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What is cost of sales? Calculate it in 4 practical steps

Posted: Sat Dec 07, 2024 10:46 am
by jrineakte.r.01
What is cost of sales and how to calculate it? (FORMULAS)
Cost of sales is all the expenses associated with the production, distribution and dissemination of a product or service; that is, all the money spent on a company's operations.

This figure determines how well your profits are balanced against your expenses. On the one hand, selling at a price that is too low can cause you losses and raise doubts about the quality of your product. On the other hand, a price that is too high can scare away some potential customers and reduce your profit opportunities.

Thus, learning how cost of sales is calculated is essential to ensuring your company's competitive advantage in the market.



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What is cost of sale?
Cost of sales refers to the expenses associated with the production, distribution and dissemination of a product or service. Therefore, it is all the money spent on a company's operations so that the end customer receives what is offered.

The cost of sales may vary depending on the type of company:

If it is a manufacturing company , the budgeted cost of sales will include the value of direct materials used in the production of the products;
In the case of retailers or direct sales , the calculation only includes the value invested in the merchandise in relation to the sales made.
What is cost of sales used for?
Generally speaking, cost of sales is used to find out how much money you spend to produce a product or deliver a service to the customer.

From an entrepreneur's point of view, learning how cost of sales is calculated is useful for planning investments and making strategic decisions. It also helps to set realistic goals for sales representatives and control the organization's fixed and variable expenses.

Learn more: How to perform analysis for strategic decision making?

What is expense, cost and price?
Before looking in depth at how to calculate the cost of sale of a product, it is necessary to clarify three concepts :

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These are all the company's expenses and disbursements necessary to guarantee daily productivity and that will not directly produce an asset - payments for services, salaries, etc. They are considered an outflow of money .

Read now: Sales expenses of a company: definition, types and examples .

Costs
It is the value necessary for the company to produce its product or service. It is considered an investment, since the purchases and payments incurred are so that the product or service can be sold.

Prices
It is the value that the company will charge for the product or service. It refers to the price that the customer will pay to complete the purchase.

You may be interested in reading: How to calculate the price of a product in 4 steps .

Knowing the difference between these concepts is key to understanding cost of sales vs. sales price and making the calculations correctly, especially for companies that are just starting out in the market.

Are selling price and cost of sale different?
Yes, the selling price and selling costs are different.

Remember that the cost of sale is what it costs the company to put a product into circulation. The definition of sales price is the monetary value that a customer (company or person) will pay to acquire that product.

Now, to define the sale price, several costs must be taken into account. Among the most important are:

Fixed costs
Fixed costs are those that do not vary according to the number of units produced . For example, the rental of infrastructure, spaces, equipment, etc.

Variable costs
Variable costs , as the name suggests, are those that change according to the number of units produced . For example, the raw material used to produce the item, commissions given to sellers for closed deals, among other factors.