Bottomline compares your prices to your fully loaded costs and shows your margin trend over time.

If I raised prices 10%, how many customers would I lose?

Your report tracks customer behavior and churn alongside pricing so you can model the trade-off.

Are my costs scaling faster than my revenue?

Bottomline flags when expense growth is outpacing revenue growth, which is a key trigger for price increases.

What’s my net margin?

Declining net margin is one of the clearest signals that your prices have not kept up with your costs.

What does it cost me per job, fully loaded?

Bottomline shows the gap between what a job costs you and what you charge, so you know exactly how much room you have.

Should I raise my prices?

Every business owner wrestles with this. Raise prices and risk losing customers. Keep them flat and watch margins erode. Here's how your data answers the question for you.

6 min read

The short answer

Should you raise prices? Yes, if your net margin has declined for 3+ months while your close rate stays above 70%. Declining margins mean costs have outpaced your prices. A high close rate means the market can absorb a higher price. Both signals together make the case clear.

The real cost of waiting too long to raise prices

You haven't raised prices in 18 months. During that time, your payroll went up 8%, insurance increased 12%, materials cost 15% more, and you added $600/month in software. Your costs increased roughly $4,200 per month. That is $50,400 per year in margin you gave away by not adjusting your prices.

Most owners delay price increases because they fear customer pushback. But the data almost always shows a different story: a modest price increase (5-10%) rarely causes meaningful customer loss in service businesses. The customers who leave over a 10% increase were usually your least profitable ones anyway.

The question is not “should I raise prices?” in the abstract. It is “do the numbers support a price increase right now?” And that question has a concrete, data-driven answer.

Three signals that a price increase is overdue

Margins are declining. Your net margin has dropped for 3 or more consecutive months.
Close rate is high. You are winning more than 70% of the deals you bid on. This means customers see your service as a good value, which usually means you are priced below market.
Costs have increased since your last price change. Add up all the cost increases since you last adjusted prices. If total costs rose more than 5%, a price increase is justified.

How to build the case for a price increase

1
Track your net margin for 6 months
In QuickBooks or Xero, run Profit and Loss for the last 6 months grouped by month. Calculate Net Income / Total Income for each month. Plot the trend.
2
Check your close rate in your CRM
In HubSpot, go to Reports → Sales Analytics. In Salesforce, run an Opportunities report. Calculate deals won divided by total deals for the same 6-month period.
3
Add up cost increases since your last price change
Compare your P&L from 6 months ago (or whenever you last changed prices) to today. Total up the increases across payroll, materials, insurance, software, and other categories.
4
Calculate the minimum increase needed
Take your total cost increase per month and divide by the number of jobs per month. That is the minimum per-job price increase needed just to restore your old margin. Add a buffer for future increases.

Total time: about 30 minutes. You need your accounting software, CRM, and knowledge of when you last changed prices.

Monitor the three pricing signals monthly

You do not need to change prices every month. But you do need to watch the signals. When margins decline for 3 months, close rate is above 70%, and costs have risen 5%+, act quickly. The longer you wait, the more margin you give away.

Or get a pricing signal in every monthly report

Bottomline tracks your net margin trend, close rate, and cost increases every month. When the combination suggests a price increase is warranted, it tells you directly, along with the data to support the decision.

Pricing signal

Price increase recommended

Net margin has declined from 16.2% to 10.8% over 6 months. Your close rate is 84%, well above the 70% threshold. Total monthly costs have increased $4,200 since your last price adjustment. A 7-10% price increase would restore margins to healthy levels.

From a real Bottomline report. Pricing signals calculated from your accounting and CRM data.

You get the confidence to raise prices backed by real numbers, not guesswork. And you catch the need for a price increase months earlier than you would on your own.