Free Download

Free Soap Making Inventory Spreadsheet

Track Every Bar — Free Soap Making Inventory Template

Download our FREE soap making inventory spreadsheet to track oils, lye, fragrance oils, colorants, additives, batch recipes, saponification calculations, and cost per bar for your soap making business.

Join the Craftybase mailing list and we'll send you our soap making inventory spreadsheet template for free! We typically send 2-4 emails a month about soap making and small batch production topics which we hope are useful to our readership.

Trusted by 3,000+ makers
Free soap making inventory spreadsheet for soap makers
Excel Numbers Google Sheets

Stop guessing what oils you have in stock and what each bar actually costs to make

If you're tracking soap inventory in your head or on scattered sticky notes — knowing roughly how much coconut oil you have left, guessing when to reorder lye, and hoping your fragrance oils don't run out mid-batch — you're not alone. But here's the thing: when you don't have visibility into your real inventory levels and costs, it's impossible to scale without chaos.

This free soap making inventory spreadsheet helps you track everything that goes into making soap — from carrier oils and lye to fragrance oils, colorants, additives, and packaging. It calculates batch costs, oil ratios, per-bar COGS, and inventory values so you can see exactly what you have on hand and what each bar costs to produce.

  • Material tracking for oils, lye, fragrance oils, colorants, additives, molds, packaging
  • Batch recipe management with material usage per bar
  • Oil blend calculations and superfat tracking
  • Per-unit cost tracking (COGS per bar)
  • Stock status and reorder point alerts
  • Purchase tracking with landed costs (including shipping)
  • Order logging with revenue and COGS calculations
  • Year-end inventory valuation for taxes

Download our free soap making inventory spreadsheet today and take control of your soap business inventory.

Track oils, lye, and additives

Map out your soap making process quickly and easily: see at a glance your current oil stock levels, lye inventory, fragrance oils, colorants, and additives. Know exactly when to reorder before you run out mid-batch.

Batch costing and recipe tracking

Calculate the true cost of every soap batch including oils, lye, fragrance, colorants, and packaging. Track your superfat percentage and oil ratios to maintain recipe consistency across batches.

Automatic COGS and profit calculations

Use our template to automatically generate the numbers you need: cost per batch, cost per bar, and total COGS. See exactly what profit margin you're making on every bar you sell.

Unlock the full potential of your soap making business with Craftybase Inventory Software

Join the ranks of successful soap businesses and revolutionize the way you operate. Get started today.

Start a 14 day free trial →

No credit card required

How to Use the Soap Making Inventory Spreadsheet

This soap inventory spreadsheet is designed as a simple, periodic Excel-based system to help you understand inventory tracking fundamentals and build good stock management habits. To get started, enter your email address above to receive the download link.

Important Note

The spreadsheet is designed for use over a single calendar year as it calculates your start and end of year inventory values. Once you reach the end of the year, create a new version for the next year, copy over your material and product tabs, then update stock levels and starting numbers.

Some columns are calculated and should not be edited — they are marked with a light turquoise color.

1

Material Inventory

This tab tracks all your soap making materials — carrier oils (coconut, olive, palm, castor), lye (sodium hydroxide for bar soap, potassium hydroxide for liquid soap), fragrance oils, essential oils, colorants, additives (clays, exfoliants, botanicals), molds, and packaging. For each material, you'll track on-hand quantity, unit cost, stock status, and more.

SKU & Name
Your unique identifier for each material (e.g., "OIL-COCO" for coconut oil) and a clear name like "Coconut Oil 76°". What is a SKU?
On Hand Qty
How much of this material you currently have in stock. Update regularly through cycle counting to keep your numbers accurate.
Unit Cost
The fully landed cost per tracking unit (including shipping and discounts). This is critical for accurate COGS calculations.
Tracking Unit
How you measure this material (oz, lb, ml, g, each). For oils, use the unit you weigh in when making soap (typically oz or g). For molds and packaging, use "each".

Pro tip for soap makers: Track each oil type separately even if they're from the same supplier. Coconut oil, olive oil, and palm oil have different costs and SAP values, so they need individual tracking for accurate recipe costing.

