Getting Started
The calculator, panel by panel.
Every control on the calculator page, in the order you meet it: the toolbar, the template picker, the SKU table, the margin inputs, Fwd and Rev mode, the .99 toggle, and the export buttons.
Every control on the calculator page, in the order you meet it: the toolbar, the template picker, the SKU table, the margin inputs, Fwd and Rev mode, the .99 toggle, and the export buttons.
The calculator page has one job — turn costs and margins into three-tier prices — and every control on it serves that job. This tour walks the page top to bottom and names each control by its on-screen label, so you always know what to click and what happens when you do. If you'd rather build first and read later, start with the Quick Start.
The toolbar holds your brand, market, and global margins plus the export, .99, and Templates buttons. Below it, a summary strip averages your portfolio, and the SKU table does the work: input columns on the left, calculated results on the right, a Fwd / Rev ← mode toggle per row, and ⧉ Dup / ✕ Del buttons at the end of each row.
The bar across the top of the page reads left to right:
Hover any ? icon — on the toolbar or on a column header — for a plain-English definition of that control.
On your first visit an overlay asks "What are you pricing?" with six cards: Beer, Wine, Spirits, Hemp / Non-Alc, Soda / Energy, and Start from Scratch. Picking one loads realistic sample data — category-typical margins, pack formats, and SKUs you overwrite with your own.
To switch later, click Templates in the toolbar. The picker reopens as an overlay; click outside it or press Escape to dismiss without changing anything. If your table already has rows, applying a template asks for confirmation first — a template replaces your current SKUs, and the calculator won't let that happen by accident. What each category pre-fills is detailed in Category Templates.
The table is grouped into four color-coded bands, named in the header row: Product Configuration, Supplier → Distributor, Distributor → Retailer, and Retail Shelf — the three-tier chain, left to right. Cells with a pencil mark are inputs; everything else is calculated.
At the right end of every row sit ⧉ Dup, which copies the row (fastest way to price size variants), and ✕ Del, which removes it. Every field gets the full treatment in SKU Rows.
Margins live in two places. The toolbar's Dist. Margin and Retail Margin are global defaults — set them once and every SKU follows. Inside the table, each row has its own Margin % column in the distributor band and another in the retail band; type there and that SKU alone overrides the global value, for the one product that carries different terms.
Both are gross margin of selling price — the header even says so — not markup on cost. If you think in markup, translate first with Markup to Margin; the override rules and the math get their own article in Setting Distributor & Retailer Margins.
The calculated columns tell the three-tier story in order: Landed Cost ((FOB − Depletion) + Freight + Excise), then Sell-In / Case (landed cost ÷ (1 − margin)), GP / Case (the distributor's dollar profit), and finally Retail / Pack and Retail / Single on the shelf. For keg formats, Retail / Single shows the retail price per pour instead — see Pricing Kegs. At a 32.5% distributor and 28.0% retail margin:
| FOB / Case | Dist. GP / Case | Shelf (6×4 pack) |
|---|---|---|
| $28.00 | $13.48 | $9.60 |
| $30.00 | $14.44 | $10.29 |
Above the table, the summary strip averages the portfolio: SKUs, Avg FOB / Case, Avg Dist Sell-In / Case, Avg Dist GP / Case, Avg Retail / Pack, and Avg Retail / Single. It's the line-up view a distributor sees first.
Every row has a Mode toggle with two buttons: Fwd and Rev ←. Forward is the default — you enter FOB, the shelf price comes out. Click Rev ← and the row flips: Retail / Pack becomes the input where you type your target shelf price, and FOB / Case becomes a calculated result showing the FOB you'd need to charge to hit it. If the target is too low to cover freight, tax, and both margins, the FOB cell flags it with a warning instead of pretending the math works. Modes mix freely — anchor one flagship SKU to a shelf price while the rest of the line runs forward. The full walkthrough is REV Mode.
The toolbar button labeled .99: Off snaps displayed shelf prices — Retail / Pack and Retail / Single — to .49 and .99 endings when you switch it to .99: On. It's display-only: exports, the summary strip, and the underlying math keep the exact values, so turning it on never changes what anyone downstream gets paid. The setting is remembered between visits. Why those endings work on a shelf is the subject of The .99 / .49 Rounding Toggle.
The export group offers three formats. CSV downloads a spreadsheet-ready file of every column. Excel produces a native .xlsx workbook. Google Sheets ↗ downloads a CSV and opens a fresh sheet for you to import it into. Exporting requires an account — CSV is included free, while Excel and Google Sheets belong to paid plans; the lineup lives on the pricing page and the formats in Exporting.
One more boundary: without an account, + Add SKU stops at 8 rows. That's not a plan limit — it's the anonymous calculator's cap, and everything you've entered migrates automatically when you sign up free. Until then, the page saves itself locally on every keystroke; there is no Calculate button and no Save step to forget.
Open the calculator and put the tour to work with your own numbers.
Open the Calculator →