Bill of Materials Template (Free Download + Online Cost Calculator)

Download a free bill of materials template for Excel or Google Sheets - no email, no signup - or build your BOM right here in the browser and get a live cost roll-up: materials with scrap allowance, labor, overhead, unit cost, batch cost, and margin. Everything on this page runs locally in your browser and exports to CSV.

Download the free BOM template

Two versions, both plain CSV files that open in Excel, Google Sheets, or Numbers. Click and the download starts - there is no email capture on this page.

Download single-level BOM template (CSV) Download multi-level BOM template (CSV)

Here is what the single-level template looks like, filled in for an 8 oz soy candle:

Online BOM cost calculator

Prefer not to leave the page? Add one row per component below. The calculator rolls up materials (with scrap), labor, and overhead into a unit cost and a batch cost, and shows margin and markup if you enter a sale price. Nothing is uploaded - it all runs in your browser.

What is a bill of materials?

A bill of materials (BOM) is a complete list of every component needed to build one unit of a product: part numbers, descriptions, quantities, units of measure, scrap allowances, and costs. It is the recipe that purchasing, production, and costing all read from, so one document answers what to buy, what to consume, and what the product costs.

Small manufacturers usually keep their first BOM in a spreadsheet, and that is a fine place to start. The template on this page gives you the standard column layout so you do not have to invent one, and the calculator above shows the part spreadsheets get wrong most often: the cost roll-up.

What columns does a BOM template need?

Every column in the template earns its place. Here is what each one is for:

The multi-level version adds two columns in front: Level and Parent Assembly, so a subassembly can nest under the finished product. More on when you need that below.

Single-level vs multi-level BOMs

A single-level BOM lists all components flat under one finished product - one level deep, nothing nested. A multi-level BOM nests subassemblies: the finished product is level 0, its direct components are level 1, and a subassembly's own components sit one level deeper under it.

Stay single-level while you can. It is easier to read, easier to cost, and harder to break. Switch to multi-level when you build subassemblies that you also stock or sell on their own - a wick-and-tab assembly you pre-build in batches, a base formulation used across several finished products, a sub-mix you sometimes sell in bulk. If a subassembly only ever exists inside one product and is built in the same run, flattening it into a single-level BOM is usually the simpler choice.

How the cost roll-up works

Each line's extended cost is quantity / (1 - scrap%) x unit cost. We divide by (1 - scrap%) because scrap is a share of the input: if 10% of your fragrance oil is lost to spills and residue, then to get 1 oz into finished candles you must actually buy 1 / 0.9 = 1.11 oz. Multiplying by (1 + scrap%) - a common spreadsheet shortcut - understates the loss; dividing by the yield is the standard MRP treatment.

Worked example, using the calculator's prefilled rows: soy wax is 2 lb x $5.00 with no scrap, so $10.00. Fragrance oil is 1 oz x $3.00 at 10% scrap, so 1 / 0.9 x $3.00 = $3.33. Materials total: $13.33. Add labor and overhead per unit on top of materials to get the full unit cost, then multiply by batch size for the batch cost. The calculator keeps full precision internally and only rounds for display, so long BOMs do not accumulate rounding drift.

Margin vs markup: don't mix them up

Margin and markup describe the same dollars from different directions, and confusing them is a classic pricing mistake. Margin is profit as a share of the selling price: (price - cost) / price. Markup is profit as a share of the cost: (price - cost) / cost.

A product that costs $20 to make and sells for $50 earns $30 either way - but that is a 60% margin and a 150% markup. If someone tells you to "price at 50%," find out which one they mean: a 50% markup on $20 gives a $30 price, while a 50% margin gives $40. The calculator above shows both figures side by side whenever you enter a sale price, so there is no ambiguity.

Example: a candle maker's BOM

Here is a real-shaped example for one 8 oz soy candle. The wax and fragrance amounts come from the container: an 8 oz jar filled with soy wax at an 8% fragrance load takes about 6.37 oz of wax (0.398 lb) and 0.51 oz of fragrance oil - our candle wax calculator works those amounts out for any container and fragrance load.

Priced out: 0.398 lb of wax at $6.00/lb is $2.39. Fragrance oil at $2.00/oz is $1.02. The jar costs $1.20 and the wick $0.15. Roll it up and one candle costs $4.76 in materials. That number is the foundation for everything downstream: sell at $14 and your materials margin is about 66%; add labor and overhead per unit and you can see exactly what a wholesale price would leave you. Enter the same rows in the calculator above to see the roll-up live.

When a spreadsheet BOM stops working

A spreadsheet BOM is great until the day it quietly is not. The failure modes are predictable. Component prices change and the roll-up goes stale, so you quote from costs that are months old. The recipe changes and someone overwrites the old version, so nobody can say what a batch built in March was supposed to contain. The BOM lives outside your inventory, so building 50 units changes nothing in your stock records - the spreadsheet cannot tell you when a component hits its reorder level (that is what a reorder point is for), and it has no idea which lot expires first when you use dated materials. And if you run your books on QuickBooks Online, nothing connects the recipe to your accounting - we cover that gap in detail in our guide to bills of materials in QuickBooks Online.

Evenbatch is the next step when you get there: real BOMs with scrap percentage and per-unit cost roll-up, versioning so past builds keep the recipe they actually used, production orders that consume components and lots automatically, and an honest, previewable sync with QuickBooks Online - $49.99/month flat with every feature included. When your template outgrows the spreadsheet, start a free trial of Evenbatch.

See something outdated or incorrect on this page? Email support@evenbatch.com and we will correct it within 48 hours. Last updated: July 18, 2026.