Cost each piece to the gram and minute
It is easy to price a handmade piece from what the materials cost and leave out the hour you spent making it. I built one workbook that costs each product from your own supply packs, adds your time, the packaging and a share of the overheads, and flags any price that sits under what the piece really costs.
The question
this build answers
How do I work out what one handmade item really costs, with my time and overheads counted, before I set its price?
From the first trigger
to the finished job.
The working version, step by step.
Price each supply once
On the Supplies tab I give every material you buy one line with its pack size, pack price and your share of the delivery. The sheet divides that down to a cost per gram, per millilitre or per item, and there is room for 60 materials.
Build each product from its materials
I made room for 25 products, each taking up to 12 materials from your supply list with the amount one item uses, plus packaging and your minutes per item. Type your hourly rate once and the true cost adds materials, packaging, your time and an overhead share.
Let the Check cell find the gaps
Under each product sits a Check cell that names anything the true cost is still missing. I put it there so a block with a blank line in it cannot pass for a finished cost.
Time a batch
If you would like to measure your minutes, my optional Time log takes a whole batch with its total minutes and the items it made. The sheet averages the minutes per item, and Products uses that figure wherever you leave the typed minutes blank.
Spread the overheads
My Overheads tab takes your studio share, insurance, software and tools, each spread over the months it covers. The monthly total is divided over the items you make in a typical month, which gives every product its overhead share.
Read the price ladder
I put every product on one list with its true cost, a wholesale and a retail price at your own multipliers, and the profit and margin at what you charge now. Any price under the true cost is flagged as a loss, and that is before Etsy's fees come off.
The cost tracker, instant download
Handmade cost and materials tracker: true cost per item, supply stock with reorder flags and a wholesale and retail price ladder
You get one Excel workbook that also imports into Google Sheets, plus a README and a sources file. It is an instant download with nothing to install. If a number or a formula looks wrong, message me from your order and I will check it.
Open the cost tracker on EtsyChecked by recalculating it
Before listing it, I recalculated all 2,363 formulas across the seven tabs with a formula engine outside Excel, and none returned an error.
My test was a sample month with four supplies and two products made from them, a fig candle and an oat soap bar, plus a month of overheads and a time log. I worked out 156 values by hand and the workbook agreed with every one. The materials used on the Supplies tab came to 218.14, the same total as units made times materials per item on Products.
Where the pricing rule comes from
I took the ladder from Etsy's Seller Handbook article on pricing for wholesale, which I read on 18 September 2026. It adds supplies, overhead and labour to reach a break-even price, and this file calls that the true cost once packaging is added.
Wholesale is the true cost times two or more, and retail is wholesale times two or more, which the article calls keystone pricing. I set both multipliers to 2 in blue cells, so you can change them to suit the prices your market will pay.
What it leaves out
The handbook article's worked example uses a 3.5 percent transaction fee that is older than Etsy's current fee schedule, so I kept fees out of this file on purpose. Type the true cost into my Etsy pricing and profit calculator as your cost per item and it works out every fee there.
Sales, expenses and tax live in my Etsy bookkeeping and inventory bundle, and finished stock with its dispatch dates sits in my Etsy order and inventory tracker.
Before you spend anything
The fit matters.
Who should not buy this
If you sell digital downloads or print on demand, there are no supply packs for you to cost, and most of this workbook would sit empty.
If you want Etsy's fees, your sales and your tax year in the same file, my bookkeeping bundle and pricing calculator cover those and this one leaves them out.
Yours to keep
What lands
on your desk.
- A seven-tab Excel workbook that opens in Numbers and LibreOffice and imports into Google Sheets
- Supplies with a cost per unit and reorder flags, with room for 60 materials and 25 products of up to 12 materials each
- A true cost per item from materials, packaging, your time and overheads, and a wholesale and retail price ladder
- A README with the monthly routine and a sources file naming the pricing rule and when I read it
See the work
Open the proof.
Published case studies of running systems. Each links to the thing itself.
A few useful
answers.
Does it work in Google Sheets?
Import it through File, Import, Upload. Every formula in it uses a function Google Sheets supports, and I checked the results on a filled sample copy before I listed it.
Does it include Etsy's fees?
I left them out on purpose, because the pricing and profit calculator in my shop works them out from the true cost this file gives you.
Which currency does it use?
Whichever one you sell in, because I fixed no currency symbol anywhere in the file and every pack price is a number you type.
What do I do at the start of each month?
Copy On hand now into Stock at start of month as values, clear Bought this month and type the new units made, which is the whole monthly routine in my README.
A little further down
the same path.
Related builds for the rest of your business.
Make this work for you
Your tools.
Your working version.
Want this built and handed over working? Tell me what your version needs to do. One line is enough to start.
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