Break-even for a Zusatzleistung is worked out in four steps, and the order of the steps matters:
- Work out the contribution per appointment, which is the price the pharmacy charges less the costs that only arise because that appointment happened.
- Add up the additional fixed cost the service creates each month, counting only costs that would disappear if the service were switched off.
- Divide the monthly fixed cost by the contribution per appointment, which gives the number of appointments a month the service needs.
- Divide that number by the weeks the pharmacy is open, because a weekly target is the only form an owner can hold against a real appointment calendar.
The costs that only arise because the appointment happened are the consumables, the tube, the laboratory invoice for that sample, the payment processing fee and the paid working minutes the appointment consumes. Those are the variable costs, and the line between them and the standing costs of the premises is drawn under Fixkosten und variable Kosten.
Only costs that would disappear if the service were switched off belong in that figure, so the device, the training, a software licence, an insurance rider and any contracted hours taken on for the service all count.
The usual way this calculation goes wrong is loading a share of the existing rent, the existing heating and the existing base salaries onto every appointment. That absorption is a reasonable exercise when the question is a long run price floor. It is the wrong input for a decision about whether to start, because those costs are already being paid whether the appointment happens or not.
A service that fills an hour the pharmacy is open anyway, in a room already heated, with staff already on the payroll, will look unprofitable under a full share of rent while it is in fact adding contribution. Workable services are abandoned on exactly that arithmetic.
The inputs no benchmark can supply are the pharmacy's own, which are the price, the per appointment cost of consumables and laboratory work, the minutes the appointment consumes and the loaded cost of those minutes from a Stundensatzkalkulation. Break-even is the point at which a month stops losing money, while how long the initial spending takes to come back is the separate question of Amortisationsdauer, and both eventually appear in the Betriebsergebnis.
This glossary entry is general information about German pharmacy law and practice. It is not legal advice. For binding guidance on your own pharmacy, contact your Landesapothekerkammer.
