Photography Shoot Profit Tracker Spreadsheet
This spreadsheet divides every fee by all four kinds of hour a shoot actually takes, and shows what an hour of your work really earned.
A shoot looks like four hours. It is four hours with a camera, one in the car, twelve at a desk and another hour of emails about the gallery. Nobody prices the last thirteen, and nobody measures them either, so the rate you think you charge and the rate you get are two different numbers.
What is in it
- Six linked tabs, from Start Here through to a one-screen Overview.
- Setup — three numbers: the hourly rate you want to earn, what your car costs per mile, and the turnaround you promise.
- Shoots — 200 rows, and the only table you type into.
- Four kinds of hour on every row: on the shoot, travel, editing and admin.
- The Edit — where the hours actually went, and how late the galleries went out.
- By Type — your work ranked by what an hour of your life earned on it.
Who it is for
Anyone paid a fee per job and doing the rest of the work afterwards: wedding and portrait photographers, commercial and product shooters, videographers, headshot and real estate work, newborn and pet photography.
The worked example
The worked year holds 52 shoots, $57,080 of fees and 10,348 images delivered. Only 240.9 hours were spent with a camera; the year actually took 1,029.3 hours, because editing took 631.3, admin 89.9 and travel 67.2 — 2.99 desk hours for every shooting hour. The rate wanted was $65.00. The rate actually earned was $49.97.
Twelve weddings brought in $31,990, more than half the year’s income, at $48.23 an hour: eleven hours on the day, thirty at a desk afterwards, and an average of fifty-one days before the gallery went out. Commercial work on the same camera in the same year paid $89.02 an hour. The turnaround promised was three weeks; the average was 31 days, only 12 jobs went out on time, 35 were late, 5 were still sitting there, and the longest took 65 days.
How it works
Compatible with Microsoft Excel 2016 or newer on Windows or Mac, Google Sheets, and LibreOffice. No macros, no add-ons, no account to create, nothing to install.
The download has two workbooks: one with the example above already filled in, so you can see what every column expects, and the same file completely blank for your own figures. A plain-English guide comes as a PDF. Order on WhatsApp — $9
Orders are taken on WhatsApp: message me and I’ll send the payment details, then the files as soon as the payment is confirmed.
A look inside the file
Questions people actually ask
How do I work out what I actually earn per hour on a shoot?
You type four kinds of hour against every job — on the shoot, travel, editing and admin — and the file divides what you kept by all of them, not just the hours with a camera. In the worked year 52 shoots invoiced $57,080, kept $51,436 and took 1,029.3 hours: 240.9 shooting, 67.2 travelling, 631.3 editing and 89.9 on admin, which is 2.99 desk hours for every shooting hour. The rate wanted was $65.00; the rate actually earned was $49.97.
Can I add my own types of work, and does it do video?
Yes — type whatever you actually do into the type column and add it to By Type: headshots, real estate, newborn, pet, video, all worked out the same way. For video it is the same four kinds of hour and the ratio is usually worse; put your deliverable count in the images column, because minutes per deliverable still works. In the worked year twelve weddings were $31,990, more than half the income, at $48.23 an hour, while commercial work on the same camera earned $89.02.
I do not track my hours — can I still use it?
Yes: estimate the editing hours honestly at the end of each job and put them in, because being roughly right about thirty hours beats being exactly right about none of them. Everything else you need is already on your invoices and your calendar — the fee, the costs you carried, the miles, the shoot date and the delivery date. The Shoots tab holds 200 rows and is the only table you type into.
Does it work in Google Sheets or do I need Excel?
Both — it is built as .xlsx for Excel 2016 or newer on Windows or Mac, and it loads into Google Sheets through File then Import then Upload. LibreOffice opens it too. No macros, no add-ons, no account to create, nothing to install and no subscription: you download the file and it is yours.
Is my profit in it, and does it do invoicing or galleries?
What you kept is the fee less the costs you carried on that job and the miles — overheads such as insurance, kit, software and premises are deliberately left out, so it is what the job put in the bank, not your profit for the year. It does not do invoicing, contracts, gallery hosting or client proofing; keep whatever you already use and this sits alongside it. Nothing syncs and nothing logs in, and I never ask for a password, your galleries or your accounts.
Need it built around your business?
This file assumes one photographer invoicing a fee per shoot and doing the editing themselves. If your work runs differently — a second shooter paid a day rate, an outsourced editor charged per image, a retainer client billed monthly instead of per job, or print and album sales that arrive months after the shoot — I can build the same four-hour arithmetic around the way you actually take on and deliver work.
All other templates are listed on the Excel & Google Sheets Templates page.