Margin & markup calculator
From buying price to selling price with VAT handled properly. Margin and markup are different numbers - this shows both, and the profit per unit.
Margin is not markup
Margin % = (selling price excl. VAT - buying price) / selling price excl. VAT x 100Markup % = (selling price excl. VAT - buying price) / buying price x 100Selling price excl. VAT = selling price incl. VAT / (1 + VAT rate) Margin looks at profit from the selling side; markup looks at it from the buying side. A product bought at 10 and sold at 15 excl. VAT has a 33% margin but a 50% markup. Mixing the two up is one of the most expensive habits in retail pricing.
VAT is never your money. Calculate margin on prices excluding VAT, always - a 21% VAT shelf price hides a fifth of itself.
Which VAT rate applies to my products?
In the Netherlands most goods carry 21%; groceries and some other categories carry 9%. When in doubt, check the Belastingdienst tables for your category - and let your till apply the rate per product, not per receipt.
What is a healthy margin in retail?
It differs per sector: food retail often works on thin margins with high volume, while specialty non-food can run 50% and higher. The more useful question is whether the margin covers your costs per unit sold - rent, staff, waste - with something left.
Should discounts come from margin or markup?
Always think in margin. A 10% discount on the shelf price costs far more than 10% of your profit: at a 33% margin, a 10% price cut removes almost a third of the profit on that sale.
Margins, live per product
VFusion Retail computes margin per product and per sale from real buying prices - and Adam AI flags the ones that quietly slipped.
Explore the platform