Salons and sole traders

Colour Cost & Profit Calculator

You measure your colour in grams. Start measuring what those grams cost.

Bleach, developer, gloss, toners and treatments. Enter what you pay your supplier, how much you mix and what you charge. Find out what your colour services really cost before wages, super and rent eat into the rest.

  • What the colour in one appointment costs: every bowl, every gram of colour, lightener, toner and developer, from what you pay and the pack size
  • How much of the price goes on product, what is left after it and the card fee, and the exact figure to type into your menu pricing
  • What the whole service makes once time, wages with super and leave on top, consumables, wastage and running costs are in, and the price that makes your target margin
  • Saved recipes for short, long and thick hair, with what each cost the day you saved it beside what it costs at today's prices

Secure checkout by StripeYour access link by email, usually in a minuteBuy once, no subscription

Built by a working salon owner, for salon owners

Buy onceNo subscriptionAustralian rates built inAbout 10 minutes

A made-up exampleColour cost, one appointment$20.10

See how it gets there

Pop your email in and the full sample opens: the real tool on the same made-up numbers, plus a rough Try it you can play with.

Your email opens the sample. I never sell your address or give it to anyone for their own marketing.

How it works

Your numbers in. A decision out.

  1. Buy it

    Pay once by card. The tool opens straight away on the device you paid on, and a link for your other devices lands in your inbox.

  2. Type in your numbers

    It opens with sample numbers so you can see how it works. Type over them with yours.

  3. Read the answer

    Green, amber or red against targets you can change, with what to do about it in plain English.

  4. Run it again

    Rent goes up, the award rates move on 1 July, you hire. Open it and re-run, as often as you like.

Have these handy

What you'll need

  • What you pay for each product and the pack size, from a supplier invoice or price list, excluding or including GST
  • How much went in each bowl, in grams or ml, and your mixing ratios
  • What you charge for the service
  • For full profit: how long it takes and how the stylist is paid

Good guesses are fine for a first run. You can tighten them later and the answer updates as you type.

Built for here

Australian rules, already in

  • GST at 10% worked in for you, with the $75,000 registration line
  • This year's award rates, super, income tax and the Medicare levy, wherever the tool needs them
  • Annual leave and leave loading, personal leave, public holidays by state and weekend penalty rates counted in any wage it works out
  • Card fees counted on what clients pay

When a rate changes, we update it once and every buyer gets it. See the rates we use.

Pay once, no subscription

$99, once.

No subscription. No course to sit through. Your numbers stay in your own browser and are never sent to us.

Secure checkout by StripeYour access link by email, usually in a minuteBuy once, no subscription

Does it work on my phone?
Yes. It runs in your browser on a phone, tablet or laptop, with nothing to install. Your numbers are saved on that device, so they're there next time you open it.
Do I have to keep paying?
No. You pay once. No subscription, no renewal, and when Australian rates change we update the tool for you. Your tools keep working for as long as we run them online. If we ever close the site or retire a tool, we'll email you at least 60 days first, and within 24 months of your purchase you get a refund for the unused months (or, if we retire just that tool, another of the same price or more if you'd rather). See the terms. The device you buy on stays signed in for six months; after that, enter your email on My tools and a fresh link arrives in seconds. You never buy a tool twice.
What if I don't know a figure?
It opens with sample numbers, so type over the ones you know and leave the rest for now. A good guess is fine for a first run. The answer updates as you type, so tighten the guesses whenever you find the real figures.
Better together

Solo Kit

Everything a stylist working for themselves needs: your real hourly rate, a menu priced to earn it, a price rise that pays, tax sorted, and colour costed to the gram.

Take-Home Hourly Rate + Menu Pricing + Price Rise + GST and Tax Set-Aside + Colour Cost.

$249AUD
Bought one at a time: $335.