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▶Recipe Cost and Home Bakery
Price your ingredients once and every recipe reprices itself. Then it counts your hours and tells you what they really paid.
Every cake goes out of the door, everybody says it was beautiful, and at the end of the month there is nothing left. This spreadsheet says why, in numbers, on one screen.
- One ingredient price list that feeds every recipe, costed to four decimal places per gram
- Grams, millilitres, cups, tablespoons, teaspoons or each — typed the way the recipe was written
- Packaging costed down to a single box, board, bag, ribbon or label
- Your own time inside the cost, so the cost each IS the lowest price that is not a favour
- A profit-by-product ranking from the orders you actually delivered, and a Schedule C summary
Overview
Price your ingredients once and every recipe reprices itself. Then it counts your hours and tells you what they really paid.
Every cake goes out of the door, everybody says it was beautiful, and at the end of the month there is nothing left. This spreadsheet says why, in numbers, on one screen.
Price your ingredients once and every recipe reads that one list, so when butter goes up you change a single cell and every cake, cupcake and cookie reprices itself. Then it does the part almost no pricing sheet does: it puts your own hours into the cost at the wage you set. In the shipped sample the layer cake costs $66.55 to make once your time is counted, sells for $45.00, and pays your hands $10.66 an hour. The chocolate chip cookies pay $38.58.
What's Included
One workbook, 13 connected tabs, in four color editions:
- One ZIP with the workbook in four color editions plus the three-color bundle
- A two-page Quick-Start PDF: the four things to do first, what every tab is for, and the honest warnings
- A START-HERE file naming which file to open and how the colorways work
- A worked six-product bakery in every tab, so nothing is blank until you replace it
- A link to the narrated video tutorial that prices a recipe step by step
Key Benefits
Why this one
Type what the pack cost and how much came in it; the cost per unit is worked out to four decimal places, because a gram of butter is a fifth of a cent and rounding it away is how a margin goes missing. Nineteen ingredients as it ships, and this is the only place a price is ever typed.
Minutes per unit are priced at the wage you set on Setup and added to the cost of every item. Because your wage is inside it, the cost each is the lowest price that is not a favour to the customer. In the sample, five of six products sell below that line, and the file says so in a column rather than leaving you to feel it.
Batch minutes come from the recipe and are shared across the batch; decorating, packing and running about are per item, and they are typed, because only you know them. The last column is the truth: $14.63 an hour across everything the sample bakery delivered, against a goal of $22.00.
Profit by Product ranks what you sell by what an hour of making it actually paid, using the orders you really delivered. The showpiece cake pays $10.66 an hour and the chocolate chip cookies pay $38.58. That does not mean stop making cakes. It does mean you now know which one is carrying the other.
Boxes, boards, bags, ribbon and labels, costed from the case price down to a single item. A cupcake takes one liner and a sixth of a six-box, so you type a fraction and the file believes you. On the sample cake, packaging alone is $1.64 before a single ingredient.
The order book tracks who wants what, when it is due and what is still owed. The ledger records every dollar in and out. The Schedule C tab sorts your own categories into the lines on the form. It is not tax advice; it is your own arithmetic, ready to hand over.
Who It's For
Built for
- Home bakers and cottage food sellers who suspect they are underpricing
- Cake, cupcake and cookie decorators who take custom orders
- Farmers market and craft fair bakers who want to know what an hour paid
- Anyone who has been told to "charge what you are worth" and had no way to work out what that is
How It Works
Up and running in minutes
Open Setup and type the wage you want an hour and the profit you want on top. They are two different things and the file keeps them apart.
On Ingredients, type what the pack cost and how much came in it. That is the only place a price is ever typed.
On Recipes, one line per ingredient in whatever unit the recipe is written in. Say what the batch makes and how long it takes.
On Pricing, the cost each already pays you your wage. Anything under it is a favour.
Time and Wage has the number. Profit by Product has the ranking. Neither is usually what people expect.
Why It's Different
Not another template
The shelf is full of recipe cost calculators that add up ingredients and stop. A few add packaging. Almost none put your own hours into the cost, and none of the ones we could find tell you what an hour of making each product actually paid you. That last number is the one that changes how people price, so this file leads with it.
Delivery & Compatibility
Instant, and it opens in what you already use
As soon as your order is complete you get instant access to download the ZIP: the workbook in four color editions, the three-color bundle, a two-page Quick-Start PDF and a START-HERE file.
One ZIP, instant download. Portable formulas only — no macros, no add-ons, no account and nothing to cancel. Opens in Microsoft Excel (2016 or later, Mac or PC) and Google Sheets; to use Sheets, upload the .xlsx to Drive and open it with Sheets. Apple Numbers opens it too. The four colorways are the same workbook: pick one and stay in it.
FAQ
Questions, answered
Grams or cups?
Either. Type cups, tablespoons or teaspoons and the file converts using the grams-per-cup you put on the Ingredients tab. Whole things like eggs are counted as each.
How many recipes does it hold?
Ten products and ninety recipe lines as it ships, with nineteen ingredients and ten packaging items priced. Insert rows inside the blocks and the named ranges stretch.
Is this tax advice?
No. The Schedule C tab sorts your own categories into the usual lines. It does not know your state, your home office or your vehicle. Take it to whoever does your taxes.
Will it work in Google Sheets?
Yes. Every formula is portable. Upload the .xlsx to Google Drive and open it with Sheets; formulas and dropdowns carry over.
A pricing and record-keeping tool that calculates from the numbers you enter. It is not tax, financial or business advice. Overhead is charged as a flat percentage of each job and waste is not modelled; the How the Math Works tab says so in full. The workbook ships with an invented six-product bakery so every tab has something in it; delete it and type your own.
