The terms
A recipe is costed per arrangement. Amounts are in the currency you pick; percentages are entered as whole numbers, so 60 means 60%.
| Term | How it is calculated |
|---|---|
| Flower cost | Sum of stems × cost per stem, across every flower row. |
| Waste | Flower cost × waste %. Hard goods, labour and delivery are excluded from the waste base. |
| Perishable cost | Flower cost + waste. |
| Labour | Hours on this piece × hourly rate. |
| Total cost | Perishable cost + hard goods + labour + delivery allocation. |
| Suggested retail | Total cost ÷ (1 − target margin). |
| Commission-adjusted retail | Total cost ÷ ((1 − target margin) × (1 − commission %)). |
| Profit | Payout after commission − total cost. |
| Achieved margin | Profit ÷ payout after commission. |
| Average cost per stem | Total cost ÷ total stems. All-in, not just the flowers. |
The formulas, written out
With m as the target margin and c as the commission, both as decimals:
flowerCost = Σ (stems × costPerStem)waste = flowerCost × wastePcttotalCost = flowerCost + waste + hardGoods + (hours × rate) + deliveryretail = totalCost ÷ (1 − m)commissionRetail = totalCost ÷ ((1 − m) × (1 − c))payout = commissionRetail × (1 − c)profit = payout − totalCostachievedMargin = profit ÷ payout
Why commission gets its own price
A commission is usually charged on the retail price, not on your cost. If you quote the ordinary target-margin price and then hand over a percentage, the money left is below the margin you planned. The commission-adjusted figure divides the cost by both remainders, so that the payout — after the commission is taken — still lands on the target.
Example: a 20% commission on a 60% target margin divides cost by 0.8 × 0.4 = 0.32, not by 0.4. The ticket rises, but the florist keeps the same share of what actually arrives.
A worked example
This is the example recipe that loads with the calculator. The costs are placeholders, not market prices.
| Line | Stems | Cost / stem | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|
| Garden roses (example) | 8 | $1.10 | $8.80 |
| Eucalyptus (example) | 5 | $0.85 | $4.25 |
| Spray roses (example) | 3 | $1.30 | $3.90 |
| Flower cost | $16.95 | ||
| Waste at 12% | $2.03 | ||
| Hard goods | $6.50 | ||
| Labour (0.5 h × $18.00) | $9.00 | ||
| Delivery allocation | $4.00 | ||
| Total cost | $38.48 |
At a 60% target margin the suggested retail is $96.21. Profit at that price is $57.73, which is 60.0% of the ticket. Average all-in cost per stem is $2.41 across 16 stems. Unrounded total cost is 38.48 in the chosen currency; the displayed prices round up to the next cent.
Rounding
Cost lines are displayed to two decimals. Retail prices are rounded up to the next cent, so rounding can only move the price above the exact target-margin figure. That means the margin shown is occasionally a hair above the target, never below it. The engine keeps full precision internally and rounds only at the point of display.
What the tool deliberately leaves out
- No supplier prices, market averages or “typical” rates. You supply every cost.
- No card processing fees, rent, insurance or tax. Add them to hard goods or labour if you want them recovered in the price.
- No advice on what margin to choose. The slider is yours.
- No server: the arithmetic happens in your browser and nothing is uploaded.
The same functions power the calculator and the unit tests in the repository, so the documented formulas and the shipped behaviour cannot drift apart unnoticed.