Salon service profitability calculator.
Enter service price, product cost, stylist commission rate, and how long the service takes. See real profit per service — after commission, product, and the chair-hour cost of the time it takes.
Per service
Defaults work for most small shops in the EU.
Profit per service
How this calculator works (the same formula nouz uses)
Most owners judge a service by its price. But a €75 colour never puts €75 in your pocket. After the stylist's commission, the product it burned, and the chair-hours it occupied, real profit is usually a fraction of the headline. This calculator strips all three out so you can see what each service actually earns — and, crucially, what it earns per hour of chair time, which is your real scarce resource.
Profit per service = (price ÷ (1 + VAT)) − stylist commission − product cost − (service hours × chair-hour cost)
A worked example
Using the defaults: a €75 service taking 60 minutes, with €6 of product, a 45% commission, a €15 chair-hour cost, and 20% VAT. First, strip VAT: 75 ÷ 1.20 = €62.50 net price. Commission is 62.50 × 45% = €28.13. Product is €6.00. The service takes one hour, so chair-hour cost is 15 × 1 = €15.00. Profit is 62.50 − 28.13 − 6.00 − 15.00 = €13.38, which at one hour is also €13.38 per hour. The €75 sign became a €13.38 reality.
What a healthy number looks like
As a rule of thumb, real profit per service tends to land at 30–50% of the net price once commission, product, and chair-hour cost are removed. In the example above €13.38 on a €62.50 net price is about 21% — below the comfortable band, a hint that the commission or the time cost is heavy for this price point. What matters most is profit per hour, because the chair is finite:
- Stars: high profit per hour — promote and protect these slots.
- Filler: mid profit per hour — fine between stars.
- Losers: low or negative per hour — raise the price or stop offering it.
A service earning €30 in 30 minutes (€60/hour) beats one earning €40 in 60 minutes (€40/hour), even though the second looks bigger on the menu. When two stylists bill the same weekly total, the one whose mix leans on high per-hour services is quietly the more profitable hire, even if their headline revenue is identical.
Common mistakes
- Forgetting product cost. Colour, foils, and treatments quietly eat margin. A "high-ticket" colour with €20 of product can earn less than a dry cut.
- Ignoring the chair-hour. A long service ties up capacity you could have sold twice. Time is a cost even when no cash leaves the till.
- Leaving VAT in the price. The tax was never yours. Comparing gross prices to net costs overstates every margin.
- Keeping a loser "because a regular always books it." Loyalty is real, but a service that loses money every visit is a subsidy you may not have chosen on purpose.
- Averaging the whole menu. A blended "we make about 40%" hides the losers behind the stars. The point of this calculator is to price each service on its own footing, not the salon as a lump.
When to use it — and what's next
Run your top ten services through this before your next price review or menu refresh. The three buckets — stars, filler, losers — usually appear within minutes, and most salons find one or two losers hiding in plain sight. Once you have priced the menu deliberately, the next step is watching whether the real profit shows up day to day. See how nouz turns each day's services into a live P&L on the interactive demo, then decide which services to push.
Common questions
Why does a 75 euro service not mean I made 75 euros?
After stripping VAT, paying commission, covering product, and charging the chair-hours the service occupied, real profit is usually only 30 to 50 percent of the net price. On the default 75 euro, 60-minute service the profit works out to about 13.38 euros. The sign price and the pocket price are very different numbers.
What is chair-hour cost and where do I get it?
Chair-hour cost is your monthly fixed costs, such as rent, salaries, software, and insurance, divided across your total chair-hours per month. It is what one hour of chair time costs you in overhead. A service taking 90 minutes carries 1.5 times that rate, so longer services are penalised for the capacity they consume.
Why does profit per hour matter more than profit per service?
The chair is your finite resource, so what matters is what each hour of it earns. A service making 30 euros in 30 minutes returns 60 euros per hour, beating one making 40 euros in a full hour. Book your chairs with what earns most per hour, not what looks biggest on the menu.
Why is VAT removed before the profit is worked out?
The VAT portion of the price was never your money; it is owed back to the state. The default 20 percent rate is stripped first, so a 75 euro service becomes 62.50 euros of real revenue. Leaving VAT in would overstate the margin on every service and flatter the whole menu.
How do I know which services to drop or reprice?
Run your top ten services and sort by profit per hour. Stars earn high per hour and deserve promotion, filler is acceptable, and losers earn little or nothing per hour. For losers, raise the price or stop offering the service. Most salons find one or two losers they had never questioned.
Does this replace tracking my actual daily profit?
No. This calculator prices individual services in isolation, assuming your inputs are accurate. Real days include no-shows, discounts, retail, and quiet afternoons. Use it to set your menu deliberately, then track what actually lands each day in a daily P&L so you can see whether the modelled profit is showing up in reality.