Compare Your Business Profit and Time

Define what you are comparing

Use this worksheet for businesses you can observe operating. If you have not opened yet, use the first lease checklist. For the business-type evidence and its ranking limits, see the business conditions comparison.

Before collecting results, record the build and difficulty, observation start and end, location, premises, hours, staffing, prices, supply arrangement, and any closures or interruptions. Choose one business or a connected network as the measurement boundary, and list the shared costs included.

Use equal observation periods for the two candidates. If conditions differ, record the difference beside the result. A comparison of two actual operations can help your next decision without proving that business type A always beats type B.

Record these inputs for each candidate

Keep one copy of this record per candidate in your notes. Enter observed values, mark a missing value as unknown, and use not applicable only after checking that the category does not apply.

Field	What to record	How it is used
Revenue (R)	Receipts from outside the measured business or network.	Start of the net-result calculation.
Operating costs (C)	Applicable inputs, staff, premises, and shared operating costs; list included categories.	Subtract once.
Financing costs and taxes (F)	Costs attributed to the same period that are not already included in C.	Subtract once; separate principal repayments.
Setup capital (K)	Setup spending inside the chosen boundary.	Compare capital committed and simple payback.
Period (D)	Number of observed in-game days, greater than zero.	Convert the period result to a daily figure.
Player time (T)	Your active management minutes during the period.	Compare the result against your attention.

For C, list the stock or inputs, staff, rent, marketing, logistics, and shared operating costs that apply to your chosen boundary. State whether inventory is counted when purchased or when used, and use that same convention for both candidates. If you cannot distinguish those amounts, label the limitation; a stock-buying period may not be comparable to one using stock bought earlier.

The recorded 1.0 preview describes changes to loans and taxes. Use the amounts attributable to your observation period. Record loan principal repayments separately as cash commitments; they are not operating costs in the convention below.

Calculate consistently

These formulas are editorial comparison conventions. They are not documented game formulas, promises, or a claim to reproduce the game’s accounting screen. Keep the units shown in the table:

• Net result: N = R − C − F. Include each cost once. If the game figure you use already deducts a cost, do not subtract it again.
• Net result per in-game day: N ÷ D, with D greater than zero.
• Net result per unit of setup capital: N ÷ K, with K greater than zero. This ratio applies only to the recorded observation period.
• Simple setup-payback estimate: K ÷ (N ÷ D), only when K, D, and N are positive. It assumes the observed daily result continues and excludes later changes; it is not a forecast.
• Net result per active player minute: N ÷ T, only when T is greater than zero. This measures recorded player attention, not employee productivity or total elapsed playtime.

Keep unknown inputs as Pending verification and leave dependent calculations unfilled. Report zero or negative results directly. A zero denominator does not produce an infinite-profit or instant-payback claim.

Worked arithmetic example

These are invented inputs for demonstrating the worksheet, not measured Big Ambitions earnings, costs, or a recommended business. No business type or location is assigned to them.

Suppose your record contained R = 1,000, C = 600, F = 100, K = 3,000, D = 5 days, and T = 30 minutes. The calculation would give N = 300 for the period, 60 per day, 0.10 per unit of setup capital over that period, and 10 per active minute. The simple payback estimate would be 50 in-game days only if that daily result continued. Replace every input with your observations before using the calculation for a decision.

If C were unknown, all calculations using N would remain unfilled. A missing cost is not zero, and an illustrative positive result is not evidence that a business earns money.

Keep factory and store records consistent

For a combined factory-and-store comparison, count outside receipts once and document how you include costs across that network. Do not add an internal transfer to the network’s external revenue. If you compare a factory on its own, state how transfers to your stores are valued; an undisclosed transfer value makes that result hard to compare.

The recorded 1.0 export rule lowers a product’s import/export price for the rest of the week after too much of that product is exported. Record observed export prices and timing. This worksheet does not provide a verified threshold or assume that the first recorded price persists.

This is an unofficial Big Ambitions guide site and is not affiliated with Hovgaard Games.

Read the result against your goal

Compare net result for income, the capital ratio for setup efficiency, and player minutes for management effort. These measures can point in different directions; choose the one that matches the decision you are making. Repeat the observation if a missing input or a change during the period prevents a meaningful comparison.

The finance and export wording was reread in the official announcement list on October 23, 2026, under the August 14 release preview. That confirms the historical announcement, not results in your installed build. No in-game experiment or measured earnings dataset is claimed by this worksheet.