See what each project made after it cost you.

ReckonOS tracks the Cost of Execution on every project: your team’s hours at their internal cost rate, contractor fees, and software or other expenses filed to the project. Set against what you billed, that gives each project’s true margin while the work is still running.

Revenue is not margin.

Cost of Execution (CoE)
Cost of Execution (CoE) is everything it costs you to deliver a project: the hours your team spends valued at their labour rate, contractor fees, and the software and other expenses you file against that project. True margin is what you billed minus the Cost of Execution.

A project that bills well can still lose money once the hours and contractors are counted. ReckonOS shows that while you can still change the scope, the rate or the team, not after the year closes.

Brand refresh · Project 014 Worked example
Paid by your client
$12,500
Team hours (62 h at $55 cost)
−$3,410
Contractor
−$1,200
Software filed to project
−$190
Tax reserve estimate (28%)
−$3,500
Yours to spend $4,200
Sample numbers. You set the reserve rate between 20% and 35%; ReckonOS starts at 28%. The reserve is a calculation; the money stays in your own account. Estimates based on the rules for the United States as of November 2026. Check with your accountant. Sources: IRS Form 1040-ES (opens in a new tab); IRS Publication 505 (opens in a new tab).

What goes into the number.

Team hours

A live timer and timesheets per project. Billable hours are valued at the client rate; every hour, billable or not, is costed at the person’s internal rate.

Contractors

Record contractor costs against the project they worked on, alongside the W-9 and 1099-NEC records US agencies need.

Software and expenses

File a scanned receipt or a manual cost to a project, and it counts toward that project’s Cost of Execution.

Margin questions

What is Cost of Execution?

Cost of Execution (CoE) is everything it costs you to deliver a project: the hours your team spends valued at their labour rate, contractor fees, and the software and other expenses you file against that project. True margin is what you billed minus the Cost of Execution.

How does ReckonOS value my team’s time?

Each person has an internal cost rate. When they log time, ReckonOS stores that rate with the entry, so changing a rate later does not rewrite the cost of work already done.

Which plans include true margin?

Cost of execution and project margin are on Pro and Studio. Starter tracks project revenue, time and expenses without the margin view.

Find your least profitable project this week.

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