What you actually keep when you resell software
Five inputs, one of which most agencies leave out entirely. Support time is the line that decides whether reselling is a business or a hobby.
- Five-input formula
- Support cost included
- No email required
The short answer
- The formula per client: margin = what you charge them − your software cost − support hours × your loaded hourly cost − payment processing − the share of churn and onboarding cost you carry.
- Support hours is the line nobody models and the line that kills the maths. Two hours a month at a real internal rate can exceed the entire software spread.
- The structural lever is whether your software cost is per client or fixed. Per-seat pricing scales your cost with each client's headcount, which caps your margin at exactly the moment a client grows.
The formula, not a widget
The formula
Monthly margin per client = P − S − (H × R) − F − C
- P, what you charge: the client-facing price for the software, or the software portion of a bundled retainer.
- S, your software cost for that client: what the vendor charges you. Whether this is fixed or scales with the client's seat count is the most important structural question on this page.
- H × R, support: hours you spend per month on that client's software, times your loaded hourly cost. Loaded means salary plus overhead, not the number on a payslip.
- F, payment processing: the percentage plus fixed fee on the way in.
- C, amortised onboarding and churn: your setup hours divided by the expected number of months the client stays. A client who leaves after four months never repaid their setup.
A worked example, one client
Two structures, same client, using SalesCrew's published price for the fixed column.
| Line | Per-seat software resold | Fixed-price instance resold |
|---|---|---|
| P, you charge | $600 per month | $600 per month |
| S, your cost | 12 seats at a per-seat rate, rising with their headcount | $299 per month on Core, unlimited seats |
| H × R, support | 2 hours at $75 loaded: $150 | 2 hours at $75 loaded: $150 |
| F, processing | About 3%: $18 | About 3%: $18 |
| C, onboarding amortised | 8 hours at $75, over an expected 24 months: $25 | 8 hours at $75, over 24 months: $25 |
| Margin | $600 − S − $193, shrinking as they hire | $600 − $299 − $193 = $108 |
SalesCrew's published tiers as of September 2026: Core $299, Local $499, Outbound $699, Agency $1,200 per month, unlimited seats on every tier. Competitor per-seat pricing varies; take it from the vendor's own page.
What the example shows
A hundred and eight dollars a month per client is a real business at thirty clients and not a business at three. That is the honest shape of software reselling, and it is why agencies who make it work sell configuration and outcomes rather than a licence with a mark-up.
Notice also what happens in the left column when the client hires. Their headcount grows, your cost grows, your price does not, and your margin quietly disappears at exactly the moment the client is most valuable. Fixed-cost software removes that risk.
The other lever is support. Halving H does more for margin than raising P by a hundred dollars, and it is usually easier. Better onboarding and a documented standard setup are what actually move it.
Three questions to answer before you resell anything
- Who owns the client relationship if the software vendor fails? If they can contact your client directly, your margin is renting rather than owning.
- What happens to the client's data if you part ways? Where each client's data sits in its own database and exports as a full dump, a handover is clean and the conversation is not hostile.
- Are you selling software or a configuration? The software is a commodity with a published price the client can look up. The configuration, the cadences and the operating decisions are what they cannot get elsewhere, and they are what you should charge for.
Model the support hours before the spread
Two hours a month at a real internal rate is usually the largest line in the calculation.