A marketing consultant thought he knew which projects were profitable. His expense reports told a very different story — and three clients had to go.
Tom W. has run a one-person marketing consultancy for eight years. He helps mid-market companies with positioning, campaign strategy, and content programs. He typically works with 5–7 clients simultaneously on monthly retainers ranging from £2,000 to £8,000.
Tom thought he had a clear picture of his business. He knew his monthly revenue. He knew his big fixed costs. What he didn't know — and never thought to measure — was the cost of actually serving each client.
"Some clients take two hours of work a month. Others take me 40 hours and three subcontractors," he says. "I was charging them similar retainer amounts because I estimated based on deliverables, not actual input."
His expenses were equally invisible. Software subscriptions bought for specific client projects. Stock images. Freelance editors he hired for particular accounts. He was expensing them vaguely to "business costs" rather than to specific clients.
"At tax time, my accountant would ask me to categorize things and I'd just guess. I knew I was losing money somewhere. I just didn't know where."
Tom started using Builtomate primarily for invoicing, but the expense tracking feature caught his attention. Unlike his previous habit of logging expenses in a spreadsheet, Builtomate let him tag each expense to a specific project.
"I started attaching every expense to the client project it was for. Tools, freelancers, subscriptions — everything got a project tag."
Tom's monthly financial review now takes 30 minutes instead of a weekend. He opens the project profitability report for each active client, which shows income received, hours logged, and expenses charged to that project — giving him a true profit margin per client.
The expense tracking happens in real-time. When he hires an editor for a client's blog content, he logs it immediately as an expense on that project. When he buys a stock photo for a campaign, it goes on the project. No batch-processing at month end — no guessing.
For tax purposes, the expense reports give his accountant a clean, categorized breakdown that has eliminated the annual scramble.
After three months of tracking, Tom ran profitability reports on all seven of his then-active clients. Three of them were operating at a margin below 30% — two were effectively at break-even after subcontractor costs.
"One client I thought was my second biggest account was actually my worst. When I added up what I was spending to service them — freelancers, tools, the hours I couldn't bill — I was making £400/month net on a £3,500 retainer."
He raised rates on two of the three. The third, he let go with 60 days notice. His monthly revenue dropped by £3,500 but his monthly net income increased by £1,200 — because he replaced that time with a new, better-scoped client.
On the tax side, his accountant identified £8,400 in legitimate deductions that had previously been missed or miscategorized.
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