Product costing

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scottief

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I know I saw somewhere a sheet that would help cost out how much a bar/loaf cost. Could you point me in the direction. Im pretty sure I saw it somewhere in the forums. Thanks
 
Bah! Software is not needed.

A working example (but not a real example!):

I buy 1kg palm at 3€. 1kg OO at 4€. 1Kg CO at 4€. 5kg Lye at 15€.

I make a 1kg batch of soap. It is has 150gr CO, 450gr Palm and 400gr OO. 62gr Lye, too.

So then I work out what 1gr of each ingredient costs, multiply it by the amount used and then I have my batch ingredients cost:

Cost/weight = cost per unit. So for the CO it is 400 (4€ = 400 cents) / 1000 (1kg = 1000grams) = 0.4 cents per gram.

OO is also 400/1000 = 0.4 cents per gram
Palm is 300/1000 = 0.3 cents per gram
Lye is 1500/500 = 0.3 cents per gram

Then we multiply the gram costs by the grams used:

CO = 0.4x150 = 60 cents
OO = 0.4x400 = 160 cents
Palm = 0.3x 450 = 135 cents
Lye = 0.3x62 = 19 cents (rounded up)

Add these together to get the total batch cost = 374 cents = 3.74€ per batch.

You also need to factor in time taken (including clean up and cutting, putting out to cure) x your hourly rate. Add that to the batch cost. It takes me 30 minutes and my rate is 10€ an hour = 0.5x10 = 5€ labour costs.

Total batch costs = 5+3.74 = 8.74€ per batch

Then finally divide the batch cost by the number of bars and you have your bar cost. I make 10 bars in this batch, so it is 8.74/10 = 87.4 cents per bar.

This is taken on an unscented, uncoloured batch with no exfoliants or anything, which would also need to be worked out.

I use a spreadsheet for these things for now - I have the costs per gram for my ingredients already listed and I work from that with each recipe. Once you have the cost per unit, then you can easily work out the costs for each recipe.
 
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