page from the inputs below
- Markup on cost, percent
- 67
- Computed on this page from the inputs below
Every figure on this page is computed from the inputs entered, by the method stated below it. Binstockly publishes no catalogue, no interchange table, no fitment data and no target margin: the usage, the lead times, the costs and the prices are yours, and the defaults are a worked example to replace with your own figures.
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The figures above start from a worked example (40). Change any input and the answer updates as you type.
Download the Auto parts management software worked example (CSV)
Auto parts management software will report your margin, and the number it reports is usually the one off the price list rather than the one the counter actually took. This sheet works the real one. Enter your cost, the list price, the discount the counter really gives and the lines you sell in a week, and it returns the price actually charged, the gross profit on the line, the margin as a percent of that price, the markup on cost, and what the same line makes over a week and a year. On the worked example, $42 of cost against a $78 list with the usual 10% off sells at $70.20 for $28.20 of gross profit: a 40% margin and a 67% markup, and at 180 lines a week that is $5,076 a week and $263,952 a year. The gap between the 46% the price list implies and the 40% the counter takes is what the discount costs, and it is worth knowing before the next price review rather than after it.
The discount is the whole story
A $78 list on $42 of cost looks like a 46% margin. The 10% the counter actually gives makes the price $70.20 and the margin 40%. Six points of margin disappear between the price list and the till, and the sheet puts the two figures side by side.
Margin and markup are not the same number
The same line is a 40% margin and a 67% markup. Pricing off markup and reporting off margin is how a counter convinces itself it is making more than it is, so the sheet returns both from the same inputs.
What it is worth over a year
$28.20 a line at 180 lines a week is $5,076 a week and $263,952 a year. Scaling the line to the year is what makes a discount policy arguable: a point of margin is a number, not a feeling, and this is the number.
Auto parts management software: common questions
What is the difference between margin and markup? Margin is the profit as a share of what you charged; markup is the profit as a share of what you paid. The same line here is a 40% margin and a 67% markup. Confusing the two is the commonest way a counter thinks it is making more than it is, so the sheet returns both.
Should I enter the discount I advertise or the one I give? The one you give. The whole point of the sheet is the gap between the price list and the counter, and entering the advertised discount hides exactly the figure you came for.
Does this tell me what to charge? No, and it will not. It works out what the price you named leaves you. What your market bears is a question about your customers and your competitors, and this site publishes no target margin.