6sec: Cost Calculation

What this solution does

The cost calculation module determines the full production cost of a product and compares it with the price in Bitrix. The calculation includes expenses for materials, labor, equipment, electricity, and other costs. Users define the cost structure, and the results are displayed in the catalog and product cards.

Costs extend beyond raw materials. The calculation must account for packaging, fasteners, and assembly time. Omitting these elements results in an understated product cost.

Calculations require regular updates. When suppliers change prices or product composition changes, the calculations must be revised. For groups of similar products, the same adjustments often need to be applied en masse.

Monitoring profitability across a wide assortment is difficult manually. Without automated control, it is easy to miss items where the price no longer covers the costs.

Usually, the cost of main materials is already known. It is more difficult to gather all other expenses together: packaging, employee labor, and machine time. In this module, these costs are described jointly so that the origin of the final sum becomes clear.

This set of expenses is called a cost model. In it, you specify material consumption, production operations, and production volume—for a single item or a batch. The module calculates the unit cost of the product.

Materials and packaging

The reference book stores prices and units of measurement. The model specifies the quantity of material, fasteners, or packaging required for this specific product.

Employee labor

You can set rates for different types of work and specify the time spent in operations. Then assembly and processing are calculated based on the rate and duration.

Equipment and energy

Equipment operation is calculated by hourly cost. Electricity is calculated separately based on power, time, and the applicable tariff.

The cost calculation module accounts for the fact that suppliers sell sheets in full units, while only a portion of each sheet is consumed by a finished product. The built-in calculator allows users to input the sheet price and dimensions, automatically compute the cost per square meter, and transfer the result to the form. Equipment usage has a separate hourly rate calculation. In both scenarios, the original parameters are saved, enabling users to return to them during subsequent editing.

When a supplier updates their price list, manually opening each record in the directory is time-consuming. To streamline this, you can download a template containing current records, enter new prices in Excel, and upload the file back. The module first validates the rows and displays any errors found. Changes are applied only after user confirmation. This workflow supports materials, labor, equipment, and work operations.

If a new product differs from an existing one only by material or a single operation, it is more efficient to copy the current model. The copy retains the composition, list of operations, and basic parameters. The user needs to adjust only the changed values. However, products are selected anew: previous bindings are not transferred to the copy.

If the cost composition is identical, a separate copy is not required: a single model can be used for multiple products. However, the model is selected individually for each product and for each sales offer.

After model preparation, there is no need to transfer the total amount to a separate table for price comparison. Cost, gross profit, margin, and markup are available directly in the Bitrix catalog and product card. Here, gross profit is defined as the difference between the price and the specified cost. This helps evaluate pricing but does not replace profit calculation based on completed sales.

With retail pricing, the difference between the selling price and cost may be acceptable, while with wholesale pricing it can be too small. The item card displays calculations for all available price types. If the price depends on quantity, you can select the required range and view the result for it.

If margin changes, history allows comparing saved price and cost values from different dates. Records are maintained for the base price per single unit. The report displays only values that were explicitly saved; no data from the period before tracking began will appear in the chart.

When there are many calculations, the overview helps determine analysis priorities. The report highlights positions where the selling price is below cost and items with low margin. From the report, you can navigate to a specific product or its model to verify the source data.

Products with low margins are displayed separately. The chart shows the number of products falling into each margin range. In the Profitability report, you can select the required product group, price type, and quantity—for example, to check for products with negative gross profit at wholesale prices.

If the calculated cost of goods sold appears excessive, it is advisable to first examine its structure. The report categorizes expenses into groups: materials, labor, equipment usage, electricity, and other overheads. This allows for identifying priority areas for detailed verification, such as material consumption, operation duration, or tariff rates.

When calculation history is preserved, the system enables comparison of current data with previous figures. The cost structure is generated within calculation models and does not include sales volume data.

Not all products immediately contain complete data: some lack a selected model, an up-to-date cost calculation, or a suitable price. The Data Coverage section aggregates such items and specifies which information is missing. With appropriate access rights, users can open the relevant product or model from this section to continue configuration.

It is not necessary to fill in the entire assortment at once. Start with a product whose composition and production process you know well. Enter data on materials, labor time, and other expenses, then compare the result with your own calculation. Once the first product is understood, the prepared reference books and model can be used for subsequent items.

All profitability indicators are calculated and depend on the entered data. The solution does not replace accounting for actual sales, revenue, and business profit. When checking data coverage, connected catalogs are analyzed; the product and each trade offer are checked separately.

For the “6sec: Cost Calculation” module, General iT can perform installation, configuration and a functional check in your project.