# Margin

Margin is a term used in both business and finance to refer to the difference between the price of a good or service and the amount of money required to produce it. It is the amount of money that remains in your pocket once you have delivered a service.

Margin is usually expressed in percentage. Ex: if you sell a product or service for $1,000 with a 40% margin, you earn $400.

In Conduite, margins apply to many things:

- [Labor](https://help.conduite.app/books/glossary/page/labor "Labor") (though [Daily Rates](https://help.conduite.app/books/glossary/page/daily-rates "Daily Rates"))
- [Budgets](https://help.conduite.app/books/glossary/page/budgets "Budgets")
- [Contracts](https://help.conduite.app/books/glossary/page/budgets "Budgets")
- [Projects](https://help.conduite.app/books/glossary/page/project "Project")

**Margin Types**

<table border="1" id="bkmrk-margin-type-descript" style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%; height: 287.125px;"><colgroup><col style="width: 50%;"></col><col style="width: 50%;"></col></colgroup><thead><tr style="height: 29.7969px;"><td style="height: 29.7969px;">Margin Type</td><td style="height: 29.7969px;">Description</td></tr></thead><tbody><tr style="height: 68.9844px;"><td style="height: 68.9844px;">Margin at Signature ($/%)</td><td style="height: 68.9844px;">The margin computed at the time a contract is signed (provided by the associated [Budget Builder](https://help.conduite.app/books/user-manual/page/budget-builder "Budget Builder")). For a project this is a static value.</td></tr><tr style="height: 124.953px;"><td style="height: 124.953px;">Margin Objective ($/%)</td><td style="height: 124.953px;">The margin objective that is set for a project. At the beginning of a project that value equals the Margin at Signature. But it can evolve overtime (up or down).

In Conduite, setting a margin objective is the primary way to steer the performance of a project.

</td></tr><tr style="height: 63.3906px;"><td style="height: 63.3906px;">Expected Margin ($/%)</td><td style="height: 63.3906px;">The margin that we expect to make on a project at any given time based on what was spent and what we think we need to spend to finish the work.</td></tr></tbody></table>