2

Personal Use

This tab logs materials you've removed from business inventory for personal use. It ensures you're not claiming materials for tax deductions that weren't used in products you sold. This is especially important if you use your soaps personally, give them as gifts, or test new recipes.

Date Removed
When you officially took this material out of your business inventory for personal use.
Material Name & SKU
Which material was removed (e.g., "Lavender Essential Oil" or "Finished Lavender Bar Soap").
Quantity Used
How much you removed, in your tracking unit (e.g., 2 oz of fragrance oil, or 5 bars of soap).
Total Cost
Automatically calculated. This amount is deducted from your business expenses for accurate tax reporting.
3

Purchases

This tab tracks every material purchase so you have a complete expense history and can factor purchases into your end-of-year inventory valuation. Create a new row for each material purchased — if you bought 5 different oils from the same supplier, enter 5 rows.

Purchase Date & Vendor
When you bought the material and from whom. This creates a purchase history for future ordering decisions.
Item Total Cost
The total paid for this material excluding shipping and tax (those are added separately as proportional amounts).
Shipping & Tax (proportional)
Your proportional share of shipping and tax for this item. Calculate based on relative cost or weight to distribute the total order shipping/tax across items.
Landed Unit Cost
Automatically calculated. This is your true cost per tracking unit including all fees — use this number for accurate recipe costing.

Why landed cost matters: If you pay $50 for 5 lbs of coconut oil plus $10 shipping, your true cost is $12/lb, not $10/lb. Using accurate landed costs ensures your soap prices cover all expenses.

4

Manufactures

This tab records each soap batch you make, tracking which materials were used and how much they cost. You can enter a row for each material in the batch (recommended for detailed tracking) or calculate the total outside the spreadsheet and enter a single row per batch.

Manufacture Date & Product
When you made the batch and what soap you created (e.g., "Lavender Bar Soap" or "Goat Milk Soap").
Material Used
Which material went into this batch (e.g., "Coconut Oil 76°") along with the material SKU and unit cost from your Material Inventory tab.
Quantity Used
How much of this material you used (e.g., 32 oz coconut oil). This amount is deducted from your on-hand inventory on the Material Inventory tab.
Total Material Usage Cost
Automatically calculated (quantity used × unit cost). Sum all material rows for a batch to get your total batch cost.

Cold process tracking tip: Log all materials when you make the batch, but remember your bars need a 4-6 week cure time before they're ready to sell. Track cure dates on your Product Inventory tab to know when stock is actually available.

5

Product Inventory

This tab tracks your finished soap inventory — bars that are cured, cut, packaged, and ready to sell. You'll see at a glance what you have in stock, what each bar costs to make, and the total value of your finished goods inventory.

Name & SKU
Your product identifier (e.g., "LAV-BAR" for Lavender Bar Soap). Helpful for multichannel selling where SKUs keep products synced across platforms.
On Hand Qty
How many finished bars you currently have ready to sell. Update this after production runs and sales. Stock status is auto-calculated.
Manufacture Cost
How much it costs in materials to make one bar. Calculated from your Manufactures tab by dividing total batch cost by number of bars produced.
Current Inventory Value
Automatically calculated. The total value of all on-hand bars based on manufacture cost. This is your finished goods inventory value for this product.
6

Orders

This tab tracks all soap sales. By logging each sale and the associated cost of goods, you can calculate total revenue, COGS, and gross profit for the year. Create a separate row for each product in an order — if a customer bought 3 lavender bars and 2 peppermint bars, that's 2 rows.

Order Date & ID
When the order was placed and your unique order number (from Etsy, Shopify, farmers market, or your own numbering system).
Quantity Sold
How many bars of this product were in the order, along with SKU, name, and unit price for each line item.
Unit Manufacture Cost
The cost to make one bar (from your Product Inventory tab). This is your Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) per unit.
Grand Total
Automatically calculated. The total revenue for this line item including tax and shipping. Also calculates total price and total manufacture cost.
7

Reports

This tab tallies up your key financial numbers for the year. Everything here is automatically calculated from the other tabs — do not edit these numbers manually.

