Feature

Material Cost Tracking

Know what every product actually costs to make, down to the last gram of clay or metre of thread.

Material cost tracking is the practice of recording every component that goes into a product so you know the exact cost of goods sold per unit. Without it, you cannot accurately calculate profit margins or know your minimum sustainable price.

Why material costs matter

When you sell handmade goods, materials are your biggest variable cost. A skein of yarn, a sheet of plywood, a bottle of glaze - each one eats into your margin. Without tracking them, you are guessing at profitability.

Many makers know their top-line revenue but cannot say whether a specific product is actually profitable after materials, fees, and labour. Material cost tracking closes that gap.

How MakerTools handles materials

• Reusable material library. Add a material once - name, price, unit, category, tags - then reuse it across any number of products.
• Per-product allocation. Assign exact quantities to each product. If a scarf uses 150 g of wool, record it once and the cost follows automatically.
• Automatic cost roll-up. Material costs are summed, VAT is accounted for, and the total feeds directly into your product margin and profit calculations.
• Searchable and taggable. Organise by category, supplier, or project. Find what you need when building a product.

The cost of not tracking

A 2023 survey of handmade sellers found that nearly 40% did not know their per-unit material cost. Of those, most priced their products below sustainable levels without realising it. Material tracking is not busywork - it is the foundation of sustainable pricing.

Without it, a discount that looks reasonable on paper can easily erase your entire margin. With it, you know your floor price, your breakeven point, and exactly what a sale will cost you.