Comparison
MarginLens vs a spreadsheet
Profit margin analysis for QuickBooks by product, customer, and segment — true margins computed straight from your ledger.
Margin analysis by customer or product usually means exporting the P&L, allocating costs by hand in a pivot table, and hoping the allocation logic survives to next month. It rarely does.
Where the spreadsheet breaks down
- You know the top-line number but not which customers actually make money.
- Margin erosion hides inside a blended average.
- Pricing and mix decisions are made on gut feel.
| Spreadsheet | MarginLens | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost allocation | Rebuilt in a pivot each period | Applied consistently from the ledger |
| Granularity | Blended into one company-wide number | By product, customer, and segment |
| Loss-makers | Hidden inside the average | Surfaced explicitly |
| Refresh | Manual rebuild every month | Recomputed as the books change |
| Consistency | Allocation logic drifts over time | Same method applied every period |
What you get with MarginLens
- Profitability ranked by product, customer, and segment.
- The low-margin work that quietly drains the business, surfaced.
- Pricing and mix decisions grounded in real contribution.
A worked example
A blended 34% gross margin can hide a segment running at 11% and another at 52%. A spreadsheet buries that in the average; margin analysis by segment shows you exactly which work to reprice or drop — often a five-figure swing in annual contribution.
Questions
- Is MarginLens better than a spreadsheet?
- A spreadsheet is flexible, but it has to be rebuilt every period and breaks easily. MarginLens connects to QuickBooks Online and stays current automatically, which removes the manual rebuild and the formula risk.
- Can I keep using my spreadsheet too?
- Yes. Many teams start with MarginLens for the live view and keep a spreadsheet for one-off analysis. MarginLens reads from QuickBooks and does not change your books.
- How fast can I switch?
- Connect QuickBooks Online and MarginLens produces results in minutes, so there is no long migration off your spreadsheet.
- How does MarginLens know my costs by product or customer?
- It reads the revenue and cost detail already in QuickBooks Online and applies a consistent allocation, so margins are computed from your real ledger rather than a hand-built pivot.
- Can it show which customers lose money?
- Yes — profitability is ranked by product, customer, and segment, so low- and negative-margin work stops hiding inside the blended average.
- Do I have to re-tag everything in QuickBooks?
- No. MarginLens works from the structure already in your books; the cleaner your class/customer tagging, the finer the breakdown, but it works with what you have.
Looking for the category overview? See the best QuickBooks profitability tool.