Total Revenue
Sum of all sales for the year, pulled from your Orders tab.
Total Material Purchases
Sum of all material purchases for the year, pulled from your Purchases tab.
Total COGS
Total cost of goods sold — the manufacturing cost of all soap bars you sold during the period.
Inventory Values
Starting and ending inventory values for tax reporting, plus personal use deductions.

These numbers are what you'll need for tax time, bookkeeping, and understanding whether your soap business is actually profitable. Make sure your material unit costs are accurate — if you're using old prices or forgetting to include shipping, your profitability numbers will be off.

What is a Soap Making Inventory Spreadsheet?

A soap making inventory spreadsheet is a structured document that helps soap makers track raw materials (carrier oils, lye, fragrance oils, colorants, additives), production batches, finished soap inventory, and sales. It's essentially a material and product tracking system tailored to the specific needs of soap businesses — tracking things like oil blends, superfat percentages, cure times, and cost per bar.

Think of it as a combination of a material tracker, recipe costing tool, and sales log. For every batch you make, the spreadsheet helps you document what materials went into it, how much they cost, and what your profit margin is after selling. It also tracks on-hand inventory so you know when to reorder supplies before you run out mid-batch.

Unlike a simple stock count, a good soap making inventory spreadsheet goes deeper — it tracks bills of materials (BOMs) for each soap recipe, calculates COGS per bar, and gives you inventory valuation numbers you need for tax reporting.

Why do soap makers need inventory tracking?

The most common reason soap makers hit a growth wall is poor inventory visibility. You think you have enough coconut oil for the weekend market, but you're actually 2 pounds short. You reorder lye only to find you already had a container buried in storage. You price bars based on rough guesses instead of actual costs, and you're not sure if you're making money or just staying busy.

Inventory tracking solves this. With organized data, you know exactly what you have on hand, what you need to reorder, and what each bar costs to produce. This means:

No more stockouts mid-batch.
You can see when olive oil is running low and reorder before you're stuck waiting on shipping during peak season.
Accurate pricing.
You know your real costs — oils, lye, fragrance, colorants, packaging — so you can set prices that actually cover expenses and leave room for profit.
Better purchasing decisions.
Should you buy oils in 7-lb jugs or 35-lb buckets? Is bulk fragrance oil worth it? With cost data, you can compare unit prices and make smarter buying choices.
Tax-ready COGS.
At year-end, you'll have accurate cost of goods sold (COGS) numbers for tax filing. No more scrambling through receipts in April.

And if you're running a profitable soap business — or trying to — you need to know your margins. That means tracking not just revenue, but costs per bar. A spreadsheet is the simplest way to start doing that.

What should a soap inventory spreadsheet track?

A comprehensive soap inventory spreadsheet should cover the full production cycle — from raw materials to finished bars. At a minimum, it should include:

Material Inventory:
A master list of all materials — carrier oils (coconut, olive, palm, castor, shea butter), lye (sodium hydroxide for bars, potassium hydroxide for liquid), fragrance oils, essential oils, colorants (micas, oxides, natural colorants), additives (clays, oatmeal, botanicals), molds, packaging. For each material, track on-hand quantity, unit cost, tracking unit (oz, lb, g), and preferred vendor.
Purchase Tracking:
A log of every material purchase with date, vendor, quantity, cost, shipping, and tax. This gives you a full expense history and helps you calculate landed costs.
Production Log:
Record each soap batch you make. List what soap you made, what date you made it, and what materials you used. This is how you calculate cost per bar and track material depletion.
Finished Soap Inventory:
Track your ready-to-sell bars by product, quantity on hand, unit price, and manufacture cost. This is your finished goods inventory value.
Sales/Orders:
Log every sale with order date, product, quantity, price, and manufacture cost. This gives you revenue, COGS, and gross profit per sale.
Reports:
Calculated totals for revenue, expenses, COGS, inventory values, and profit. These are the numbers you need for taxes and to understand if your business is sustainable.

Beyond the basics, soap makers benefit from tracking superfat percentages, cure dates, batch numbers (for traceability), and recipe notes. This helps maintain consistency and troubleshoot issues when a batch doesn't turn out right.

