COGS and cost views

Brewstiller has two ways to look at cost, for two different needs.

• Cost view answers "what did this batch cost me, and how does that compare to buying it?" It's the hobby-facing view, available on every plan, and it speaks in everyday terms — cost per serving, what you saved versus the store.
• Cost of goods (COGS) is the commercial accounting view. You capture your overhead and labor costs, and Brewstiller rolls up a full cost of goods — ingredients, packaging, overhead, labor, and excise — per batch and per SKU.

Cost view

Cost view lives under Cost view in the Insights group of the left-hand navigation. It works from your finished (released) batches.

Cost view is off until someone turns it on for your workspace. Turning it on needs the workspace-settings permission; if you don't have it, ask a workspace admin.

Turn on Cost view and see a batch's cost

1. In the navigation, choose Cost view. You'll see your finished batches — choose View cost on the one you want (or if you have none yet, No finished batches yet explains you'll see costs here once you finish a batch).
2. The first time, you'll see a See what your batches cost card. Choose Turn on Cost View. (If you don't have permission, the card asks you to have an admin turn it on instead.) Once it's on, the cost panels appear.
3. What this batch cost you shows three numbers:
   • Total cost — what the whole batch cost.
   • Per serving — the cost of one serving. If the batch hasn't been packaged, this reads Not packaged yet; a note explains it appears once the batch has a bottling, kegging, or canning stage.
   • You saved (vs. your benchmark) — the per-serving saving against your benchmark.
4. Where it went breaks the cost into Ingredients, Packaging, and Water & energy. The water-and-energy line is marked estimate.
5. How it compares shows Your benchmark, the Category average, and your Total saved. A note explains these are illustrative retail comparisons, not a quote, and that category averages use the reference data in effect when the batch was made.

Use ← All batches to return to the batch picker.

Estimate a margin if you sold it

The If you sold this card estimates what you'd make if you sold the batch commercially.

1. On a batch's cost page, find the If you sold this card.
2. Enter a Wholesale price / unit, a Retail price / unit, or both (for example, 4.00 and 7.00).
3. Choose Estimate. Brewstiller shows your Wholesale margin and Retail margin, plus estimated Taproom revenue and Distribution revenue, followed by a disclaimer describing what the estimate leaves out.

Editing a price clears the previous estimate, so the numbers always match the prices shown.

Set your own benchmarks

By default, Cost view compares your cost against an illustrative category average. You can set your own everyday retail price instead.

1. On a batch's cost page, find the Your benchmarks card. Each row names a category and its Category average.
2. In the Your price box on a row, enter your own price (for example, 3.50) and choose Save.
3. To go back to the category average for a row, choose Clear.

Setting benchmarks needs the workspace-settings permission; without it the prices are shown read-only.

Cost of goods (COGS)

Commercial plan. Cost of goods is part of Sales & distribution, and it's a commercial plan add-on on top of the commercial plan itself. On a hobby workspace these screens show the Sales & distribution is a commercial feature upgrade panel; on a commercial workspace without the COGS add-on, they show Cost of goods (COGS) as an add-on you can upgrade to. Viewing and capturing cost data also needs the workspace-settings permission — without it you'll see a You don't have access panel asking an admin to grant it.

There are two screens, both in the Sales group: Cost inputs (where you capture overhead and labor) and Cost of goods (the rollup that pulls it all together).

Capture a cost input

Ingredient and packaging costs come from your batch and packaging records automatically. Cost inputs is where you add the two costs Brewstiller can't infer: overhead and labor. You capture each one either directly against a single batch, or as a period pool spread across all the batches in a date range.

1. In the navigation, choose Cost inputs. The list shows each input's Category, Scope, its Batch / period, Amount, Allocation, and when it was Updated. Filter by Category (All categories, Overhead, or Labor) if you like.
2. Choose Add cost input (top right). The heading reads Add cost input.
3. Under Cost input details, fill in:
   • Category — Overhead or Labor.
   • Scope — Batch (direct) to charge one batch, or Period pool to spread across batches in a window.
   • If the scope is Batch (direct): Batch — search for and pick the batch by its code.
   • If the scope is Period pool: Period start and Period end — the window (the end can't be before the start).
   • Amount (USD) — the cost, in dollars (for example, 1200.00).
   • If the scope is Period pool: Allocation basis — how the pool spreads across the batches in the window: Proof gallons, Wine gallons, Volume (mL), Batch count, or Labor hours.
   • If the allocation basis is Labor hours: Labor hours — the driver quantity to spread by (for example, 40).
   • Memo (optional) — a note about this cost.
4. Choose Add cost input to save.

To change a cost input, choose it in the list, edit its fields, and choose Save cost input. To remove one, open it and choose Delete cost input, then confirm — it's removed from the COGS rollup and can't be undone here.

View the cost-of-goods rollup

Cost of goods rolls your captured costs into a full cost of goods per SKU and per batch.

1. In the navigation, choose Cost of goods. You'll see your SKU catalog — each SKU with its Name and Package. Search with Search SKUs by name…, then choose View COGS on the SKU you want. (If you have no SKUs yet, add one under SKUs first.)
2. The SKU's rollup opens with SKU cost of goods — its Total COGS, cost Per unit, and Total units — followed by a Where it went breakdown across five categories: Ingredients, Packaging, Overhead, Labor, and Excise tax. Each line is marked either Actual or Estimate.
3. Contributing batches lists the batches that make up this SKU's cost, each with its Units packaged and Allocated cost. Choose View batch COGS on a row to drill in.
4. A batch's rollup — Batch cost of goods — shows its Total COGS, cost Per unit, Packaged units, and Proof gallons, then the same five-category Where it went breakdown. Here each line is marked Direct, Estimate, or Allocated so you can tell a directly-captured cost from a share allocated out of a period pool.

Use the back link at the top (← Back to SKU or ← All SKUs) to step back out.

How estimates and allocations are marked

Brewstiller is explicit about which figures are approximations, so you never mistake one for a booked actual:

• A line badged Estimate is an approximation, not a booked actual — this covers period-pool overhead and labor allocations and the flat-rate excise line. The rollup spells this out beneath the breakdown: lines marked Estimate are approximations, not booked actuals.
• A line badged Allocated (on a batch rollup) is a share carried over from a period pool rather than a cost captured directly against that batch. A line badged Direct was captured straight to the batch.
• The displayed Total COGS is Brewstiller's own sum of the category figures, so the total always agrees with the lines above it to the penny.

Beta — the Excise tax line. The Excise tax figure is a flat-rate estimate, always marked Estimate — an approximation, not a booked tax liability. It's currently behind a workspace setting and switched off by default, so you may not see an Excise tax line yet. Treat it as an illustrative figure, not a filing number; file your actual excise from the compliance surfaces (see Excise returns), not from this rollup.