For soap & cosmetics makers

Soap making software that costs the batch, not the guess

Caustic soda, sulphonic acid, packaging and labels all move in price. If your selling price hasn't moved with them, the batch you're proud of may be losing money.

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Input prices move faster than yours

Small-batch makers usually set a price once — at the start, when they worked out the cost — and then leave it. Meanwhile the chemicals, the bottles and the labels all creep upward.

Because a batch is made in one go and sold over weeks, the connection between what it cost and what it earned gets lost. You know sales are steady; you can't say whether the margin is still there.

PesaScope records what you spend on materials and what you sell, so the two can be put side by side whenever you want to check.

How a maker runs it

  1. Record raw materials when you buy themCaustic soda, sulphonic acid, colour, perfume, bottles, labels. Bought in bulk, recorded once.
  2. Record what you sell, in the sizes you sell itA 500ml bottle and a 5-litre jerrycan are different products with different margins — keep them separate.
  3. Handle wholesale and retail differentlyA shop buying twenty jerrycans on account is a credit sale; a customer at the gate is cash. Both are recorded, the balance is tracked.
  4. Check the margin has survivedCompare a period's sales against the materials bought for it. When inputs jump, this is where you see it first.

Your product range, ready

Pick "Soap & cosmetics making" at sign-up and the usual lines are loaded across Soap and Detergents.

Bar soap Liquid soap (500ml) Liquid soap (5L) Bleach (1L) Washing powder (1kg)

Add your own sizes and lines. Keeping each pack size separate is what makes the per-unit margin meaningful.

One batch of liquid soap

Yield — 120 × 5L jerrycans
Sold wholesale at 14,000UGX 1,680,000
Chemicals− UGX 720,000
Jerrycans & caps− UGX 300,000
Labels & printing− UGX 84,000
Water, power, labour− UGX 180,000
Kept from the batchUGX 396,000

That's UGX 3,300 a jerrycan. If chemicals rise ten percent and the price doesn't, more than half of it disappears.

When you want proper batch costing

PesaScope has an optional production module that takes this further: a recipe of what goes into a batch, a production run that consumes those materials, and a cost per unit calculated from them.

It's off by default, and you don't need it to run the business — recording sales and material purchases already tells you whether the month worked. Turn it on when you want the cost of one bottle rather than the cost of one batch.

Read further

Production & recipesThe optional module for batch costing. Products & stockFinished goods, sizes and counts. Expenses & debtorsMaterials bought, shops that owe you. ReportsProfit and best-selling lines.

Questions makers ask

Will it tell me the cost of one bottle?

With the production module, yes — a recipe and a run give you cost per unit. Without it, you get the cost of a period's materials against that period's sales, which is enough for most makers starting out.

Do I have to use the production module?

No. It's opt-in and off by default. Plenty of makers run for months on sales and expenses alone before turning it on.

I sell wholesale to shops on credit. Can I track that?

Yes. A credit sale records what's owed under the shop's name, and the debtors list shows how long it's been outstanding.

I sell the same soap in three sizes. How should I set that up?

As three products. Blending them into one line hides the fact that the small bottles usually carry the better margin.

Can I track raw materials as stock?

Yes, through the production module, which holds materials separately from finished goods. Without it, materials are recorded as expenses.

What happens when the network drops?

Yes, on a phone, syncing when you're back on data.

Set it up in about three minutes

Pick your trade at sign-up and PesaScope loads your starting list for you. Change any price, add what's missing, and record your first sale the same day.

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