Does growth or margin move your profit more?
Growth and margin are the two numbers every plan review argues about. A two-variable data table computes EBITDA for all 25 combinations through the real model, not anyone's mental arithmetic.
Finance Starter Data Table free
After you install, this is the model to open.
How Do Growth and Margin Move EBITDA Together?
- In your spreadsheet, click the Sortia icon in the strip of icons down the right-hand edge. No strip? Click the arrow at the bottom-right to open it. You can also use Extensions, then Sortia, then Open Sortia.
- Click Start from a template and put that name in the search box.
- Pick the card with that name and click Load this template. It arrives on a new tab with real numbers already in it.
The answer
At the base case (10% growth, 62% margin):
- Base EBITDA
- $1.26M
- Grid
- 5 x 5 combinations
The grid answers the questions that take three meetings: which cells go negative, whether a margin point buys more than three growth points (read along a row, then down a column), and exactly where the plan crosses the board's floor.
The model
A deliberately small model: revenue grows, margin turns it into gross profit, opex comes off. Growth sweeps 4% to 16% across the columns, margin 58% to 66% down the rows.
| Base revenue | $8.0M |
| Growth sweep | 4% to 16% |
| Margin sweep | 58% to 66% |
| EBITDA grid | calculated, 25 cells |
Once it is in your sheet
- The model arrives with real numbers in it and runs as it stands, so you can press the button first and understand it second.
- Change the numbers to yours. The sheet marks which cells are inputs and which hold formulas, and most labels carry a note explaining the row.
- Press the run button at the bottom of the panel. It is labeled for the tool you are in, and the result lands on its own tab, with a written reading of it beside the figures.
Never used Google Sheets? Start here goes the whole way, in seven steps, and assumes nothing.
Next question
- How far apart are your best year and your worst?Base, Better, Worse: Save the Three Cases
- Which thirty invoices should you actually check?Pull a Fair Sample of Invoices to Check
- Which forecast should you actually quote?What Will Next Quarter's Fees Be?
- Is that client really slower or just one late invoice?Do These Two Clients Pay at the Same Speed?
- Is the plan limited by money or by people?Split a Fixed Budget Across Three Things
- How often does an ordinary year lose money?What If the Biggest Client Leaves?
Every model like this one, and the method behind them: What-if analysis in Google Sheets.