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Job 6 of 17Google SheetsChatGPT

Cost a cake properly, counting every hour

Most home bakers undercharge because they count ingredients but not the hours spent on messages, baking, decorating and cleaning up. A calculator that counts it all shows the real price.

Time: About an hour once, then 5 minutes per orderTool cost: you can start with a free AI tool

Google Sheets (free) plus a free AI chat tool

Steps

List ingredient pack prices and sizes from your receipts.
For one typical cake, note every hour: messages, shopping, baking, decorating, packaging, cleaning.
Run the prompt below to build the sheet.
Choose your hourly rate and margin. Every number is yours.

The exact prompt

Copy, paste, then fill in the [brackets]

Build a Google Sheets cake costing calculator for a [UK] home bakery.
Tab 1: ingredients (pack price, pack size, cost per g/ml/each).
Tab 2: per-cake costing: ingredients used, boards/boxes/packaging, electricity allowance [£], hours (messages, baking, decorating, cleaning) x my hourly rate [£], margin [%], price.
Give formulas. Use ONLY my figures; write [CHECK] if missing.

✓ Check before you send

Every hour is counted, including messages.
Prices come from real receipts.
The final price is your call.

UK notes extra

GOV.UK: working for yourself.

Last reviewed Oct 2026. Free tools change. If a screen looks different, the steps still apply.Back to top ↑

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See all 17 jobs in the bakeries playbook →

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