Photography Income Statement Template

Once the categories match your business, enter revenue and expenses for the current month. If you don't track expenses in real time, pull your bank statement and credit card statement for the month and work through each line item. The COGS section is where most photographers spend the most time — enter your lab costs, album orders, second shooter pay, and gallery platform fees for the month. Everything else rolls up to gross profit and net income automatically. Copy the structure forward for remaining months and fill them in as the year progresses.

The numbers that matter most in a photography income statement are gross margin and net margin. Gross margin — revenue minus direct job costs like lab fees, second shooter pay, and album costs — should typically land between 55% and 70% for a well-run photography business. Net margin, after all operating expenses, typically falls between 15% and 35% depending on whether you carry a studio and how aggressively you invest in marketing and equipment. Photographers with high print attach rates and strong licensing income tend to run better gross margins than those who sell session-only digital packages, because print and licensing carry solid margins once your lab relationships are established.