Methodology
How our tools work
Each SMBHelper tool runs on a small set of honest assumptions. This page explains those assumptions in plain English so the results don't feel like a black box.
A general note on calculator logic
All SMBHelper calculators take inputs you provide and apply common business logic and generally accepted patterns to produce an estimate. They do not connect to your accounting system, your bank, or any tax authority. They will not know about exemptions, local reliefs, special schemes, or recent legislation specific to your jurisdiction.
Treat outputs as a starting point for thinking, not a final answer. The more accurate the inputs, the more useful the output.
Tax Survival Calculator
Estimates how much you should set aside per invoice based on a combined effective rate you provide (or a sensible default). It is intentionally simple — one input, one output — because the most common failure mode for small businesses is "I didn't set anything aside", not "my marginal rate calculation was off by 1.2 percentage points".
What it is good for: building the habit of moving a fixed percentage of every payment into a tax reserve account. Open the Tax Survival Calculator.
What it is not good for: filing tax returns, calculating actual liability, or modelling corporate vs. self-employed regimes. For those, talk to a qualified accountant.
Payment Gateway Optimizer
Compares the per-transaction and monthly cost of major payment processors using their published headline pricing. It assumes the rates you select are current and applies them uniformly across your transaction mix.
What it is good for: a quick sanity check on which gateway is cheapest for a given volume profile. Open the Payment Gateway Optimizer.
What it is not good for: negotiated rates, custom interchange-plus pricing, region- specific surcharges, or differences in fraud, payout, or dispute handling. For high volumes, get a custom quote from each provider.
Hiring Cost Calculator
Adds typical employer-side costs on top of a base salary — employer taxes, benefits, equipment and onboarding overhead — to give you a realistic monthly and annual fully loaded figure. Defaults reflect common ranges in developed markets and should be adjusted to your country.
What it is good for: deciding whether you can afford to hire, comparing employee vs. contractor cost. Open the Hiring Cost Calculator.
Profit Leak Diagnostic
Walks through common margin leaks (discounting, scope creep, payment fees, late payments, refunds, write-offs) and totals their estimated annual cost. Inputs are your best guesses — the value is in seeing the categories side by side, not in pinpoint accuracy.
Late Payment Recovery
Generates a friendly, escalating reminder sequence based on how overdue an invoice is. The templates are written to maintain the relationship, not to act as a formal demand. They are not legal collections notices.
How to interpret tool results
- Round numbers are estimates. They will not match your books to the cent.
- Defaults are general patterns. Override them with your real figures wherever you can.
- Country-specific rules are not modelled in detail. Treat region as a flag, not a rulebook.
- Use results to prompt a decision or a conversation, not as a final answer.