Check whether a client project is making money
A profitability check comparing budget to actual hours, my effective hourly rate, where time leaked, and what to fix now.
The prompt
Help me work out whether a client project is profitable.
Fee structure: [fixed fee / retainer / hourly with a cap, and the amount]
Budgeted hours by phase or task: [ESTIMATES]
Actual hours logged so far by phase or task: [ACTUALS]
Other costs: [subcontractors, software, travel]
My target hourly rate or margin: [TARGET]
How much is left to do: [REMAINING WORK]
Analyze:
1. Effective hourly rate so far and projected at completion, showing the math.
2. Budget vs. actual by phase, with the biggest overruns highlighted.
3. Likely causes of overruns: unpaid scope creep, extra revision rounds, meetings, my own underestimate, or client delays. Separate what was in my control from what wasn't.
4. Projected final margin under a best, likely, and worst case for the remaining work.
5. Actions for this project: what to raise as a change request, what to streamline, and what to stop doing for free.
6. Lessons for pricing the next similar project: a revised estimate per phase.
Use only the numbers I provide. If key data is missing (e.g. untracked time), say how that affects the result instead of guessing.
Highlighted [brackets] are blanks to replace with your own details.
Fill in the blanks and use this promptMore Finance & Accounting prompts
What to fill in
- fixed fee / retainer / hourly with a cap, and the amount
- ESTIMATES
- ACTUALS
- subcontractors, software, travel
- TARGET
- REMAINING WORK
How this prompt is built
This prompt follows the RTF structure (Role, Task, Format). RTF tells the model who to be, what to do and what shape the answer should take. It is the quickest structure that still gives noticeably better results than a bare request.
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