# Calculate the units an offer must cover without forecasting the sales

Original constructed teaching cases with complete context. No real financial records, sponsorships, contracts, people, interviews, tests, preferences or payments.

Define one offer unit, one period and consistent net-receipt and variable-cost assumptions. Subtract unit variable cost from net receipts, then divide the fixed cost basis by a positive contribution and round up to whole units. Unknown costs, nonpositive contribution, limited capacity and uncertain demand prevent a simple threshold from proving viability, profit or actual attributed customers.

## Define the unit and money basis first

A bounded offer might be one delivered worksheet review with a specified output and completion condition. A lead, meeting, order, delivered service and paid nonrefunded order are different units. Decide which unit the receipts and costs describe before putting them in the same calculation.

Use one currency and period, state the actual treatment of taxes, payment fees, refunds and fulfillment costs, and keep unknown amounts blank. This guide supplies no tax rate or universal net-revenue rule. The constructed EUR scenarios assume those basis choices are already consistent; they do not verify them.

## Use a positive contribution and one fixed-cost basis

The SBA’s calculator uses fixed costs divided by price minus variable unit cost. Here the teaching version uses declared net receipts instead of an unspecified gross selling price. Contribution per unit is assumed net receipts minus variable cash cost. The fixed cash field must exclude those per-unit costs; adding them there and subtracting them again would change the question.

Only use the simple division when contribution is positive and the constant-unit assumptions are appropriate. Zero or negative contribution does not become a negative sales target. Capacity steps, mixed offers, changing fees, refunds and additional overhead may need a different model. A break-even calculation does not prove the offer is viable or its future volume exists.

## Check both sides of the constructed threshold

Assume 50 EUR net receipts and 15 EUR variable cash cost per completed unit: contribution is 35 EUR. Covering 20 EUR fixed cash outlay requires one whole unit under that model. If six hours at an assumed 30 EUR per hour are included once, the combined 200 EUR scenario requires six units. These are different declared cost bases, not competing claims about actual profit.

Check the boundary rather than only the rounded headline: five units contribute 175 EUR, leaving 25 EUR below 200; six contribute 210 EUR, leaving 10 EUR above it. The local tool uses integer cents for entered amounts to avoid an extra unit from 0.30/0.10 floating-point noise. None of the arithmetic establishes that those units will sell.

| Units | Contribution EUR | Less20 cash | Less200 combined |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 0 | 0 | -20 | -200 |
| 1 | 35 | 15 | -165 |
| 5 | 175 | 155 | -25 |
| 6 | 210 | 190 | 10 |

## Resolve three offer decisions

B1 — Constructed capacity hold: the combined threshold is six units, but declared available delivery capacity is four. Decision: do not call the offer covered at current capacity; review scope, capacity or cost assumptions honestly. Outcome: an infeasible planning scenario, not authority to invent six customers or silently omit the time basis.

B2 — Constructed nonpositive contribution: assumed receipts fall to 15 EUR while variable unit cost stays 15 EUR. Decision: hold the threshold calculation; another unit adds no contribution toward positive fixed costs. Outcome: no finite threshold from this formula, not zero units or a guaranteed turnaround after publishing more posts.

B3 — Constructed missing cost: receipts are entered but fulfillment cost is unknown. Decision: show cost information that is known and leave contribution and unit threshold unresolved. Outcome: no zero-filled fulfillment assumption, forecast of sales or conversion of a Service Page enquiry into a paid order.

## Change assumptions without hiding the old scenario

Write a separate scenario when costs, receipts or capacity change, and keep the previous version. With 200 EUR fixed basis and 25 EUR contribution, eight units are needed; that is arithmetic conditional on another entered assumption. Do not present a lower modeled threshold as evidence that demand increased or that a price change caused better outcomes.

After real authorized activity, reconcile actual delivered/paid/refunded units and their costs from appropriate sources. Keep attributed outcomes separate from the counterfactual question of whether the content caused them. This worksheet does not read payment records or conduct a reader study.

## Keep a conditional offer decision

The private record keeps offer/unit, period/currency, net/fee/refund basis, fixed versus variable costs, time duplication review, capacity, demand evidence and the decision to proceed, revise or hold. A complete response may be “cannot calculate yet.” The text export identifies entered assumptions and unresolved values rather than certifying accounts.

The SBA formula and scope were read on 1 November 2026. Examples are invented and the arithmetic is reproducible offline. No price was recommended, subscription purchased, customer measured or payment reconciled. The number of units covering a chosen planning basis is not business value established for Wrapped.li or its competitors.

## Primary sources

- [SBA: Break-even point calculator](https://www.sba.gov/counseling/plan-your-business/break-even-point-calculator/)
- [SBA: Fixed, mixed and period-based cost guidance](https://www.sba.gov/counseling/plan-your-business/)