The Candle Making Cost and Pricing Calculator Pack: Seven linked calculators, every formula checked by recalculation

Seven calculators for costing and pricing candles from your own supplies and your own hours. Sheet 1 turns a vessel's volume, your fill level, your wax's density and your fragrance load into grams of wax and fragrance per candle and per batch. Sheet 2 prices one candle from the bulk packages you buy: $6.92 of materials in the worked example. Sheet 3 adds your time and fixed costs, sheet 4 sets wholesale and retail prices from target margins with markup and margin side by side, sheet 5 shows what marketplace fees and a market booth take per sale, sheet 6 is a market-day profit sheet and sheet 7 a batch profit sheet across channels. Every figure is an example for you to overwrite, and the fragrance load is an input, not advice: the safe maximum comes from your wax supplier. These are estimates, not tax or legal advice. Every formula was recalculated and checked against an independent implementation before this shipped.

What is in it

7 calculators, one per sheet. Overwrite the blue cells with your own numbers and everything else follows. Nothing is locked, there are no macros, and it opens in Excel, Numbers, LibreOffice and Google Sheets.

• Wax and fragrance per jar: How much wax and fragrance does one candle and one batch take?
• Cost per candle: What do the materials in one finished candle cost?
• Labor and overhead: What does one candle cost once your time and fixed costs count?
• Wholesale and retail price: What wholesale and retail prices hit the margins you want?
• Fees and booth per sale: What do marketplace fees and a market booth take from a sale?
• Market day profit: What did a market day actually make?
• Batch and month profit: What does one batch earn, split across your sales channels?

Every formula was checked

This pack contains 66 formulas. Before it was published, every one of them was recalculated by a spreadsheet engine and compared against an independent implementation of the same arithmetic written in Python. All 66 agreed to within a cent, and the workbook carries a Verification sheet saying so.

That is an unusual thing to be able to claim about a spreadsheet, and it is the main reason to buy this one rather than download a free template. A formula that looks right and is wrong is worse than no formula at all, because you will act on it.

What each calculator assumes

There is a sheet listing this, because a calculator that hides its assumptions is just a number generator:

• Fragrance is measured as a share of wax weight, the way the load is stated here. Fragrance oil is taken to fill the jar at the same density as the wax. The fragrance load is an input, not advice; your wax supplier states the safe maximum for that wax.
• Prices are what you pay per case or bottle now, shipping included. Fragrance is bought by weight. Every wick and jar in the pack is usable.
• Fixed costs are spread evenly over the candles you make in a month. Cure time is not paid time. Every candle in the batch is sellable; a failed pour raises the cost of the rest.
• Both margins are on full cost including your pay, so the margin is profit on top of your wage. The margins are your choices; this sheet states no standard wholesale or retail ratio.
• Every candle is paid by card at the market. Fee shares are taken on the item price; shipping and any fee on shipping are outside this sheet. Profit is above full cost, which already pays your production time.
• Full cost already includes your production pay, so the per-hour figure is pay for market time only. Unsold candles go back to stock at no loss.
• Profit here is before your pay, so the per-hour figure is what production time earns; market hours are on sheet 6. Candles left unsold still carry their materials cost. Every batch in the month splits the same way.

What this is not

Not financial, tax or legal advice, and not a recommendation to buy, sell, borrow or sign anything. These are calculators: they show what a choice costs, not which choice is right for you. Where a published rate or threshold is used it is the one current when the pack was built; those change, the arithmetic does not.

Honest about the format

One .xlsx workbook, 7 calculator sheets plus Start Here, Assumptions and Verification. Not a PDF, not a physical product, not a Notion template. Available immediately after purchase; nothing ships.

Refunds

If this isn't what you expected, email me within 30 days and I'll refund you in full. No need to explain. Because it's an instant download I can't take the file back, so I'd rather you just had your money back.