What’s on the Break-Even poster
The rule, 3 worked examples, and the mistake everyone makes.
- Break-even volume equals fixed costs divided by contribution per unit.
- BEV = fixed costs ÷ (price − variable cost)
- £50k fixed, £20 price, £12 variable = 6,250 units
- Margin of safety = Actual − break-even, as a %
- Target profit = (fixed + target) ÷ contribution
- Common mistake: Treating all costs as variable → Splitting fixed from variable carefully
High fixed cost businesses have high operating gearing: profits swing far more than sales do, in both directions.
Questions about the Break-Even poster
- What’s on the Break-Even poster?
- The rule, 3 worked examples, and the mistake everyone makes. Break-even volume equals fixed costs divided by contribution per unit.; BEV = fixed costs ÷ (price − variable cost); £50k fixed, £20 price, £12 variable = 6,250 units; Margin of safety = Actual − break-even, as a %; Target profit = (fixed + target) ÷ contribution; Common mistake: Treating all costs as variable → Splitting fixed from variable carefully. High fixed cost businesses have high operating gearing: profits swing far more than sales do, in both directions.
- Who is the Break-Even poster for?
- Break-Even belongs to the Business & Management section rather than to a school year, because business is not something one grade owns. Anyone learning business finance can pin it up — a beginner, a student mid-course, or someone revising years later.
- When should you use the Break-Even poster?
- Contribution per unit is price minus variable cost. Fixed costs divided by it gives break-even. A wall chart earns its place by being glanceable from where the work is happening, so Break-Even belongs on the wall where that business work actually happens, within glancing distance, rather than filed away.
- What other posters go with Break-Even?
- The Balance Sheet, Budgeting and The Cash Flow Statement sit alongside Break-Even in the Business & Management section. Printed together they make a wall rather than a single sheet, which is how a reference set actually gets used.The Balance SheetBudgetingThe Cash Flow Statement
- Is the Break-Even poster free to download and print?
- Yes. Break-Even downloads as a free PDF with no account, no email and no watermark, like everything else in the Business & Management section. Print as many copies as you like for a home, a classroom, a library or a tutoring group; reselling the file is the only thing the licence rules out.Read the licence
- What size does the Break-Even poster print at?
- Break-Even is a vector PDF laid out for US Letter, and prints on A4 with Fit to page — the same file, no separate download. Because every mark on it is drawn rather than photographed, it stays sharp enlarged to A3, A2 or A1 at a copy shop. Colour carries emphasis only, so a greyscale print of Break-Even loses nothing.Printing guide
Related posters
Charts that sit alongside Break-Even on the same wall.
Browse every Business & Management poster, or start from the full catalogue.