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You make and sell

Know what it cost before you price it

Follow one batch from the materials you bought to the shelf it goes back on, with every cost that touched it landing in the unit.

Landing the material.
Scented soy candleActiveCost card
MaterialUSD 5,150.00
LabourUSD 450.00
Variable OHUSD 100.00
Fixed OH
Depreciation
Total batch costUSD 5,700.00
Cost breakdown
Material 90.4%5,150.00
Labour 7.9%450.00
Variable OH 1.7%100.00
Summary
Allocation methodBy sales value
Prime costUSD 5,600.00
Total overheadUSD 100.00
Total batch costUSD 5,700.00
Output products 1 product
Scented soy candle500 unit · 100%USD 11.40per unit
Bill of materials 5 materials
Soy wax flakes120 kg
Glass jars500 unit
Cotton wicks500 unit
Fragrance oil40 L
Saved once, and every run starts from it
OutputsBatch PRD000005 · Leeds Works
AllocationBy sales valueBy weightManual
OutputTypeQtyShareCost/unit
Scented soy candleMain50088.0%10.89
Wax melts — offcutBy-product24011.4%2.94
Wax sweepingsWaste18 kg0.6%
Net joint cost allocatedUSD 6,185.00
Total joint costUSD 6,185.00
Main product carriesUSD 5,442.80
By-products and waste kept apart
BatchesCost cardsMaterials
Finalised5
Draft3
Batches8 resultsNew
Batch noTitleOutputTotal costCost/unitStatus
PRD000005Soy candle run · 23 Jul 20265006,185.0012.37Finalised
PRD000004Soy candle run · 19 Jun 20262002,465.7612.33Finalised
D-PRD-00007Reed diffuser trial · 22 Aug 2026120836.856.97Draft
PRD000003Wax melt run · 11 May 20261,5004,421.852.95Finalised
D-PRD-00006Soy candle run · 25 Feb 20263003,684.5112.28Draft
PRD000002Candle gift set · 25 Feb 2026801,682.5721.03Finalised
Drafts carry a draft number until they are real
01Step one · Buy the materials

Land the material at its real cost

Imported material arrives with freight, clearing and duty attached, and the run gets costed on the supplier’s invoice price alone.

Put the landed costs on the same bill and they spread across the materials by value. What the run consumes is what it really cost.

See how procurement works

Receive it and hold it at cost

Materials enter stock when they arrive, at the location that took delivery, at what they landed at. Nothing waits for the invoice to catch up.

See how inventories work
Material detail
Soy wax flakesMaterial · PR-SOY-488B7B · kg
In stock
OverviewMovementAnalyticsAdjustments
On hand255.00
Available135.00
Consumed120.00
Material valueUSD 3,187.50@ USD 12.50 avg
Inventory by location4 locations
LocationOn handAvailableConsumedValue
Leeds Works180.0060.00120.002,250.00
Camden Branch45.0045.00562.50
Head office — London30.0030.00375.00
Bristol Depot
Consumed at the branch that held it, at what it paid
02Step two · Make it

Absorb everything the run consumed

Material is on the invoice. The hours, the power, the rent and the machine wearing out are a guess spread evenly over everything.

Charge a rate against actual hours, or a percentage of materials, of labour, of both, or of the whole run. Your accountant decides which.

See how productions work
New batch
New production batchPre-filled from cost card · using actual inventory costs
Save batch
Date22/08/2026
Batch #Auto-generated
CentreLeeds Works
AllocationBy sales value
ReferenceOptional
Materials5Raw materials consumed
MaterialQtyUnit cost (WAC)Total
Soy wax flakesPR-SOY-488B7B · 255 kg available120.000012.501,500.00
Glass jarsPR-GLA-4C8B34 · 255 unit available500.00004.202,100.00
Cotton wicksPR-COT-40DD5B · 33 unit available500.00001.65825.00
Fragrance oilPR-FRA-43CCCF · 141 L available40.000010.00400.00
Candle dyePR-CAN-426EFD · 32 unit available60.00005.50330.00
LabourDirect labour costs
Labour typeHoursRate/hrTotal
Pouring — Amelia Ward · direct14.0018.00252.00
Finishing — Dan Whitfield · direct11.0018.00198.00
OverheadIndirect costs with absorption
Expense / assetTypeDriverRateTotal
Workshop powerVariableLabour hours3.00/hr75.00
Workshop rentFixedOutput qty0.90/unit450.00
Pouring line — depreciationAssetMachine hours2.20/hr55.00
Cost summary
Materials (WAC)USD 5,155.00
Labour (25 hrs)USD 450.00
Variable overheadUSD 75.00
Fixed overheadUSD 450.00
DepreciationUSD 55.00
Total joint costUSD 6,185.00
Cost per unitUSD 12.37
Using actual costsMaterial costs use weighted average cost from inventory.
Output qty500 unit
Material, labour and overhead rolling to a cost per unit

Material off the shelf, onto the run

What the run consumed leaves stock at what it cost and lands on the run in the same action. The shelf and the job cost move in one moment.

