Case price to unit cost calculator
A supplier invoice prices a case. A recipe uses grams and millilitres. This converts one to the other, including foodservice notation like 6/5 lb. No account needed.
Copy the three columns from one invoice line. Results update as you type.
Write the pack the way the invoice does: 6/5 lb, 24 x 330 ml, 2.5 kg. Quantity is how many of that pack arrived, so two cases of 4/5 lb is 40 lb. These numbers are calculated in your browser and aren’t saved.
What you actually paid
- Cost per kilogram
- $8.2306
- Cost per pound
- $3.7333
- Total delivered
- 13,607.77 g
1 × 6 × 5 lb = 13,607.77 g
Quantity multiplies the pack. Reading the QTY column as one case is the most common way a unit cost comes out double what was really paid.
Units convert through exact factors, so the figure above is the cost of the amount you can actually cook with, not of the case.
How to convert a case price to a unit cost
Multiply the number of packs delivered by the number of units in each pack, then by the size of one unit. That gives the amount you received. Divide the line total by it.
Unit cost = line total ÷ (quantity × pack × size)
A case written 6/5 lb holds six five-pound bags, so one case is 30 lb. At $112 that is 13,607.771 g, and $112 ÷ 13,607.771 works out at $8.2306 per kilogram. Keep the long decimals while you calculate and round only at the end: rounding each step first drifts by cents, and a recipe using 80 g of it inherits the error.
Why the QTY column doubles your cost
A foodservice invoice prints the pack across three columns: QTY, PACK and SIZE. QTY 2 · PACK 4 · SIZE 5 LB is two cases of four five-pound bags — forty pounds, not twenty.
Reading the QTY column as one case prices that ingredient at exactly double, and nothing on screen contradicts it: every figure derived from the mistake stays consistent with itself. It is the single most common error in a hand-built cost sheet, which is why the quantity is a separate field above rather than something folded into the pack description.
Case, box and bag are not sizes
A case is not a measurement. One supplier’s case of tomatoes is six #10 cans; another’s is 20 lb loose. The same is true of a box, a bag and a tray, so the calculator asks for the measured contents rather than guessing at the packaging word.
If the pack size above cannot be read without guessing, the calculator says so instead of returning a number. A wrong unit cost is worse than no unit cost, because it looks like an answer.
Keep unit costs current with MenuLedger
This calculator works on one invoice line at a time. MenuLedger reads whole supplier invoices, shows you what it read before anything changes, and updates every recipe using that ingredient once you confirm.
Work out a dish’s food cost percentageFollow a full invoice through to a plate costSee how MenuLedger tracks food costs