Introduction to Materials

In CrafterBy, a material is any input consumed when making a product. This covers three broad groups:

• Raw materials — the primary ingredients or components: cotton thread, beeswax, leather hide, soy wax, sterling silver, resin.
• Packaging — everything used to present and protect the finished item: boxes, kraft bags, tissue paper, hang tags, labels, stickers.
• Consumables — supporting supplies used in the process and partially or fully used up: glue, tape, isopropyl alcohol, sandpaper, polishing compound, solvents.

A practical example

A candle maker produces scented soy candles. The materials list includes:

• Soy wax (raw material)
• Fragrance oil (raw material)
• Wicks (raw material)
• Glass jars (raw material / packaging component)
• Labels (packaging)
• Wick stickers (consumable)

Every one of those items is a material in CrafterBy.

Why accurate material cost matters

Your product cost is built from the ground up: material costs + labour + machine time + overhead = total cost. If material costs are wrong, every price you set is built on a bad number.

Common mistakes that lead to underpriced products:

• Forgetting packaging in the cost calculation
• Using an old price after a supplier price increase
• Ignoring waste (thread cut-offs, fabric scraps, resin left in a mixing cup)
• Not accounting for consumables because they seem too small to matter

CrafterBy tracks each material separately with its own pricing model, so you can update supplier prices in one place and have the change flow through to every product that uses it.

Pricing models

When you add a material, you choose a pricing model that tells CrafterBy how you buy it and how you use it. The available models are:

• Simple (Unit Price) — you buy in units and use in units
• Sheet Dimensions — you buy sheets and cut pieces
• Weight per Length — you buy by weight or length and use a measured amount
• Dimensional (Volume) — you buy by volume and use a measured amount
• Unit Conversion — you buy in one unit (kg) but record usage in another (grams)

Each pricing model is covered in its own article. Start with Adding a Material to learn the workflow, then read the relevant pricing model article for your first material.