Payroll & Finance

Margin Reports

Understand your margins at a glance with TempClock's Margin Report. See pay costs vs charge revenue, identify low-margin clients, and export the data for analysis.

5 min read

Before You Start

What you need to run margin reports.

Before you start

  • Access to the TempClock manage portal (/manage)
  • Admin role (margin reports are restricted to admins only)
  • Rate rules configured with both pay rates and charge rates
  • Approved timesheet entries for the period you want to analyse
Important

Margin reports are one of the most commercially sensitive areas of TempClock. Only admin users can access them, and they are never visible to client portal users. More on this below.

What Is Margin?

The basics of margin in a temp agency context.

Your margin is the difference between what you charge the client and what you pay the worker. It is your profit on every hour worked.

Margin Explained
Charge Rate
£15.50
billed to client
Pay Rate
£11.44
paid to worker
=
Margin
£4.06
your profit
Margin % = (Margin ÷ Charge Rate) × 100 = 26.2%

The margin percentage tells you how much of the charge rate is actual profit. A higher percentage means you are keeping more of each pound you bill.

Pay Cost

The total amount you pay all workers for the selected period

Charge Revenue

The total amount you can bill clients for the same period

Total Margin

Charge Revenue minus Pay Cost = your total profit

Average Margin %

The overall margin as a percentage of charge revenue

Open the manage portal

Log in to your TempClock manage portal with an admin account.

Go to Reports

In the sidebar, click Reports to expand the reports section.

Click "Margin Report"

Under Reports, click Margin Report. This opens the margin analysis page with summary cards, a detailed table, and a chart.

Summary Cards

The big-picture numbers at the top.

At the top of the Margin Report page, four summary cards give you an instant overview:

Margin Summary Cards
Total Pay Cost
£12,408.75
Total Charge Revenue
£16,852.50
Total Margin
£4,443.75
Avg Margin %
26.4%
Total Pay Cost

What you paid all workers in the period (their wages)

Total Charge Revenue

What you can bill clients for all hours in the period

Total Margin

The difference — your gross profit

Avg Margin %

Overall margin as a percentage of charge revenue

The Margin Table

Detailed margin breakdown per client, location, or worker.

Below the summary cards is the margin table. It breaks down the numbers by client (and optionally by location or worker) so you can see exactly where your margins are strong and where they need attention.

Margin Table
Client / Location Hours Pay Cost Charge Revenue Margin Margin %
Acme Corp
Birmingham Warehouse
420.5h £5,286.30 £7,157.50 £1,871.20 26.1%
Beta Logistics
Manchester Distribution
310.0h £4,185.00 £5,580.00 £1,395.00 25.0%
Delta Manufacturing
Leeds Factory
187.0h £2,337.50 £2,525.00 £187.50 7.4%
Gamma Services
London Office
70.0h £1,190.00 £1,120.00 −£70.00 −6.3%

Colour Coding

Instantly spot healthy, low, and negative margins.

The margin percentage column uses colour coding to help you spot problems at a glance:

Green (10%+)

Healthy — this client/location is profitable

Amber (0% – 10%)

Low Margin — barely covering costs, review your rates

Red (below 0%)

Negative — you are losing money on this client

If you see amber or red margins, it usually means one of these things:

Pay rate too high — the worker's wage is too close to (or exceeds) the charge rate
Charge rate too low — the client is not being billed enough for the work
Overtime impact — overtime multipliers are pushing pay costs above the charge rate
Wrong rate rule — the wrong rule may be applying to certain shifts
Important

A negative margin means you are paying the worker more than you are billing the client. This needs immediate attention — check your rate rules and consider renegotiating rates with the client.

Margin by Client Chart

A visual breakdown of margin across your client base.

Below the table, a bar chart shows the margin for each client side by side. This makes it easy to compare performance across your client portfolio at a glance.

Margin by Client Chart
Margin by Client
Acme Corp
£1,871
Beta Logistics
£1,395
Delta Mfg
£188
Gamma Services
−£70
Tip

Hover over any bar in the chart to see the exact margin amount and percentage. Click on a client's bar to filter the table below to show just that client's data.

Exporting the Margin Report

Download the data for further analysis.

Set your filters

Use the date range, client, and location filters to show the data you want to export.

Click "Export CSV"

Click the Export CSV button at the top-right of the page. A CSV file will be downloaded containing all the data from the margin table.

Open in a spreadsheet

Open the file in Excel or Google Sheets for further analysis. You can use it to create custom charts, pivot tables, or share specific data with your management team.

Note

The margin CSV includes all columns from the table: client, location, hours, pay cost, charge revenue, margin amount, and margin percentage. It is a great starting point for management reporting.

Confidentiality

Margin data is strictly private.

Margin reports contain some of the most commercially sensitive data in your agency. TempClock takes this seriously:

Admin-only access — only users with the Admin role can view margin reports
Client portal excluded — client portal users can never see pay rates, margins, or this report
Manager restrictions — even managers cannot see margin reports unless specifically granted admin access
No margin data in client exports — Sage, Xero, and payroll exports sent to clients do not include pay rates
Important

Your pay rates are confidential. Clients see charge rates (what you bill them) but never see what you pay your workers. This boundary is enforced at the system level and cannot be overridden by portal settings.

Good to know

Review your margin report at least once a month. It is the fastest way to spot clients where you are undercharging or jobs where pay rates have crept up beyond what was agreed.

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