See how inventories work

Split one batch across what it made

One run rarely makes one thing. Share the cost by value, by weight or by your own percentages, with by-products and waste kept apart.

See how productions work
Joint cost allocation
OutputsBatch PRD000005 · Leeds Works
AllocationBy sales valueBy weightManual
OutputTypeQtyShareCost/unit
Scented soy candleMain50088.0%10.89
Wax melts — offcutBy-product24011.4%2.94
Wax sweepingsWaste18 kg0.6%
Net joint cost allocatedUSD 6,185.00
Total joint costUSD 6,185.00
Main product carriesUSD 5,442.80
By-products and waste kept apart
The whole point

Price it because you can cost it.

03Step three · Sell it

Price against what making it took

Finished goods go into stock at a guess, so every sale of them reports a margin that was never real.

What came out enters stock at what the run actually cost. Sell it and the cost written against the sale is the one you earned.

See how invoicing works
Batches
BatchesCost cardsMaterials
Finalised5
Draft3
Batches8 resultsNew
Batch noTitleOutputTotal costCost/unitStatus
PRD000005Soy candle run · 23 Jul 20265006,185.0012.37Finalised
PRD000004Soy candle run · 19 Jun 20262002,465.7612.33Finalised
D-PRD-00007Reed diffuser trial · 22 Aug 2026120836.856.97Draft
PRD000003Wax melt run · 11 May 20261,5004,421.852.95Finalised
D-PRD-00006Soy candle run · 25 Feb 20263003,684.5112.28Draft
PRD000002Candle gift set · 25 Feb 2026801,682.5721.03Finalised
Drafts carry a draft number until they are real

Finished goods back on the shelf at cost

Material leaves work in progress, overhead is absorbed into it, and finished goods come back out at what the run cost. Nobody writes a journal and work in progress clears itself.

See how accounting works
04Step four · Read it

Compare what it cost to what it should have

A run comes in over and nobody can say whether it was the material, the labour or the overhead, or which location it happened at.

Against the cost card it started from, and against the runs before it, broken by cost component and by location.

See how reporting works

See which runs paid and which did not

Cost per unit over time, margin by output, and what each location produced. Read as at any past date, exactly as it stood.

See how reporting works
Batches
BatchesCost cardsMaterials
Finalised5
Draft3
Batches8 resultsNew
Batch noTitleOutputTotal costCost/unitStatus
PRD000005Soy candle run · 23 Jul 20265006,185.0012.37Finalised
PRD000004Soy candle run · 19 Jun 20262002,465.7612.33Finalised
D-PRD-00007Reed diffuser trial · 22 Aug 2026120836.856.97Draft
PRD000003Wax melt run · 11 May 20261,5004,421.852.95Finalised
D-PRD-00006Soy candle run · 25 Feb 20263003,684.5112.28Draft
PRD000002Candle gift set · 25 Feb 2026801,682.5721.03Finalised
Drafts carry a draft number until they are real

What a business like this switches on

Six capabilities, and nothing to connect between them.

Procurement, with freight reaching the material cost
Inventories, holding material and finished goods
Productions, absorbing overhead the way you absorb it
Fixed assets, so the machine’s wear reaches the unit
Invoicing, for what you sell on terms
Accounting, written as the run happens
One system

Six capabilities, one batch

Freight on the bill reaches the material cost. Material leaves the shelf and lands on the run. Finished goods come back on at what it cost.

Labour and overhead absorb into the unit
The machine’s depreciation absorbs with them
All of it posting through the same ledger
Materials
Off the shelf, at landed cost
The run
Labour, overhead, depreciation
Finished goods
Back on at what it cost
The unit
A cost you can price from
FAQ

Questions a business like this asks

Can I absorb overhead on a basis I choose?

Yes. A rate against actual hours, or a percentage of materials, of labour, of both together, or of the whole run. Set up once and reused, with variable, fixed and depreciation kept apart.

What if one run makes several products?

Share the cost by what each output is worth, by weight, or by percentages you set yourself. By-products and waste are handled separately so they do not distort the main product.

Does the machine’s depreciation reach the unit?

Yes. Depreciation is an overhead type, so a machine on the asset register can absorb into the runs it made, alongside material and labour.

Where does labour come from?

Recorded on the run: who worked it, for how long, at what rate, and whether it was direct or indirect. It reaches unit cost with everything else.

Can I plan a run before it is real?

Yes. A planned run carries a draft number and can be changed freely. It takes a real document number only when it becomes an actual run.

Do I need inventories to use production?

Yes. Material has to come off a shelf and finished goods have to go back onto one, so the two work together and are in the same plan.

Follow one batch all the way through

Receive materials, issue them to a run, add labour and overhead, split the outputs, then read the cost per unit.