Dog grooming appointment mix: check weekly hourly revenue

To check the hourly appointment revenue of a mixed grooming diary, add the revenue from the completed appointments, add their actual duration, then divide revenue by hours. Do not take a simple average of the individual appointments' hourly rates: a short job and a long job occupy different amounts of the diary.

This check describes the appointments you measured. It does not calculate profit, take-home pay or the revenue of every hour you worked. The example below is hypothetical, with invented prices and durations rather than market benchmarks or recommended grooming times.

Choose a consistent set of appointments

Start with one clearly defined period, such as a completed working week. Include all completed appointments in that period, rather than selecting the jobs that look strongest.

For each appointment record:

• a job reference, without client names in the review worksheet;
• its appointment revenue on one consistent basis;
• its actual start and end time;
• its duration in minutes;
• a short note if its scope or duration was unusual.

Use the same boundary for every duration. For example, if handover is included in one appointment's measured time, apply that convention consistently. Keep work outside those boundaries separate so you do not count it twice.

Keep tips, cancellation payments, sales of other items and money relating to another period outside this appointment-only comparison. Record them separately where relevant. Do not mix quoted amounts for unfinished work with the completed appointment figures.

If financial records require adjustments or accounting decisions, resolve those separately with appropriate help. This worksheet is a time-and-revenue comparison, not an accounting method.

A hypothetical mixed diary

Suppose six completed appointments fall into two groups. Each appointment in a group happens to have the same price and duration in this illustration; real records can use one row per job.

Group A occupies two hours and produces £100, giving £50 per appointment hour.

Group B occupies five hours and produces £150, giving £30 per appointment hour.

The whole sample occupies seven hours:

420 minutes ÷ 60 = 7 hours

Its combined hourly appointment revenue is:

£250 ÷ 7 hours = £35.71 per hour, rounded

That is the useful aggregate figure for these six appointments. It is not the recommended price for another groomer or evidence that this business made a profit.

Why averaging the job rates gives the wrong answer

There are four jobs at £50 per hour and two at £30 per hour. A simple average across those six job rates gives:

(4 × £50 + 2 × £30) ÷ 6 = £43.33 per hour, rounded

It gives each appointment equal weight, even though each longer appointment occupies five times as much time as a shorter one.

Averaging the two group rates gives £40 per hour, which is also wrong for this diary. The groups do not occupy equal time either.

The correct calculation gives time its proper weight:

(2 hours × £50 + 5 hours × £30) ÷ 7 hours = £35.71 per hour, rounded

For everyday use, adding the original revenue and minutes is simpler and avoids rounding each job rate before combining it.

Keep the individual job review as well

An aggregate can hide a recurring weak appointment group.

Suppose, purely for this example, the groomer has calculated an hourly revenue floor of £34 using their own assumptions. The time-based comparison for the sample is:

The total is £12 above that illustrative comparison, while group B is £20 below its own time-based comparison.

These differences are not profit or loss. They compare revenue with an assumed hourly floor; they do not independently establish that the floor includes every relevant cost or income requirement.

Use the group result to identify a question for review. Were durations recorded consistently? Did the actual service differ from the quote? Is the same pattern recurring? Do not use one aggregate figure to declare every service adequately priced.

Keep appointment hours separate from the whole working week

Seven completed appointment hours do not necessarily mean seven working hours.

Administration, cleaning outside appointment boundaries, breaks, travel and unfilled gaps can occupy other parts of the week. A total-working-hours comparison answers a different question and will use a different denominator.

Use the billable-hours guide to review capacity. If your hourly floor already allows for non-billable work through realistic billable capacity, do not subtract that time again from these completed appointment hours.

A short weekly worksheet

At the end of the period:

1. Check that the sample includes all the completed appointments intended for the review.
2. Add revenue and actual minutes separately.
3. Divide total minutes by 60.
4. Divide total revenue by those hours.
5. Review individual jobs or meaningful groups alongside the total.
6. Note unusual weeks and compare a representative period before changing assumptions.

If total minutes are zero, there is no hourly appointment rate to calculate. If records are incomplete, mark the result incomplete rather than entering zero for missing jobs.

You can check individual quotes against time and use your own cost, income-goal and billable-capacity assumptions in GroomPrice. Keep the appointment mix visible when reviewing the result: more bookings alone do not establish higher hourly revenue or guaranteed earnings.