What You'll Learn

How BakeOnyx calculates the true cost of every recipe
Why ingredient cost alone isn't enough — labour and overhead matter
How to set prices that actually make you money

The Cost Flow: Ingredient to Profit

This is the single most important concept in BakeOnyx. Once you understand this flow, you'll never underprice a product again.

Step 1: Ingredient Costs

Every ingredient has a cost per unit. For example:

Flour: $0.002 per gram ($2 per kg)
Butter: $0.005 per gram ($5 per kg)
Eggs: $0.35 each
Sugar: $0.0015 per gram ($1.50 per kg)
Cocoa powder: $0.008 per gram ($8 per kg)

Step 2: Recipe Cost (Ingredients Only)

Your Chocolate Cake recipe uses:

500g flour = $1.00
250g butter = $1.25
4 eggs = $1.40
200g sugar = $0.30
100g cocoa = $0.80

Total ingredient cost: $4.75 for 12 slices = $0.40 per slice

Step 3: The TRUE Cost (What Most Bakers Miss)

Ingredients are only part of the picture. You also need to account for:

Labour: You spend 45 minutes on this cake. At $20/hour, that's $15
Overhead: Your kitchen costs $3,000/month. If you make ~200 items/month, that's about $15 per item

TRUE cost: $4.75 + $15 + $15 = $34.75 for 12 slices = $2.90 per slice

Warning: If you only count ingredient costs ($4.75) and sell the whole cake for $8, you're actually losing $26.75 on every cake. This is the #1 mistake new bakers make.

Step 4: Setting a Profitable Price

With a true cost of $34.75, here's what different markups look like:

40% markup: Sell at $57.92 → Profit of $23.17 per cake
50% markup: Sell at $69.50 → Profit of $34.75 per cake
Per slice at $5.50: Revenue $66 → Profit of $31.25 (47% margin)

What BakeOnyx Does Automatically

Calculates ingredient costs from your prices — you never do math by hand
Adds labour and overhead from your General Settings
Shows cost per serving on every recipe
Suggests sell prices based on your markup target
Auto-updates when prices change — if butter goes up 20%, all recipe costs update instantly

Tip: Set your labour rate and overhead costs in Settings → General Settings during onboarding. Even rough estimates are better than $0 — you can refine later.

Key Reports to Monitor

P&L Dashboard: "Am I making money overall?"
Food Cost Analysis: "Which products have the best/worst margins?"
Pricing Optimizer (Scale plan): AI suggests price adjustments based on your cost data

Next Steps

Understanding Recipe Costing — the cost breakdown page explained
Batch and Portion Costing — for weight-based recipes
Profit & Loss Dashboard — see your complete financial picture