🗒️ Gross Margin Cheat Sheet
Hospitals, VMS platforms, and finance teams speak in gross margin, not markup, and the math is different: a bill rate for a target margin is pay DIVIDED by (1 minus the margin), not a multiply. This is the workbook's gross margin cheat sheet: pay rates from $12 to $50 with the bill rate needed at 28% and 35% margin and the hourly profit at each, plus a live row for your exact pay rate. When a contract says 'we require 28% margin,' read your answer straight off the grid.
Your quick quote
The gross margin companion to the markup sheet: when a client or VMS speaks in target margin instead of markup, read your bill rate straight off this grid. Enter your exact pay rate for a precise row.
Any rate, including cents. The table below covers $12 to $50 in $1 steps.
Estimates for planning, not financial or legal advice. The numbers are illustrations built from your inputs; your market, your state, and your carrier decide the real ones.
Does this resonate?
Speak the client's language, keep your margin.
The platform's staffing roadmap gets you into the rooms where margin language is spoken: VMS registrations, facility contracts, and the pricing calls this sheet was made for.
Build my launch plan free →Good questions about this math
Why 28% and 35% specifically?
They bracket the workbook's guidance for local staffing: 25% to 35% gross margin before burden, with 28% the number VMS contracts most often require. The $20 pay row needs $27.78 at 28% and $30.77 at 35%.
Why can't I just add 28% markup instead?
Because margin divides by the bill rate. $20 plus 28% markup is $25.60, but $25.60 only carries a 21.9% margin. To hold 28% you need $20 / 0.72 = $27.78. Quoting the markup number when the client means margin silently gives away profit on every hour.
Are these profits before or after burden?
Before. The profit columns show bill minus pay. Your real keep subtracts employer burden, which the Burden Builder calculates; a 28% margin with a 22% burden is a much thinner deal than it looks.
Can I get a printable version?
Yes. The $27 one-time unlock includes the standalone Gross Margin Cheat Sheet Excel workbook, made to print and keep at your desk, plus the START HERE guide tab.
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