Do You Really Know Your Profit?

Knowing your numbers isn’t just about bookkeeping — it’s about making better decisions today so you still have profit tomorrow.

But here’s the tricky part: what even counts as profit? Is it what’s left after flowers and vases? Is it what’s left after you pay yourself? Should your business still show profit after that?

These questions can feel confusing, but they matter. The answer depends on what costs you choose to include. That’s why FlowerBuddy is adding a new way to help you see not just your gross profit, but also what’s left after overhead.

FlowerBuddy isn’t accounting software. We don’t replace your bookkeeper or QuickBooks. What we do is help you take numbers from your financials and make them useful in your day-to-day pricing and planning. We don’t track your overhead automatically — you’ll bring in your own estimates as percentages of sales — and we’ll show you how they affect profitability at the recipe and event level.

Until now, FlowerBuddy recipes showed you gross profit — your price minus flowers, hard goods, and the time to build an arrangement.

That’s powerful, but it leaves out big parts of your business. Now, with overhead percentages, you can go a step further. You’ll see not just what’s left after direct costs, but what’s left once you account for the costs of running your shop.

Here are the overhead categories we’ve added and how to think about them.

Facilities Overhead %

This covers rent, utilities, and insurance — the cost of keeping your shop running. To calculate it, take last year’s facility costs and divide by your total pre-tax sales. For example, $24,000 rent and utilities divided by $240,000 in sales gives you 10%. Without including this, your recipes assume your workspace is free.

Accountants sometimes calculate this based on labor hours or square footage. Those methods work too, but for florists, using a percent of revenue is usually the simplest and most practical.

Owner’s Labor %

Even if you don’t cut yourself a paycheck, your time is a real cost. To find this number, take what you actually paid yourself (or what you should have paid yourself) and divide by pre-tax sales. For example, if you paid yourself $100,000 and sales were $1,000,000, then your owner’s labor percent is 10%.

This number varies a lot across businesses. A floral studio operating out of a garage may keep overheads and owner’s pay quite low, while a multi-site retail florist with higher expenses and more staff may need a very different percentage. That’s normal.

Indirect Labor %

Direct labor — the time it takes to build an arrangement — is already captured in FlowerBuddy recipes. Indirect labor is everything else: delivery drivers, assistants prepping buckets, admin staff, etc.

To calculate this, take all your labor costs for the year and subtract the direct labor you already account for in recipes and the owners pay calculated above. Divide what’s left by your total sales. For example, if your total labor was $250,000 and direct labor was $180,000, you’re left with $70,000 of indirect labor. Divide by $1,000,000 in pre-tax sales, and that’s 7%.

In accounting terms, this is called indirect labor overhead. In FlowerBuddy, it’s simply a percent of revenue that helps you make sure these hidden costs aren’t overlooked.

General Overhead %

This is the catch-all for everything else that keeps your business running — marketing, software, accountant fees, office supplies, professional services. To calculate it, start with your total expenses, subtract out cost of goods, direct labor, facilities, owner’s pay, and indirect labor. Divide what’s left by your sales. For example, if you’re left with $100,000 out of $1,000,000 in pre-tax sales, your general overhead percent is 10%.

Don't Panic

If all of this feels like a lot, take a deep breath. These numbers don’t have to be perfect — and they never will be. Getting even a ballpark estimate of your overhead is already a huge step forward compared to ignoring it altogether. What matters isn’t whether you can calculate every penny with surgical precision, but whether you have visibility into the forces shaping your profit. FlowerBuddy is here to give you that visibility so you can make smarter choices with confidence. Think of it less as accounting homework and more as a tool that empowers you to protect your business, your time, and your future.

Why This Matters

Every florist’s overhead will look different. Cost of goods and direct labor tend to be comparable across businesses, but overhead percentages can swing widely. That’s why entering your own numbers matters — they reflect your business.

By putting these percentages into FlowerBuddy, your recipes and events will show the true costs behind your work. That means you can spot unprofitable offerings before you sell them, see how waste or extra hours affect your bottom line, and make confident decisions about what to keep or cut from your product lineup.

Overhead isn’t about complicating your books. It’s about making your numbers useful, so you can plan better, price smarter, and protect your profit.