Why does SoftWritely emphasize 'Remaining Contribution' instead of 'Net Profit'?

Accurate net profit requires accounting for agency office rent, salaried staff, taxes, and general software subscriptions. Remaining contribution honestly reflects gross client margin after direct AI delivery expenses.

Can direct costs other than AI APIs be tracked?

Yes. SoftWritely allows agencies to log direct infrastructure allocations—such as dedicated Pinecone indexes, Supabase instances, or proxy bandwidth—attributable to a specific client.

How does this help agency sales teams?

By analyzing real-world contribution margins of existing projects, sales teams can accurately price new AI client proposals with protective token limits and realistic retainer minimums.

Unit Economics & Contribution Margin

Planned Core Module

Profitability Analytics

Compare client retainer revenues with direct AI API, cloud hosting, and tooling expenses to calculate true gross contribution margins.

Get Early Access All 6 Modules

Agency Client Unit Economics

Gross contribution margin calculation for Client B — RetailGenius (Monthly Retainer)

Illustrative Preview — Sample Data

Client Monthly Retainer

$300.00

Contracted gross billing

Direct Delivery Costs

-$80.00

AI APIs + Cloud & Proxy

Remaining Contribution73.3%

$220.00

Gross client margin

Retainer Value Allocation ($300 Total)Contribution: 73.3%

Contribution ($220.00 / 73.3%)

AI APIs ($45.00 / 15.0%)

Hosting & DB ($20.00 / 6.7%)

Other Direct ($15.00 / 5.0%)

Direct Engagement Cost Ledger

1. AI API Inference (Claude 3.5 Sonnet & GPT-4o)$45.00

2. Dedicated Cloud / Vector Database (Pinecone / Supabase)$20.00

3. Direct Tooling, Proxy Bandwidth & Webhooks$15.00

Total Direct Delivery Costs$80.00

Accounting Note: Remaining contribution represents gross client margin after direct AI and cloud infrastructure costs. It does not deduct fixed agency overhead, employee payroll, or general operational expenses.

The Specific Operational Problem Addressed

Why Agencies Struggle Without Dedicated Profitability Analytics

Agencies price AI services based on gut feeling or traditional software development hours, failing to account for consumption-based LLM API costs that scale directly with client end-user activity.

SoftWritely Solution:

Revenue without margin visibility is a trap. An agency charging $300 or $5,000 monthly for an AI retainer may believe an engagement is lucrative until rising inference costs, vector database storage, and proxy bandwidth consume the gross margin. SoftWritely's Profitability Analytics module calculates true Remaining Contribution by matching client contract revenues against all direct delivery costs. We maintain complete accounting honesty: remaining contribution is clearly defined as gross margin, not net profit.

Capabilities Architecture

Core Capabilities of Profitability Analytics

Identify your most profitable clients, renegotiate or restructure loss-making retainers, and price future AI services with confidence.