Documentation MarginPlan Approach Plan the year before planning the work
The MarginPlan Approach

Plan the year before planning the work

Use Revenue Goal to work out what the business needs to earn, then approve that number as a Year Goal so the rest of the workspace is planning against the same target.

A healthy margin starts in the Revenue Goal page because that is where the app turns costs, personal income needs, taxes, and profit expectations into a concrete Yearly Goal Total. Once that number is approved as a Year Goal, the rest of the workspace can plan and measure against the same baseline instead of everyone carrying a different version of the year in their head.

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Quick summary Step by step Guardrails Troubleshooting Related workflows

Quick summary

  • Update Business Budget items when operating costs change so the calculator reflects the real cost of running the workspace.
  • Update Personal Budget items when owner pay, savings, or personal obligations change enough to alter what the business must support.
  • Review Target Profit entries by phase or service type so the plan reflects what profit the business expects to keep, not just what it hopes to bill.
  • Save or approve the correct year record before reviewing At A Glance, otherwise the team may be comparing actual performance against the live calculator instead of the intended year target.
  • Revisit the calculator when people start questioning the yearly number, rather than debating the symptom inside projects or invoicing.

Put it into practice

  1. Open Revenue Goal and start in the Calculator tab, because the app builds the yearly target from inputs rather than asking you to type a final number first.

    InteractionsRevenue Goal page: Calculator tab.
    Open workflow: Revenue Goal

  2. Add or review Business Budget items so the workspace operating costs are included in the calculation.

    InteractionsRevenue Goal page: Business Budget section on the Calculator tab.
    Open workflow: Edit Goal Item

  3. Add or review Personal Budget items so the calculator includes the lifestyle costs the business needs to cover.

    InteractionsRevenue Goal page: Personal Budget section on the Calculator tab.
    Open workflow: Edit Goal Item

  4. Review Target Profit entries and the Estimated Taxes line, then check the Yearly Goal Total the calculator produces from those inputs.

    InteractionsRevenue Goal page: Target Profit section and summary bar on the Calculator tab.
    Open workflow: Edit Sales Target

  5. Move to the Year Goals tab and create or update the record for the year you are managing using the calculator result as the target.

    InteractionsRevenue Goal page: Year Goals tab.
    Open workflow: Year Goals Workflow

  6. Approve and lock the year once the target is ready to become the workspace baseline.

    InteractionsYear Goals tab: use Approve on the planned year record.
    Open workflow: Year Goals Workflow

  7. Use At A Glance to track the approved Revenue Goal against Goal to Date, Collected Revenue, and Difference during the year.

    InteractionsAt A Glance page: yearly summary cards.

What to review

Revenue Goal calculator

The app does not ask for one top-line number first. It calculates the required revenue from the inputs on the Revenue Goal page so the target is grounded in actual operating needs rather than optimism.

Business Budget and Personal Budget

The Calculator tab starts with the two cost buckets the interface actually uses: Business Budget for operating expenses and Personal Budget for the lifestyle the business needs to fund. Those inputs are the base of the yearly target.

Target Profit and Estimated Taxes

Target Profit is treated as profit you want to keep, and the calculator grosses that up for Estimated Taxes before showing the final Yearly Goal Total. That flow matters because the number in the app is intentionally more than cost recovery.

Year Goals tab

The second tab exists to turn the live calculator result into a specific year record. A planned year only becomes the active benchmark after it is saved in Year Goals and approved.

Approved year goal

Approval is the handoff from planning to execution. Once a year is approved, At A Glance uses that locked figure for the year instead of the live calculator result, which stops the target from drifting every time someone edits an input.

At A Glance follow-through

The reason planning the year matters in the product is visible downstream: approved year goals feed Year At A Glance, where the team can compare Revenue Goal, Goal to Date, Collected Revenue, and Difference month by month.

Guardrails

  • The Yearly Goal Total should be traceable back to Business Budget, Personal Budget, Target Profit, tax rate, and margin settings. If the number cannot be explained from those inputs, the plan is not ready.
  • Do not skip the approval step if the business wants a stable yearly benchmark. Until a year is approved, downstream pages can still reflect the live calculator result instead of a locked target.
  • If the calculated target feels impossible, challenge the inputs and margin assumptions first. The app is showing what the current model demands, not promising that the demand is easy to satisfy.
  • The approved year should reflect the year the team is actually managing. A clean calculator with the wrong year record still creates confusion downstream.
  • At A Glance only becomes a useful management view when the approved year goal matches the current planning baseline. Otherwise Difference and Goal to Date are comparing reality against the wrong target.
  • Usually maintained by workspace admins, founders, finance leads, or operators who can edit Revenue Goal inputs and approve Year Goals.
  • People can discuss the number broadly, but the ability to approve a year goal should stay with whoever is accountable for the business baseline because that approval affects downstream reporting.
  • If one person maintains Calculator inputs and another approves Year Goals, define that handoff clearly so the approved number does not drift away from the model that produced it.

If it starts drifting

  • If the yearly number looks wrong, start with the Calculator tab and inspect Business Budget, Personal Budget, Target Profit, tax rate, and default margin before debating the final target.
  • If At A Glance shows a number the team did not expect, check whether the relevant year was actually approved. An unapproved year falls back to the live calculator result.
  • If the business keeps editing the calculator but operations needs a stable target, approve the Year Goal and treat future changes as deliberate replanning rather than casual adjustments.
  • If the team says the goal is unrealistic, compare the Yearly Goal Total with actual selling capacity and pricing posture before pushing the pressure into projects.
  • If different people quote different yearly numbers in meetings, the problem is usually not math. It is that the workspace has not aligned on one approved Year Goal.