Cost Cards
The reusable recipes that define exactly what goes into making a product — materials, labour, overhead and outputs.
A Cost Card is the master recipe for a manufactured product. It defines the standard materials, labour, and overhead required to produce one standard batch of the finished goods. Every time you run a production batch, you select a cost card and the system pre-fills the lines — which you then adjust to reflect actuals. Cost cards make production data entry fast and consistent while providing the baseline for variance analysis.
The Cost Cards Tab
Navigate to: Operations → Productions → Cost Cards tab
The Cost Cards tab lists all defined cost cards. Each row shows: Name, Total Cost, Output Cost/Unit, Materials (count of material lines), and Outputs (count of output lines).
Click any row to open the cost card. Click New Cost Card to create one.
Cost Card Sections
A cost card has five sections. Each section captures a different component of the total production cost.
| Section | What It Defines | Required? | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basic Info | Name, Allocation Method, and an optional description. | Name: yes | Allocation Method: By Sales Value, By Weight, or Manual %. It decides how the joint cost is shared between Main and Co-Product outputs. |
| Materials | The list of Material items consumed per batch. Each line has the item, the expected quantity, and the cost per unit. | Yes (minimum one line) | The cost defaults to the item's current cost; the stock on hand shows under each pick. The line amount and the Materials total update as you type. |
| Labour | Labour cost lines for this production run. Each line is an Expense item with hours and a rate. | No | Labour is optional — some businesses only track material costs. Labour lines are credited to their expense account on finalization. |
| Overhead | Absorbed overhead lines: rent, utilities, machine depreciation, or any other indirect cost attributed to production. Each line has an expense (or asset), a type, a driver, a source, an amount, a base, and the resulting rate. | No | Types: Variable, Fixed, Depreciation. Rate = Amount ÷ Standard Base; the driver (e.g. Output Qty) decides how much a batch absorbs. |
| Output Products | All items produced: the Main output, any Co-Products, By-Products, and Waste. Each line has a type, the product, the expected quantity, and a sell price. | Yes (minimum: one Main or Co-Product) | Only Material items, and Product or Material items marked Make, can be outputs. The Allocation / Cost/Unit columns show how the joint cost lands on each output. |
Building a Cost Card
Step 1 — Basic Info: Enter the Name, choose the Allocation Method, and add a description if useful.
Step 2 — Materials: Click "+ Material" and pick the item and quantity. The cost defaults to the item's current cost and the amount is calculated. Repeat for every material input.
Step 3 — Labour (optional): Click "+ Labour" and pick an expense item; enter hours and the rate. The amount is calculated.
Step 4 — Overhead (optional): Click "+ Overhead" and choose the type. For Variable and Fixed lines, pick the expense, the driver and the amount and base; for Depreciation, pick the asset. The rate is calculated from Amount ÷ Base.
Step 5 — Output Products: Click "+ Output" and add the Main output with its expected quantity and sell price. If the process also generates co-products, by-products or waste, add those lines with the right type.
Step 6 — Review and Save: The Summary panel shows Materials, Labour, Fixed OH, Depreciation, Joint Cost and Total Production Cost, and each output's cost per unit. Review these numbers before saving — they are the benchmark that batch actuals will be compared against.
Estimated Cost Per Unit
The cost card calculates an estimated cost per unit from the material costs on its lines, plus labour and overhead. This is an estimate — a batch uses the material items' weighted average cost at the time it is created, so actual production cost will vary as costs move with each new purchase receipt.
If a key raw material's cost spikes — a commodity price increase, a currency movement, a supply chain disruption — review the affected cost cards. New batches pick up the current average cost automatically, but the card's own standard costs, your pricing and your margin assumptions may need to be revisited.
Duplicating a Cost Card
To create a variation of an existing cost card (different batch size, alternative formulation, premium vs standard ingredient set), use Duplicate on the card. The copy opens with all sections pre-populated. Edit as needed and save.
Deleting a Cost Card
A cost card can be deleted from the Cost Cards tab. Batches already created from it keep their own copies of the lines, so deleting a card does not change historical batches.