Why spreadsheets may not be enough as your soap business grows

A soap inventory spreadsheet is a great starting point — especially if you're making small batches for local markets or testing recipes. But as your business grows — more products, more orders, more sales channels — spreadsheets can become a bottleneck.

Here's what usually breaks first: You start selling on Etsy, then add Shopify, then start doing wholesale to local shops. Now you're tracking inventory across three channels manually. You sell 10 bars on Etsy, and you need to open the spreadsheet, find the product row, subtract 10, update the inventory value, and hope you didn't forget a formula somewhere.

Spreadsheets also struggle with cost accuracy. If you buy coconut oil at different prices over time, calculating true COGS requires choosing a cost flow method — FIFO, LIFO, or weighted average. Most spreadsheets don't handle this well. You end up using rough average costs, which means your profitability numbers are estimates, not reality.

That's where soap making inventory software like Craftybase comes in. Instead of manually tracking every material use, Craftybase does it automatically. When you log a purchase, it updates material costs and on-hand quantities. When you make a batch of soap, it deducts materials from inventory and calculates the cost based on your actual purchase prices using FIFO or weighted average costing. When you sync sales from Etsy or Shopify, it updates finished goods inventory and calculates COGS in real time.

Soap makers find that moving to Craftybase saves hours per week in manual spreadsheet updates, reduces material ordering mistakes, and gives them confidence in their pricing and profitability numbers.

When to switch from a spreadsheet to soap inventory software

If any of these sound familiar, it's probably time to move beyond spreadsheets:

  • You're spending more time updating the spreadsheet than making soap.
  • You're selling on multiple channels (Etsy, Shopify, farmers markets, wholesale) and can't keep inventory synced.
  • You've run out of materials mid-batch because the spreadsheet wasn't up to date.
  • You're not sure what your true COGS is because material costs keep changing and the spreadsheet can't handle FIFO or weighted average costing.
  • You're working with a team and need multiple people to access and update inventory without emailing spreadsheets back and forth.
  • You're ready to scale — doing wholesale, expanding product lines, or selling through retail partners — and need inventory accuracy you can trust.

Craftybase is built for small batch soap makers who want the accuracy of real-time inventory tracking without enterprise complexity or cost. It tracks materials, recipes, production, and sales in one system. And because it's cloud-based, you can check stock levels from anywhere — whether you're at a market, in your soap studio, or meeting with a wholesale buyer.

Soap Making Inventory Spreadsheet FAQ

To calculate cost per bar, list every material used in the recipe (carrier oils, lye, fragrance oil, colorants, additives, molds, packaging) and determine the cost per unit. Multiply the quantity used by the unit cost for each material, then sum all material costs to get your total batch cost. Divide the total batch cost by the number of bars produced to get per-bar cost. For example, if a batch costs $48 in materials and produces 24 bars, your cost per bar is $2.

Superfat is the percentage of oils left unsaponified in soap, making the final product gentler and more moisturizing. It's calculated by using less lye than needed to fully saponify all the oils. Most cold process soaps use 5-8% superfat. You can track this in your spreadsheet by noting the superfat percentage used in each batch in a notes column on your Manufactures tab. This helps maintain recipe consistency across batches.

Set reorder points based on your typical usage rate and supplier lead time. For example, if you use 10 lbs of coconut oil per week and your supplier takes 5 days to ship, set your reorder point at 15-20 lbs to give yourself a buffer. Track on-hand quantities in your spreadsheet and flag items that drop below your reorder point. For seasonal businesses, adjust reorder points based on anticipated demand (e.g., higher stock levels before holiday markets).

Yes — always track different oil types as separate materials. Each carrier oil (coconut, olive, palm, castor, shea butter, cocoa butter) has different costs, properties, and SAP values (saponification values). Even different grades of the same oil should be tracked separately if they have different costs. This ensures accurate cost calculations per bar and helps you maintain recipe consistency and soap quality.

COGS (Cost of Goods Sold) for soap is the total material cost of all bars you sold during a period. It includes oils, lye, fragrance oils, colorants, additives, and packaging — but not general business expenses like marketing, rent, or equipment. Calculate COGS by multiplying bars sold by the manufacture cost per bar for each product, then summing across all products. For example, if you sold 50 lavender bars at $2 cost each and 30 peppermint bars at $2.20 cost each, your COGS is $166. This number is required for tax reporting and calculating gross profit.

