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Enterprise Operations
Margin Protection

Protect Margins & Measure Effective Hourly Rates on Fixed-Fee Work

Fixed-price projects can be highly profitable—or disastrously unprofitable. Track actual labor hours spent against contract fees to determine your real effective hourly rate.

Protect Project Margins
The Core Operational Challenge

The Hidden Trap of Fixed-Fee Client Contracts

Without tracking hours on fixed-price projects, firms have no way of knowing whether a $10,000 project earned $150/hr or $25/hr after factoring in endless client revision rounds.

Unmeasured Labor Cost
Firms celebrate winning a fixed-fee contract without knowing whether it was actually profitable.
Endless Revision Cycles
Clients request multiple revisions that inflate project hours well beyond initial estimates.
Inaccurate Future Quotes
Basing future quotes on guesswork rather than historical labor data leads to underbidding.
Engineered Execution

How TimeAxis Solves This Workflow Step-by-Step

1

Log All Fixed-Fee Time

Team logs every minute spent on fixed-price milestones with the same discipline as hourly work.

TimeAxis Tool: Project Timecards
2

Monitor Budget Ceilings

Compare cumulative logged hours against the implied hour budget of the fixed contract price.

TimeAxis Tool: Project Hour Caps
3

Calculate Effective Rate

Divide the total fixed fee by actual hours logged to compute the real effective hourly return.

TimeAxis Tool: Financial Reporting
Measurable Impact

Quantifiable Results for Teams

100%
Profitability Truth
Know exact labor costs on every fixed-fee project
25%
Margin Recovery
By curbing unbilled revision scope creep
Accurate
Future Bidding
Quote future projects using real historical data

Recommended Fixed-Fee Setup

Configuration to track fixed-price contract profitability accurately.

Budget Hour Allocation
Convert the fixed contract price into an hour cap based on target billable rate (e.g. $10k @ $125/hr = 80 hrs).
Milestone Task Breakdown
Create separate tasks for each contractual deliverable milestone.

Streamline This Workflow for Your Team

Set up projects, define rates, and invite members in under 3 minutes. Zero credit card required to get started.

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Frequently Asked Questions

To know whether the project made or lost money, and to calculate your effective hourly rate for future quoting accuracy.

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