In order to break even we have to ...

Ist mit "kalkulieren" hier "dem Kunden berechnen" gemeint? Ohne Kontext bleibt das völlig nebulös.

ja natürlich. Kalkulieren im Sinne von: den Preis für eine Dienstleistung kalkulieren.

In order to break even we have to figure the service delivery with xx $.

Auch: To cover our costs, we must include ____ in our calculations.

we must include ____ in our calculations


That's not what the OP says. The OP says that in order to break even, we must charge XX

The original says:

"Um kostendeckend arbeiten zu können, müssen wir xx € kalkulieren."

Why is it not correct to translate that as

To cover our costs, we must include ____ in our calculations.

Break even and cover costs are not necessarily the same thing.

OK, "break even" and "cover costs" would both be possible.

But "müssen wir xx € kalkulieren" means "we have to charge xx", not "we must include xx in our calculations".
The OP refers to the result of the calculations (i.e. the required charge for the service), not the calculations themselves.

If this is a business, I'd say "cover our expenses/costs" rather than "break even." Chances are, the business wants to make a profit and not just break even.

Als Muttersprachler must du natürlich recht haben, aber jetzt bin ich total durcheinander. Denn der Duden sagt zu "kalkulieren":

"(besonders die bei etwas voraussichtlich entstehenden Kosten) im Voraus berechnen

Gebrauch

besonders Kaufmannssprache

Beispiele
•knapp, großzügig kalkulieren
•Kosten, Preise kalkulieren"

Das scheint eindeutig auf calculate (nicht charge) hinzudeuten.

ja, "kalkulieren" bedeutet "die Kosten berechnen". Aber es bedeutet auch, einen so ermittelten Betrag in Rechnung zu stellen. Im angefragten Satz kann es nur die Bedeutung "to charge" haben.

Es ging mir gar nicht um "break even" oder "cover costs", sondern nur darum, dass "we must include ____ in our calculations" im angefragten Satz nicht passt.

If that's the case, you might want to amend the leo entry for "kalkulieren" because "to charge (for)" isn't one of the options given.

Penguin, it's still not clear to me why "kalkulieren" can't mean calculate, figure, or take into account, etc. in this sentence, but I guess we'll have to leave that up to capoo.

But if the OP said 100,00 € instead of xx € then it should become clear that this means ...we need to charge €100.

I finally see the point. Sorry Penguin. Right, the sentence says "wir müssen xx € kalkulieren," so it would seem to mean that the company has to add on that many euros.

Still, one wonders why they chose "kalkulieren," which does not seem the right word in this situation.

Would you then invoice for the amount? Or could the amount be part of the invoice?

dude, I won't comment further on this, since I'm not a native speaker of German. I'll have to leave it up to you guys.

#14: you have a point there, sloppy use of language, but in context it can't mean anything else except "charge", and it's not exactly wrong

Bob, I wasn't asking you, I was asking penguin or Spike since I'm admittedly not quite clear on the concept, either.

What the OP is saying is that in order to cover costs (or in order to at least break even), they need to charge XX € (a price which they have previously determined to be the minimum required). What they then actually invoice is up to them. "kalkulieren" can be used this way, although strictly speaking it is sloppy use of language.

So what you're saying is that the OP's "xx" euros could be part of the final invoice or perhaps "figured into" the total amount?

Yes, I would understand it to mean:
We need to charge €100 to cover our costs [so let's invoice them for €200 to get a nice mark-up] - for instance

Thanks, penguin and Spike.