Most successful soap businesses aim for 60-75% gross profit margins on direct-to-consumer sales. This means if a bar costs you $2 to make, you'd price it at $5-$8 retail. For wholesale, margins are typically tighter — around 40-50% — because you're selling at wholesale price (usually 50% of retail). Specialty or luxury soaps with unique ingredients or branding can command higher margins. Your target margin should cover all business expenses (rent, utilities, marketing, labor) and still leave room for net profit.

Ideally, update inventory in real-time — log purchases when materials arrive, log production batches when you make soap, and log sales when orders ship. In practice, most soap makers update weekly or after each market/production day. The more frequently you update, the more accurate your stock levels and cost data will be. If you're only updating monthly, you risk running out of materials or having stale cost data. For growing businesses, consider moving to automated inventory software that updates in real-time without manual entry.

Yes, tracking cure time is important for cold process soap makers. Cold process soap needs 4-6 weeks to cure before it's safe and pleasant to use. You can add a "Cure Date" or "Ready to Sell Date" column to your Product Inventory tab. When you make a batch, calculate the ready date (manufacture date + 4-6 weeks) so you know when stock will actually be available for sale. This prevents overselling and ensures you're tracking inventory accurately.

Who Should Use This Soap Making Inventory Template?

This free soap making inventory spreadsheet is designed for soap makers at any stage who need to organize their materials, track costs, and understand profitability.

Home soap makers transitioning to selling

If you've been making soap as a hobby and are now starting to sell at farmers markets, craft fairs, or online, this template helps you move from hobby pricing to business pricing. You'll learn what it actually costs to make each bar and how to set prices that cover materials and leave room for profit.

Etsy and Shopify soap sellers

If you're selling soap online and juggling material orders, production batches, and sales across platforms, this spreadsheet gives you a central place to track everything. You'll know what you have in stock, what you need to reorder, and what each sale cost you in materials.

Small soap business owners

If you're running a soap business with a core product line (5-20 scents/varieties), this template gives you the inventory foundation you need without investing in software. It's perfect for tracking materials, calculating COGS, and keeping your numbers organized for tax season.

Soap makers testing new recipes

Before you launch a new soap recipe, use this template to calculate whether it's worth making. You'll see the material costs, oil ratios, and margins before you commit to production — helping you avoid recipes that work great but don't make financial sense.

Wholesale soap makers

If you're supplying soap bars to boutiques, gift shops, or other retailers, accurate costing is critical. Wholesale pricing is typically 50% of retail, which means tighter margins. This template helps you calculate costs precisely so you can quote wholesale prices that cover expenses and still leave room for profit.

Seasonal and market soap makers

If you're making soap for holiday markets, craft fairs, or seasonal events, this spreadsheet helps you plan production runs and track materials across batches. You'll know how much oil and lye you need to stock up for peak season and what your profit margins look like after market fees.

Soap makers preparing for growth

If you're considering scaling your soap business — adding wholesale accounts, expanding your product line, or opening a retail space — this spreadsheet gives you the cost visibility you need to make informed decisions. Once you outgrow it, you'll have clean data to migrate to soap inventory software like Craftybase.

Cold process and hot process soap makers

Whether you make cold process soap (requiring 4-6 week cure time) or hot process soap (usable immediately), this template helps you track batches from production to sale. Cold process makers can track cure dates to know when stock is ready; hot process makers can track batch dates for freshness and quality control.

Soap businesses with compliance requirements

If you're selling soap commercially, you may need accurate records for insurance, product liability, and compliance with labeling regulations. This template helps you document material sources, batch numbers, and costs — making it easier to maintain compliance records and respond to customer inquiries about ingredients or allergens.

Ready to outgrow the spreadsheet?

Streamline your end-to-end soap making process and gain real-time visibility into your inventory with Craftybase. Soap makers have made the transition from spreadsheets to solve problems like material ordering mistakes, team collaboration challenges, and accurate COGS tracking.

Start a 14 day free trial →

No credit card required. Cancel anytime.