Services Delivery Costs
Direct cost of delivering implementation and professional services — the cost paired with services/implementation revenue. Tracking it against `finance.services_revenue` reveals whether services are run at, above, or below cost. — Finance KPI, I'mBoard-authored (editorial tier).
I'mBoard-authored (editorial tier)
No public third-party standard anchors this KPI yet, so I'mBoard authors and maintains the definition — transparently labeled as editorial tier. See the ontology methodology for the published vs editorial tier system and the back-attribution workstream.
Rogue ID: finance.services_delivery_costs
Type: Currency
Domain: Finance
Definition
Direct cost of delivering implementation and professional services — the cost paired with services/implementation revenue. Tracking it against finance.services_revenue reveals whether services are run at, above, or below cost.
Formula
Direct cost of delivering implementation / professional services for the period.Why it matters
Pairs with services revenue to show services margin — often a board question.
How to interpret
Compare to finance.services_revenue: services run below cost dilute blended gross margin and should be flagged.
Calculation policy
How an AI agent should compute this KPI from messy company data. Free-text rules consumed at reasoning time — not a deterministic DSL. The most common ways to get this wrong are listed under Common miscomputations.
Inclusion rules
- Direct cost of delivering implementation and professional services — delivery-team compensation, delivery subcontractors, and project-specific costs.
- The cost paired with finance.services_revenue.
Exclusion rules
- Product engineering (finance.rd_payroll) and recurring support (finance.customer_support_delivery).
- Services sold but not yet delivered.
Required inputs
- Delivery-team time and cost by project.
- Subcontractor invoices attributable to delivery.
Validation checks
- Compare to finance.services_revenue to compute services margin.
- Services run below cost dilute blended gross margin and should be flagged.
Common miscomputations
- Omitting subcontractor or delivery cost — overstates services margin.
- Mixing product-engineering cost into services delivery.
Related KPIs
finance.total_cogsfinance.services_revenue
Source
I'mBoard editorial — authored and maintained by I'mBoard, first published 2026-04-01. No third-party standard is cited for this KPI; when one emerges, the definition is back-attributed and promoted to the published tier (a minor version bump). Read the ontology methodology for the published vs editorial tier system, attribution rules, and dispute process.
Stage relevance
| Company stage | Priority |
|---|---|
| Series A | Recommended |
| Series B | Recommended |
| Series C+ | Recommended |
| Public | Recommended |
Suggested for stages: Series A, Series B, Series C+, Public.
Default owning functions
- Finance
Machine-readable
- This KPI as JSON:
/api/ontology/finance/services_delivery_costs.json - All Finance KPIs:
/api/ontology/finance.json - Full catalog:
/api/ontology/index.json
Sales Payroll
Fully-loaded base compensation for account executives, SDRs, and sales leadership for the period. Excludes commissions, which are tracked separately because they scale with bookings. — Finance KPI, I'mBoard-authored (editorial tier).
Services / Implementation Revenue
Recognized non-recurring revenue from implementation, onboarding, or professional services for the period. Kept separate from recurring revenue because it is lower-margin and does not compound — a services-heavy quarter can grow total revenue while ARR stays flat. — Finance KPI, I'mBoard-authored (editorial tier).