A shop that charges $89 for a virus removal, $199 for a refurbished laptop, and $75 per seat for MSP sees one deposit in the bank and three different businesses in the ledger — and the deposit hides which one actually makes money.
Three Streams, Three Margins
Break-fix: One-time repair, often same-day, with parts and labor. Revenue is recognized on delivery. COGS is the part (screen, battery, SSD) at cost, and labor is the technician's time on that ticket. Break-fix margin is typically 45–60% before overhead, but utilization is spiky.
Refurbished sales: Used machines acquired via trade-in, wholesale, or customer drop-off that you refurbish. Inventory is the acquired machine at cost, plus parts and labor to refurbish, tracked per unit. A $120 acquisition + $45 in parts and 1.2 hours at $30 loaded = $201 cost. Sold at $299, margin is $98, 33%. Without per-unit costing, the shop that buys a lot of $60 trade-ins and refurbs them "because it's cheap" doesn't see the labor that makes it expensive.
MSP (managed services): Recurring per-seat support, often $75–$150 per endpoint per month, billed monthly as deferred revenue recognized ratably. MSP margin is high (70%+) when utilization is stable, but onboarding a new 10-seat client requires setup hours that must be deferred, not expensed all in month one.
Data recovery: A $600–$1,500 service with a high close rate and low COGS when successful, but a success fee that is often no-data-no-fee. Track recovery revenue separately; its margin subsidizes the front counter's low-margin screen repairs, and the blended margin hides both.
