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Food Costing Sheet

When it comes to running a cottage food business, you need a food costing sheet and monthly food cost report. Without these items, you will have no idea how to appropriately price your items or what profit you are actually generating. Food costing is centered on the idea of comparing your cost of goods sold (ingredients) and your revenue (sales). If you haven’t completed food costing, you may be under charging for your products and cutting into your own profits.

If you are wondering how to calculate food cost for a recipe, there are numerous resources available, including food cost spreadsheet Google Docs and daily food cost formula. These same resources can be used to learn how to do costing for bakery products.

Aside from understanding your profits, food costing provides numerous benefits. When you understand your costs, you can see your menu from a whole new light. You will know which ingredients overlap in which recipes. You can also identify the products that are most profitable for your business.

You should not just engage in food costing once. Since the market will continue to fluctuate the price of your ingredients, you need to complete this exercise as often as possible to confidently run your business. The more you complete a food cost analysis, the more you can optimize low-margin recipes and appropriately price your menu.

Food Cost Inventory Spreadsheet

Whether you are an Excel wiz or never opened a spreadsheet in your life, creating a food cost formula excel does not need to be difficult. You can make it as pretty or plain as you would like. What matters is being able to easily input the numbers and get the results you desire. You can look at this example of a baking cost calculator spreadsheet for inspiration.

If you are going to create a food inventory spreadsheet on your own, include the following columns:

Your food cost inventory spreadsheet can always be modified to better fit your business needs. If your cottage food operation also wants to include packing, feel free to add a column! You can also also use formulas to ensure your calculations are correct.

Your ingredient, unit, and quantity can easily be found with your recipe. You can identify the pack size and pack price from your box and receipt. For the cost per unit, use a simple formula to divide the pack price by the pack size. The trim yield can easily be determined when you clean up. You can use a percentage, if you prefer, rather than ounces, cups, etc.

Food Costing Calculator

We are fortunate to live in the era of the internet, so the numerous recipe cost calculator software and food costing calculator options available to us are endless! You can easily find a food cost calculator free online or pay for a cheap food cost calculator app in the app store. Another beautiful aspect of our era is the ability to read all of the reviews of others who have used these calculators, apps, and softwares before you. You can easily determine what will fit your needs and budget in just a few clicks or swipes.

A food costing calculator is a wonderful option for those who want to avoid having their laptop taking up counter space while they are preparing their cottage foods. It also avoids having to build and maintain a spreadsheet. The only downside to using these apps, websites, and/or software if you may have a hard time downloading the reports. You may still need to use a spreadsheet or subscribe to a higher cost software in order to keep all of your data in one place.

Additional Resources

Cottage Food Law Michigan | Cottage Food Law Wisconsin | Cottage Food Laws Florida | Cottage Food License | Cottage Food Sales Tax | Cottage Industry Laws | Home Food Laws | Laws About Selling Homemade Food | Laws on Selling Food From Home | License to Cook and Sell Food From Home | Microenterprise Home Kitchen Operations | Permit to Sell Food From Home | Permit to Sell Food From Home California | Rules for Selling Food From Home


Learn how to manage food costs, track inventory, keep track of ingredient costs, and more so you can run your home-based food business more effectively.

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