What margin does that retainer really run?
Three inputs per client. An effective margin figure before the admin you never bill. No email required.
What you get
4 things that decide this
- 01An effective margin per retainer, from value, delivery hours and loaded cost.
- 02A ranked view across clients, so the quiet money-losers surface.
- 03It will not price your services. It shows which current clients are underwater.
- 04Reporting and admin hours count as delivery here, because your payroll counts them.
How it works
The Agency Delivery Margin Calculator takes three inputs per client: monthly retainer value, delivery hours spent, and the loaded hourly cost of the people delivering. The output is the margin that retainer actually runs, not the one the proposal promised.
Include the hours nobody bills: reporting, status calls, revisions and chasing approvals. Surveys of agency owners reported by eMarketer found 31% short on time for admin work, which is another way of saying admin eats delivery capacity. Counting it honestly is the whole exercise.
Run it across your top ten clients and rank them. Most agencies find one retainer subsidizing two others. What you do about it, automation, repricing or a white-label bench, is a separate decision the number makes easier.
- DeliveryThe work you sold
- ReportingHours nobody billed
- RevisionsRound three, unpriced
- AdminChasing approvals and assets
The margin gap lives in the three boxes after the first.
Operations platforms we run in production
Rank your retainers with an engineer
Bring three clients' numbers. The call is free, and if automation is not the answer we say so.
Questions, answered
01Is this a pitch to replace our team with automation?+
No. It is a measurement. Some agencies fix margin with automation, some with repricing, some by handing overflow builds to a white-label partner. The number comes first, the decision is yours.
02What counts as loaded hourly cost?+
Salary plus benefits, tools and overhead, divided by real working hours. Your accountant has this number, and a close estimate still beats guessing.
03Is anything stored?+
No. No email, no saved data. Client names never enter it.
