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Batch Cost Calculator

What does one piece from a batch cost you?

Candles, soap, bakes and small-batch anything are made many at a time and sold one at a time. Put in what a batch costs you and how many it makes, and see the true cost and margin of a single piece.

Your numbers

Your time, for the batch
$31.25
Cost of the whole batch
$75.53
Cost of one piece
$6.29
Price for the margin you want
$15.74

At $14.00 you are keeping 55.0% of each sale. You need $15.74 for your target.

The Maker's Costing Workbook does this sum from your recipes, for every product, and keeps your materials stock as you make batches.

See the Maker's Costing Workbook, $19

How the sum works

  1. Your time = hourly rate times minutes, divided by 60.
  2. Batch cost = materials plus your time plus packaging for every piece.
  3. Cost of one piece = batch cost divided by the number of pieces the batch makes.
  4. Price for your margin = cost of one piece divided by (1 minus the margin).

Questions

How do I work out the materials for a batch?

For each material, divide the pack price by the pack size to get a cost per gram, millilitre or piece, then multiply by the amount the recipe uses. Add the lines together. A pack bought once but used across many batches is costed by the amount used, not the amount bought.

Should I count my time if I enjoy making?

Yes. The hours are real whether or not you enjoy them, and a price that ignores them cannot pay anyone to help you when the orders grow.

The batch makes a different number each time. What do I enter?

Use the number you usually get, and remember that breakages and seconds raise the cost of the good ones. If a batch of 12 usually yields 11 you can sell, enter 11.

What margin should I aim for?

Enough to cover your selling fees, packaging, marketing and overheads and still leave a profit. Many makers aim for a margin that lets them sell wholesale at about half the retail price.

This was one batch

The Maker's Costing Workbook does this for every recipe you make.

Type each material once, with the pack you buy it in. Build recipes from them, log the batches you make, and the cost per unit, your margin and your materials stock all follow. One payment of $19.

Get the workbook for $19 See what's inside
The dashboard tab of the Maker's Costing Workbook: margins, materials to reorder, units made and hours.

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