Profit Account for October 2011

Evekill statistics for September 2011:

• Kills: 29
• ISK destroyed: 2.13 billion
• Losses: 3
• ISK lost: 0.12 billion
• Efficiency: 94.61%
• Kill/Death ratio: 10/1

Battleclinic Rank: 23,757

Another month without as much time online as I would like, in this case because of travel. Not getting to play much is something of a trend these past few months, and to be honest I don't think that's going to change for a while. Times are tough.

Still, my efficiency is up, largely because I spent the first part of October flying point for some of Suleiman's BC roams. Sule's roams are awesome for effeciency, because we mostly crush everything we engage, which is pretty much anything that has fewer than two logi's or E-war boats. Managing to avoid stupid deaths has also helped.

I've tweaked the format of the accounts again, moving the Explanitory Notes (which change very little from month to month) to the end of the accounts, with my comments following right after the statement of profit/loss. I think most people will find that a bit more accessable.

I have also taken to manually adjusting the Evekill values; while better than Battleclinic, it's still crediting my lost deadspace modules as three times more than I actually pay for them. I'm erring on the side of too expensive, but the scale of the error needed to be dealt with. In future, I may break down each loss into parts so that any changes I make are transparent.

Last month's figures can be found here.

Schedule of Income

Solo Income

Dropped modules and other loot

ISK 57,575,961

Ransoms

ISK 101,500

Bounty on Jethro Tchull (ISK 92,500)
Bounty on Mike Avery (ISK 9,000)

Total Solo Income

ISK 57,677,461

Group Income

Dropped modules and other loot

ISK 35,000,000

Malediction et alia v various; fast tackle on a BC roam (ISK 5,000,000)
Malediction et alia v various; fast tackle on a BC roam (ISK 16,000,000)
Malediction et alia v various; fast tackle on a BC roam (ISK 10,000,000)

Malediction & Jaguar v Merlin & Rifter (ISK 4,000,000)

Ransoms

ISK 2,500,000 

Kodoz Tokar (ISK 2,500,000)

Total Group Income

ISK 37,500,000

Total Income

ISK 95,177,461

Schedule of Expenses

Solo Expenses

Reasonable losses (see note 1)

ISK 37,017,323

Vengeance (ISK 37,017,323) - Vengeance v Curse; a gate camp.

 

Avoidable losses (see note 2)

ISK 37,161,950

Vengeance (ISK 37,161,950) - Vengeance v Dramiel & Loki; was lured off gate and then forgot to overheat my prop mod when burning back.

Other expenses

ISK 949,148

Repairs (ISK 936,248)

Ransom CSPA (ISK 2,900)

Contract fees (ISK 10,000)

Total Solo Expenses

ISK 75,128,421

Group Expenses

Reasonable losses (see note 1)

Nil.

Nil.

Avoidable losses (see note 2)

ISK 18,934,789

Malediction (ISK 18,934,789) - Malediction v Vagabond; forgot to overheat my prop mod when fleeing (again).

Total Group Expenses

ISK 18,934,789

Total Expenses

ISK 94,063,210

Schedule of Profit (Loss)

Total Income

ISK 95,177,461

Less

Total Expenses

ISK 94,063,210

Net Profit (Loss) (see note 3)

ISK 1,114,251

Appendix 1: Comments & Criticism

In theory, I turned a profit this month.

In theory.

Of course, that "profit" doesn't even pay for the month's ammo, an expense not included in my accounts because it's so hard to track. I'm clearly not going to get rich like this.

Not that getting rich was a real priority.

Income

Acting as fast tackle for a BC gang may be fun, but it's not the big bucks. There are too many people involved for things to be really profitable, especially as tech 1 BCs typically engage other tech 1 BCs. No decent ransoms. No decent salvage. And then split 5-10 ways.

Solo roaming was more profitable, but I did not do much of it due to real life commitments and travel.

Expenses

The good news is that I'm dying less. My maxed out Vengeances are much harder to kill, and there have been several encounters that I have managed to escape simply on the basis of my resilience. However, when I do lose a Vengeance, it's about twice the cost of my basic fit.

That said, I'm flying the Vengeance less these days; the Malediction is just better at navigating low sec safely. I'm thinking of putting together an AB brawler fit for solo work while I keep the mwd fits for fleet work.

Improving Performance

Last month I set a goal of a 10/1 kill ratio, and I achieved that goal. I want to try and keep that ratio up, but I also need to actually turn a profit here so I can afford to expand my range of ships.

Bombers are a big unknown here. I finally get into a decent SB at the beginning of this month, and with the potential to take on larger targets I should theoretically become more profitable. However, I also recognise that getting into a new hull is a learning curve, and I may well see my profitability nosedive as I find all the different ways that SB don't work.

Appendix 2: Explanatory Notes

Accounting basis

This profit account has been prepared on the basis of income received and expenses incurred. That is, income is only recorded when the ISK has actually been deposited in my wallet and the expense of purchasing a ship is recorded only when the ship has been destroyed.

All accounts have to make decisions about when, and how, to record income, and each method has it's own advantages and disadvantages. I prefer the income received basis because it takes the guesswork out of preparation, but I recognize that this means that there will be cases where a profitable month may show a loss, simply because the bulk of the faction loot is still on contract in Jita. The reverse is also true. However, as long as the accounts are consistent, long term trends in profitability can be reliably monitored, especially if we remain alert to the possible biases.

All figures are rounded to the nearest ISK, and are derived from character and alt wallets unless otherwise stated.

Capital & Liquidity

These accounts also do not address issues of liquidity or capital. Although I may be profitable, for example, I may have no ISK in my wallet because I have converted those funds into ships and modules.

I have chosen not to address capital or liquidity for two reasons. First, this adds a great deal of additional work to the accounts, for very little additional gain. Capital and liquidity matter in the real world, where a corporation's ability to offer security for debt (capital) and meet the interest payments on that debt (liquidity) are critical issues. New Eden, mercifully, does not work like that.

Second, it would provide just a little too much information about me. If I ever have to pay a ransom, I'd really prefer that whomever is ransoming me cannot see, to the nearest ISK, how much money I have!

Notes

Note 1: "Reasonable losses" includes all losses where it was reasonable for me to engage the target and no fundamental play error occurred during the fight. Evekill costs, net of insurance, are used for simplicity, and dropped modules count as destroyed for the purpose calculating these costs, unless those modules were recovered after the fight. Manual adjustment sometimes occurs where modules have been overvalued compared to the actual price paid.

Note 2: "Avoidable losses" includes all losses where it was unreasonable for me to engage the enemy or a fundamental play error occurred during combat. Evekill costs, net of insurance, are used for simplicity, and dropped modules count as destroyed for the purpose calculating these costs, unless those modules were recovered after the fight. Manual adjustment sometimes occurs where modules have been overvalued compared to the actual price paid.

Note 3: In this line, a figure in brackets indicates a loss rather than a profit.