Break-even calculator

Find how many sales a month you need to cover your fixed costs, from your average price and the variable cost of each sale. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.

Fixed monthly costs ($) Average price per sale ($) Variable cost per sale ($) Days open per month

Fixed costs are the ones you pay whether you sell or not (rent, salaries, insurance, loan payments). Variable cost per sale is ingredients, packaging and card fees for one sale.

Need a solid variable cost per sale? The Recipe Cost Workbook keeps one ingredient price list for every recipe, handles kg/g, l/ml and dozen, and adds labor, packaging and overhead. $12, instant .xlsx download.

How it works

Contribution per sale = average price − variable cost per sale. Break-even units = fixed costs ÷ contribution per sale, rounded up. Break-even sales = break-even units × average price. Per day = break-even units ÷ days open, rounded up.

Worked example (the values above): each sale contributes $14.00 − $5.20 = $8.80, which is $8.80 ÷ $14.00 = 62.9% of the price. $8,500 ÷ $8.80 = 965.9, so you need 966 sales a month, or 966 × $14 = $13,524 in sales. Over 26 days that is 966 ÷ 26 = 37.2, so 38 sales a day.

Every sale above break-even adds its contribution, $8.80 here, to profit. To get your variable cost per sale from a recipe, use the free recipe cost calculator. See also more calculators.