Handmade Candle Business Cost Calculator

Candles are not made one at a time — they are poured in batches, and a batch’s cost is only honest when the failures are in it. This calculator costs a batch of handmade candles end to end, with candle inputs only: wax, fragrance oil, wicks, containers and labels, typed per batch.

The sample batch costs $78.60, and the sheet prints its largest line by name: fragrance oil at $31.20 — 39.7% of the batch, ahead of wax at $24.60. The batch poured 12 candles; 1 came out defective. Both per-candle figures print, because they are not the same number: $6.55 per candle poured against $7.15 per SELLABLE candle. The defective candle still used wax, fragrance oil, a wick, a container and a label, and its share of the batch cost lands on the 11 candles that can actually be sold.

The price check tests your own prices against that $7.15 sellable cost. The sample’s $18.00 market price keeps $10.85 a candle (60.3%) and the $24.00 online price keeps $16.85 (70.2%). The $6.50 wholesale price does not clear the cost at all — it lands $0.65 BELOW cost per candle, and the sheet flags it BELOW COST in the open rather than letting it hide in an average. A typed run — the sample’s Saturday market run of 6 batches — totals $471.60 for 66 sellable candles.

HOW IT WORKS
– ‘Batch Cost Calculator’: type the batch cost of wax, fragrance oil, wicks, containers and labels. The batch total, each line’s share, and the largest cost line by name calculate from your figures.
– The yield block: candles poured and defective candles typed; sellable candles, cost per candle poured and cost per sellable candle print side by side.
– ‘Price Check’: up to 3 of your own selling prices against the cost per sellable candle — margin per candle and margin % per price, with any price below cost flagged BELOW COST.

WHAT’S INSIDE
– A candle-only batch cost build: wax, fragrance oil, wicks, containers, labels — nothing else
– The largest cost line printed by name with its share (sample: fragrance oil, 39.7%)
– Defective candles excluded from the sellable count, so cost per sellable candle prints higher than cost per poured candle (sample: $7.15 vs $6.55)
– A three-price check with a below-cost price flagged plainly (sample: $6.50, -$0.65)
– A batch roll-up: cost and sellable count for a typed run of batches (sample: 6 batches, $471.60, 66 candles)
– Plus the standard Expense Log, zero-based Monthly Budget, Dashboard and Monthly Summary tabs

Every material cost and price in this workbook is an example setting you type — the sheet does arithmetic on your figures only, and never tells you what to charge.

How it works: the seven tabs are Start Here (your settings + step-by-step), the two feature tabs, Expense Log, Monthly Budget (zero-based), Dashboard and Monthly Summary. Yellow cells are the only places you type — every yellow value is your own entry. Formula cells are locked (password: sheetdaily, disclosed on the Start Here tab) and every formula is error-wrapped, so an untouched sheet reads blank instead of showing error codes. Instant download, ready for Excel and Google Sheets.

A note on the sample data: every price and date in this workbook is example data, typed in by hand to show you how the sheet behaves. Replace it with your own.