Is my newest hire adding margin, or absorbing it?
Updated 16 October 2026
Most owners answer this from feel, because the books are not set up to answer it any other way.
Compare fully loaded cost against the revenue or capacity genuinely attributable to the role, over a ramp period you set in advance. Payroll tracked by function as a percentage of revenue.
The four places to look
Start with the fully loaded cost, not the salary
Payroll taxes, benefits, insurance, software seats, equipment, and the time other people spend on onboarding are all part of the cost. Fully loaded, a hire typically runs well above base salary, and comparing revenue against base alone flatters every hire you make.
Attribute the revenue honestly
For a billable role, utilization and realized rate tell you directly. For a role that supports revenue, the honest measure is capacity created: what the team could not do before and can now. If nothing changed, that is the answer.
Expect a lag, and decide its length in advance
Almost no hire pays for itself immediately. The useful discipline is deciding, before you hire, how long the ramp should be and what has to be true at the end of it. Without that, a hire is never evaluated, it just becomes permanent.
Watch payroll as a percentage of revenue, by function
One combined payroll figure tells you nothing. Split by function (delivery, sales, admin) and tracked against revenue, it shows whether the hire moved the ratio in the direction you expected.
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What happens next
Reading about it and having it done are different things. Here is exactly what happens if you want the second one.
- The call takes thirty minutesYou describe the business and where the numbers are letting you down. We give you an expert view of your situation, and what we would start with. There is no pitch deck.
- We look at the fileYou give us read access to the books as they are. We come back with what is wrong, what it will take to fix, and whether the answer is bookkeeping, controller work, or something else.
- We send a written scope and a priceIt lists what we do each month, what you get, the date it lands and the fee. We agree it before anything starts, and it does not change unless you agree.
- We take over the books and close the first monthWe set up access and systems and enter the opening balances. The first close lands on the date in the scope, and every one after it does too.