Maker Pricing Calculator (Excel 365)

Price each handmade item so it covers your materials, your time and your costs.

30-day money-back guarantee. No questions asked.

One-time purchase. No subscription. No macros.

What should this item sell for, wholesale and retail, and what's left after fees?

For makers and small-batch studios: candles, soap, jewelry, ceramics, prints, sewn and leather goods, woodwork. For anyone selling on a marketplace, at markets and fairs, on their own website or wholesale to shops.

Four questions, answered for every product

• What does one item really cost to make? Materials per batch divided by the items the batch makes, your time at the hourly rate you set, a share of your monthly overheads, and packaging.

• What should it sell for? A suggested wholesale price at your margin target and a retail price at your multiple, rounded up to the step you choose. Type your own prices to test them.

• What does each place you sell leave? For every channel: price, shipping charged, fees, postage, what's left after costs, the margin after fees and the lowest price that covers your costs.

• How many do I need to sell? The items a month that cover your overheads and a channel's own costs, such as a booth fee.

Seven sheets, one job

• Start Here: setup in five steps: currency, your hourly rate, monthly overheads, margin target, retail multiple and rounding.

• Dashboard: four key figures, the checks, one product in detail with a row per channel, six pricing signals and two charts.

• Products: one row per product with its cost to make, suggested and used prices, margins and what it leaves on each channel.

• Recipes: what goes into one batch of each product, one line per material.

• Materials: what you buy, with the pack price, shipping on the pack, units in the pack and waste. The cost per unit is worked out for you.

• Channels: each place you sell, with the fees you type and the date you checked them. No fee figures are built in.

• Guide: every input, calculation and check explained, with what to type for common kinds of channel.

Built to be checked

Yellow cells: you type. Leave every other cell to the workbook.

Yellow: you type here · White: calculated, don't type here · Grey: lists and reference values

Ten named checks give one status on every sheet: OK, CHECK (n) or SAMPLE. A row with a problem reads Review and stays out of the key figures until you fix it. Fees carry the date you checked them, and the Dashboard flags any older than 180 days.

Sheets are protected without a password, so formulas aren't overwritten by accident. No macros, no external links, no hidden sheets.

Setup

Fill in Setup, list your materials and channels, then add your products and what goes into each batch: about 10 minutes, plus about 3 minutes per product.

The worked example is a fictional candle and soap studio. Its 8 oz lavender candle costs 8.94 to make, including 2.50 of the maker's time at 20.00 an hour. The suggested prices are 18.00 wholesale and 36.00 retail; at the studio's own price of 28.00 it leaves 14.38 per item on Etsy after the sample fees and postage. Its wax melts, sold wholesale at 4.00, lose 0.54 a pack, and the Dashboard says so. Clear the example in three steps to start your own.

Light or Dark theme for Start Here and the Dashboard. Print setup for US Letter, checked on A4.

Tested in Excel 365 for Windows desktop on 29 Oct 2026: 37 of 41 checks passed; 4 need a person at the screen and were not run; 1 does not apply (a currency check; this file uses one currency). Workbook 1.0.0, Excel 16.0.20527.20112 on Windows Server 2025 Standard 10.0.26100. Excel for Mac, Excel for the web and Google Sheets are not yet tested.

What's in the download

One ZIP file:

• maker-pricing-calculator-v1.0.0-blank.xlsx: the workbook for your own products

• maker-pricing-calculator-v1.0.0-worked-example.xlsx: the same workbook with a fictional candle and soap studio's data

• START-HERE.html: open this first. It lists every file and where to begin.

• quick-start.md: setup steps, a three-record test and how to read the results

• metric-dictionary.md: every field and calculation defined

• support-and-compatibility.md: where it's tested, and how to get help

• license.md: the license terms

• release-notes-v1.0.0.md: what is in this version

• money-back-guarantee.md: the 30-day money-back guarantee

• MANIFEST-maker-pricing-calculator-v1.0.0.sha256: checksums, so you can check every file arrived intact

Not for you if

• You need inventory counts, reorder points or the value of your stock.

• You need bookkeeping, sales tax returns or income tax figures.

• You want fees or orders pulled in automatically from Etsy, Shopify or another platform.

• You sell in more than one currency and need prices converted.

• You need several people editing at once with permissions or change history.

Known limitations

• One currency per file. There are no exchange rates.

• Fees are the figures you type, with the date you checked them. Nothing updates them for you. Payment fees charged on sales tax are not included.

• Overheads are shared evenly: every item carries the same share, whatever its size.

• Shipping you charge and per-order fees are spread over your average items per order.

• Each variant (size, scent, color) is its own product row. Up to 100 products, 600 recipe lines, 200 materials and 6 channels.

• Prices are before sales tax and VAT. Suggested prices are rounded up to the step you choose.

• Tested in Excel 365 for Windows desktop. Excel for Mac, Excel for the web and Google Sheets are not yet tested.

• Excel mobile and the Google Sheets mobile apps are for viewing only, not data entry.

License

Single-business, US$15

For one business or sole trader, and everyone who works in it.

Allowed: edit and extend the workbook, keep backups, share prices and results with your team, customers, shops and advisers.

Not allowed: using it for a second business, giving an editable copy to anyone outside the business, reselling it or posting it online.

Agency/Team is store-wide

If your business holds the Client Profitability Tracker's Agency/Team license (US$99) or the Agency Operating Bundle's Agency/Team tier (US$129), it covers this calculator too, with working copies for up to 5 client businesses you manage. This calculator has no Agency/Team price of its own, and it is not part of the bundle. Agency/Team is bought with the tracker (https://payhip.com/b/jq87M) or the bundle (https://metricvalley.com/bundles/).

The full terms are in license.md in your download and at https://metricvalley.com/license/

30-day money-back guarantee

If the calculator isn't right for your business, email support@metricvalley.com within 30 days of purchase with your order number. You'll get a full refund to your original payment method. No questions asked and no forms to fill in. We reply within 1 business day and start the refund then. Downloading the files doesn't affect the guarantee. We only ask that you delete your copies.

This guarantee is in addition to your rights under the Australian Consumer Law and any other consumer law that applies to you.

Updates: free updates to the 1.x line, delivered through your Payhip download link.

Google Sheets edition: included free for every buyer when it ships. It isn't available yet.

Support: email support@metricvalley.com. We reply within 1 business day, Monday to Friday, Australian Eastern time. Included: help getting the workbook working as described, and fixes for anything that doesn't. Not included: custom setup, entering your data, redesigning formulas, or accounting and tax advice.

Prices are in US dollars. Any sales tax or VAT that applies is shown at checkout before you pay.

Metricvalley is independent of Microsoft, Google and Etsy. No fee figures are built into the workbook: you type the fees that apply to your account.

Nothing in the calculator is tax, accounting or financial advice.