Setting Up Overhead Allocation

Overhead is the cost of running your business that cannot be tied to one product. CrafterBy allocates a share of it to each product so your prices cover it. It is the cost makers forget most often.

What counts as overhead

• Workshop or studio rent
• Electricity, gas and water
• Insurance — studio and product liability
• Software, platform and subscription fees
• Tool maintenance that spans many products
• Packaging used across many products, if you do not track it per product

Do not include anything you already track at product level — materials, machine time and labour are captured on the product itself, and adding them here charges you twice.

Production Capacity

Hours per Month — your realistic monthly production hours. Full-time is roughly 160–180 hours/month. This is what converts a monthly total into an hourly rate, so a wrong number here distorts every product.

Monthly Overhead Costs

Overhead is entered as a list of categories, not one lump figure. CrafterBy starts you with six, each with its own monthly amount and an on/off toggle:

Add custom category… adds your own — accountant's fees, studio insurance, a tool subscription. Disabled categories are excluded from the total.

Default Allocation Method

Two methods, and they suit different workshops:

Worked example. Your fixed costs total 400/month and you produce for 100 hours/month, giving an overhead rate of 4.00/hour. On Hourly Rate, a product with 2.5 hours of work absorbs 10.00 of overhead. A quick product taking 15 minutes absorbs 1.00 — which is the point: the slow product carries more.

Overhead Summary

If the hourly rate looks wrong, check Production Capacity before touching the costs — it is the denominator in that division.