COST VS PROFIT
Are you actually making money on every job
or just hoping you are?
MaxCut shows you the real cost of every cut and what you will make on each job, before you start cutting. No more guesswork. No more nasty surprises at the end of a job.
THE PROBLEM
Why cost vs profit is so hard to get right
Manual costing is not just slow. It is full of gaps that quietly eat into your margin. Here is what most cabinet makers experience at some point.
I quote based on gut feel. I win jobs, but I'm never quite sure if I'm making money or just staying busy.
When material prices go up, I don't know what it's doing to my margins until I'm already committed to the job.
I use a spreadsheet, but I'm not confident it's capturing every cost. Small items like kerf and offcuts are adding up.
I've finished a job and made less than I expected. I still don't know exactly where the calculation went wrong.
These are not signs of a bad cabinet maker. They are the natural result of trying to do precise cost accounting with tools that were not built for it. The good news: it is a problem with a straightforward fix.
THE SOLUTION
How MaxCut closes the gap between your quote and your margin
MaxCut is not just a cut list tool. It tracks your costs, your selling price, and your profit on every single job, with real numbers pulled from your actual material library.
| The problem | How MaxCut handles it | What that means for you |
|---|---|---|
| Material prices change and your quote templates don't keep up | Update the material cost once and every job recalculates automatically | Your quotes always reflect what you actually pay |
| Spreadsheets don't account for saw kerf and real sheet yield | MaxCut factors in kerf and optimizes sheet usage before calculating cost | No more hidden material losses eating into margin |
| It's hard to see what you will make before you start cutting | Cost vs Selling Summary view shows your exact profit per job | You know your profit before a single cut is made |
| Accurate quoting takes too long when you are busy | Build your cut list and get a full cost estimate in the same step | Faster quoting without sacrificing accuracy |
WORKED EXAMPLE
See what this looks like on a real kitchen job
Here is a straightforward example of how a cabinet maker uses MaxCut to check cost vs profit before starting work.
A cabinet maker enters their full cut list into MaxCut, including panels, hardware, and labor. Going in, the job was estimated at 13 sheets of 16mm white melamine. MaxCut optimised the layout across the actual panel dimensions and a 3mm kerf allowance, and the job fit into 10 sheets, not 13. Material cost came in at $448.93.
Below is the actual cut layout and cost summary MaxCut produced for this job.
With hardware, edging and labour included, the total job cost came to $1,032.93. Against the quoted price of $1,524.75, that confirmed a gross profit of $491.82 before a single sheet was cut.
That calculation happens automatically, tied directly to the cut list. Adjust a material price or change a panel dimension and the margin updates instantly.
WHO THIS IS FOR
Built for the cabinet maker doing their own quoting
MaxCut is designed for small to medium-sized shops and independent cabinet makers who quote and cut jobs themselves.
Cabinet makers who quote jobs directly and need confidence that their margin is where they think it is
Small shops currently running on spreadsheets or paper-based costing that want something faster and more accurate
Anyone who has finished a job and wondered why the final margin was lower than the quote predicted
Workshops that cut sheet materials manually and want optimised layouts before the first cut
Stop guessing. Know your profit before you start.
Download MaxCut free and see your real cost vs profit on your next job.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS