The true cost of getting funded: resets, fees and activation included
A $145 evaluation costs $489 by the time the account is funded in the worked ledger below, two resets, one firm fee and one activation sit between the checkout page and the day the firm issues the account. If you cannot list those middle charges for your own attempt, you do not know what it cost.
In this guide
The short answer
Start here
Total every charge from entry to the funded event: the evaluation at the amount paid, each reset (a paid re-opening of the evaluation after a breach), every renewal month the attempt stayed open, one-time firm fees, and the activation charge if the firm takes one after you pass. Keep each currency as its own total instead of converting at a guessed rate. Stop counting at the funded event, received payouts minus all logged costs is a separate number, your profit, and it never discounts this one.
What matters
- Log the evaluation at the amount your card was charged, the promo price you actually paid is the first line of the ledger, and the list price never enters it.
- Count every renewal month a subscription-billed evaluation stayed open; the attempt keeps costing money until you pass or cancel.
- Keep USD and EUR charges as two separate totals; convert nothing at a rate you did not actually pay.
- Subtract payouts only inside the profit number, received payouts minus all logged costs, never from cost to funded.
1
Three totals answer three different questions
Cost to funded is every charge from entry to the funded event. Profit is received payouts minus all logged costs, the money the attempt has actually returned to you. Bank cash position is your starting fund plus top-ups minus withdrawals. Each answers a different question (what did the account cost, what has it returned, what is left to spend) and mixing any two corrupts both.
The mixing shows up fastest when a payout lands. The account in the worked ledger below cost $489 to create; net a first $500 payout against it and the account reports itself $11 ahead, while a second identical attempt would still need $489 in cash you no longer appear to have spent. Keep the $489 as the acquisition number and the $500 in the profit number, and both decisions stay readable: whether the firm deserves another attempt, and whether the desk as a whole is ahead.
2
The charges between entry and funded
Start with the entry at the amount paid. Firms discount often, so the list price and your card charge routinely differ; the paid amount is the one that compounds through the rest of the path. In the ledger below the entry is $145, just under 30% of the finished cost.
A reset is a paid re-opening of the same evaluation after a breach, priced by the firm, and a retry is sometimes priced at or above the current entry offer, check the live price each time. Renewal months are the quieter drain: many futures evaluations bill as auto-renewing monthly subscriptions, so an attempt that runs ninety days has cost three payments before any reset. Log each reset and each renewal as its own dated line, the two resets below add $160, more than the entry itself.
After the pass, some firms charge a one-time activation to start the funded account, some bill a recurring monthly fee instead, and some charge nothing; the plan's own published terms decide. In the ledger the $149 activation is the largest single charge after entry, and it lands after the moment most traders stop counting.
3
Attribution, currency and like-for-like comparisons
The tempting move after a pass is to assign every stray charge to the account that got funded so its story is complete. Hold a higher bar: a charge belongs to an account when the receipt or the firm's billing names it, and a firm-level charge with no link stays a desk-level cost, part of your total spend, never one account's explanation.
Currency is the same kind of boundary. A USD attempt and a EUR attempt can both be exact while their sum is not, because a single combined figure requires an exchange rate you never paid. Keep two totals; NANO holds the same line and refuses to invent the rate.
The comparison that misleads most is a promotional entry beside a completed path: $145 against $489 is not a cheap firm versus an expensive one, it is a first line against a whole ledger. Put entry beside entry, or completed path beside completed path, before you call one firm cheaper.
Worked example
Assumptions, not a forecastFrom a $145 checkout to a $489 funded account
- Hypothetical single-firm USD path. Every amount is a placeholder, and live prices vary by firm, plan and promo.
- Evaluation entry as paid: $145.
- Two logged resets: $80 each.
- One firm fee: $35.
- Funded activation after the pass: $149.
Cost to funded = $145 + $160 + $35 + $149 = $489. The checkout price is just under 30% of the finished number, and $344 of the total (resets, fee and activation) was charged after the first purchase decision.
All charges here sit in one USD attempt at one firm. The arithmetic says nothing about the probability of passing or whether another attempt is justified.
Tool tutorial
Build the ledger for one funded attempt
- 1
Log the evaluation in Quick Log at the amount charged, dated at purchase; when the charge and the list price differ, the charge is the number that goes in.
- 2
Log each reset and each renewal month as its own dated line, attaching an account only when the billing names it. An unnamed charge stays firm-level.
- 3
Mark the pass, add the funded account when the firm issues it, and log any activation as a separate line on that funded account; a zero or unpublished activation gets no invented line.
- 4
Open Performance & costs and read the same-currency desk total and the average cost per funded account; when one account's linked charges run clearly past that average, review that firm's fit before paying for the next attempt.
See the complete desk-wide cost baseline
Performance & costs totals all logged same-currency spend across the desk and divides it by funded seats. It does not claim that lifetime average is one campaign’s exact cost.
Pro required. Attribution follows the account links and dates you record. An unlinked charge counts in your desk total but explains no single account.
Evidence boundary
What NANO can and cannot know
NANO totals the same-currency charges you log and preserves account links. Its cost per funded account in Performance & costs is a desk-wide lifetime average rather than one attempt's exact bill. It will not infer a missing charge, assign an unlinked one to an account, or convert currencies at a rate you did not pay.
Common questions
- Should payouts reduce my cost of getting funded?
- No, cost to funded measures what the account cost to create, and a payout does not un-spend that money. In the worked example, netting a first $500 payout would show the account $11 ahead while a repeat attempt would still need $489 in cash. Put payouts in the profit number: received payouts minus all logged costs.
- Do monthly evaluation subscriptions count toward the total?
- Yes. Every renewal month the attempt stayed open is part of its cost, because the subscription keeps billing until you pass or cancel. Three months on a monthly-billed evaluation is three dated lines in the ledger.
- What if I don't know which account a reset belongs to?
- Log it as a firm-level cost and leave it unassigned. A guessed link corrupts the account's story worse than a gap does. It still counts in your desk total; it just cannot explain one account's price.
- Is there always an activation fee after passing?
- No, some firms charge a one-time activation to start the funded account, some bill a recurring monthly fee instead, and some charge nothing; the plan's published terms decide. Where the amount is unpublished, hold the line empty until checkout shows it rather than budgeting a guess.