Fixed costs are the bills that don't change with how busy you are — rent, salaries, insurance, software subscriptions. Setting them up properly is what makes your daily EBIT honest. Most shops can build a complete fixed-cost list in 15 minutes, then never touch it again unless a rate changes.
01 The five fields
On Fixed Costs → + Add fixed cost:
- Name. "Rent", "Spotify subscription", "Bookkeeper". Make it readable.
- Amount. The number on the bill, gross (VAT included).
- Frequency. Daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly. See the next section.
- Start date. The first day this cost applies. Defaults to today.
- End date (optional). Leave blank for ongoing costs. Set a date if the cost has a known end.
02 Which frequency to pick
- Daily — rare. Some staff costs (per-diem casuals) work this way.
- Weekly — also rare. Some short-term equipment rentals.
- Monthly — the common case. Rent, base salaries, internet, insurance, software subscriptions, bookkeeper.
- Yearly — annual licences, accountant retainers paid yearly, business insurance, domain renewals.
Pick the one that matches the bill's real cadence — don't convert. If your accountant retainer is €1.200/year, pick yearly and type 1200. Don't divide by 12 and type 100 monthly. The yearly frequency tells nouz to divide by 365.25 for the daily slice, which is more accurate than the monthly divisor.
03 Your first list
A typical small café's fixed-cost list (you can copy this as a starting point):
A short list of seven costs is enough for week one. Add the long tail later.
04 Build the list incrementally
You don't have to add every fixed cost on day one. Start with the four biggest — rent, staff base, utilities, insurance. Those cover 80%+ of fixed-cost burden for most shops. Add the smaller ones (software subscriptions, annual licences, the bookkeeper retainer) over the first week as you remember them.
The cost of an incomplete list is that your daily EBIT looks slightly better than reality — you're missing a slice of cost. The cost of perfect-day-one-completion is that you delay starting. Lean toward starting.
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