Costs & profit

Selling well is not the same as making money

A departure can sell out and still lose money once the driver, the hotel, the park fees, the guide and the agent’s commission are paid. Most operators only find out at the end of the year, if at all. Costs & profit records what each departure costs and sets it against what it earned, so you can see the profit, margin and break-even of every departure and every tour.

Revenue counts the bookings that go ahead, net of refunds. Tax collected is treated as owed to the tax office, not earned, so revenue is what you kept before tax. From that, Tourtify subtracts the departure’s costs, guide pay, agent commission and the payment provider’s fee on online payments.

Default costs per tour, adjusted per departure

You don’t re-enter costs for every date. Each tour option has default costs, such as “Driver 120 per departure” or “Park fee 30 per traveller”, and they count live on each of its departures. Costs can be per departure, per traveller or per booking, in categories such as accommodation, transport, guide, activity, fee and meals, and linked to a supplier. A departure can override a default, remove it or add its own lines, for example an extra night when a road closes.

Guide pay comes from the Tour guides plugin and agent commission from the Agents plugin, so neither is counted twice or forgotten. The payment provider fee is a percentage you set (2.9 by default) and applies to online payments only; payments your team records by hand are not charged.

Break-even, worked out for you

Break-even is the number of travellers a departure needs to cover its fixed costs, at that departure’s average price per traveller after per-traveller costs, commission and fees. Take a day trip with a driver and vehicle costing 250 per departure and an entry fee of 20 per traveller, selling at 80 per traveller and paid online with a 2.9% provider fee. Each traveller contributes a little under 58, so four travellers cover about 231 and the departure breaks even at five. The fifth seat is when that date starts making money.

You set what a healthy margin means for your business, 25% by default. Departures below it show in amber and loss-making ones in red, so the weak dates stand out in the report before you schedule the same pattern again next season.

Setting up Costs & profit

1. 1Switch on Costs & profit. Turn the plugin on and set your payment provider fee and healthy margin.
2. 2Add default costs to each tour option. Enter what every departure, traveller or booking costs, with its category and supplier.
3. 3Adjust individual departures. Override, remove or add cost lines where a date differs from the default.
4. 4Connect guide pay and commission. With the Tour guides and Agents plugins on, their amounts are counted automatically.
5. 5Review the report. Sort by margin to find departures below your target and tours that never break even.