By Greg Allan, tradesman and creator of Data First Coaching
Why does a quoted margin on a kitchen job still leave the workshop account empty?
A quoted margin on a kitchen can look solid on the quote and still leave the workshop account short, because a cabinetmaker spends on board, hardware, edging and CNC time well before the second or final payment arrives. The margin on the quote assumes the job runs exactly to plan. The cash in the account only moves once materials are bought, staff are paid for shop drawings and cutting, and the builder or homeowner actually pays.
This is the gap between what a job earns on paper and what cash actually does in a trade business. A kitchen can be priced at a healthy margin and still create a cash problem, because the margin is a quoting number and the bank balance is a cashflow number, and the two do not move at the same time. For a cabinetmaker, that gap is widest in the weeks between the site measure and install day, when every dollar going out is real and every dollar owed is still a promise.
What is actually costing money before the final payment arrives?
Between a signed quote and install day, a cabinetmaker is already spending on board, hardware, edging, CNC time and staff hours for shop drawings and cut sheets, all before a single carcass is installed. None of that is theoretical. It is ordered, cut, edged and often sitting assembled in the workshop while the business waits on a builder's progress payment or a client's next instalment.
A deposit set as a round figure out of habit, rather than against that actual run of costs, often undercovers what a particular kitchen needs. A simple two pack galley kitchen with a straightforward benchtop and standard hardware has a very different cost of sales to a large kitchen with a wardrobe and vanity package attached, long lead time joinery items, and a tight install window. Treating every job's deposit the same way, regardless of what it actually costs to get to install day, is where the cashflow strain usually starts, even though the problem shows up later as a bank balance issue rather than a quoting one.
How do you work out what your deposit actually needs to cover?
You size a kitchen deposit against what that specific job will cost you before you are paid again, not against what has always felt right. That means looking at the board, hardware, edging and CNC time that job will consume, plus the shop drawing and cutting hours your crew puts in before install, and matching the deposit to that real outlay.
This is a data first way of pricing a job, not a gut feel percentage. Your fastest, leanest run of a similar kitchen is not the number to build a deposit on, because most jobs do not run at their fastest or leanest. Builders slip install dates, site measures throw up changes, and lead times on hardware or specialty board stretch. A deposit built on your own best-case job will often leave you short on an average one.
What happens when board and hardware prices move between quoting and ordering?
Board, hardware and freight costs can move between the week you quote a kitchen and the week you actually order for it, which means a deposit figure that covered your costs on a similar job some months ago may not cover today's job at all. A deposit is not something you set once and leave alone.
This matters more for a cabinetmaker than for many other trades, because so much of the cost of a kitchen is locked in early: board and hardware are specified and often ordered well before install, and CNC and edging time is booked into the workshop schedule ahead of the job. If the deposit was sized against last year's board price, it is being asked to cover a job that now costs more to get to install day, and the shortfall lands on the business, not the client.
Where do AI agents fit into protecting a cabinetmaker's cashflow on a kitchen job?
AI agents, which are software that does a job the way you would, using your own pricing, your own wording and your own rules, can check a kitchen's real cost of sales against its deposit before the job is confirmed, rather than leaving that check to memory or habit. That matters because a cabinetmaker is already stretched between the workshop, site measures and clients, and a deposit check is easy to skip when things are busy.
AI agents can also flag it when board, hardware or CNC costs on a job move away from what was quoted, before materials are ordered rather than after the bill lands. That gives you a chance to adjust a deposit or a progress payment schedule before the cash gap opens up, instead of discovering it when the workshop account is already tight. The office work this takes off your plate is the checking and chasing, not the judgement call, which stays with you.
How does Data First Coaching approach this?
Data First Coaching, built by Greg Allan, starts from a cabinetmaker's own job and finance data through the Trade Business Intelligence, not from a general rule about deposits. It looks at what a run of real kitchen jobs actually cost before the next payment landed, against what was taken as deposit, to find whether the real problem sits in the deposit size, the quoting of cost of sales, or the payment terms agreed with builders.
The how of building that into a repeatable system for your own jobs, pricing and client terms is worked through inside the Academy, with other members, because the Trade Business Intelligence is powered by every member for every member. It is built for owners who are open minded, innovative and willing to share what they learn, so the whole group gets sharper together.
