Free tools Shortages
Multiply each material's per unit requirement by the quantity you plan to make, subtract the stock on hand, and keep any positive difference. Those positive differences are your shortages. Multiply each by the material's unit cost and you also have the cash needed to make the run possible.
Shortage = (amount per unit × planned quantity) − stock on hand, when positive
You plan 25 cakes. Requirements are 7,500 g flour, 3,000 g butter, 100 eggs and 2,000 g cocoa. Stock is 8,000 g flour, 1,500 g butter, 60 eggs and 2,400 g cocoa.
Result. Roughly 27.50 of purchasing turns an impossible run into a deliverable one.
Set the quantity you plan to produce, then enter your recipe and stock. Every short material is listed with the amount to buy and what that purchase costs.
300 g per unit7500 g needed for 25enough in stock
120 g per unit3000 g needed for 25short 1500 g
4 pcs per unit100 pcs needed for 25short 40 pcs
80 g per unit2000 g needed for 25enough in stock
Short on Butter, Eggs. You can make 12 today, so you need 13 more units of capacity.
This runs entirely in your browser and nothing is saved. Makeable keeps the same calculation running against your live stock, so it re-answers itself every time an order arrives. Start free or read how to calculate production capacity.
Most purchasing in small production is reactive: you notice a container is nearly empty and add it to a list. A shortage calculation is the opposite. It starts from what you have committed to make and derives the purchase from that, so nothing arrives too late and nothing arrives that was never needed.
Grouping shortages by supplier is the last step. One order per supplier, sized to the run, keeps delivery costs down and avoids the trap of many tiny top up purchases.
Knowing the shortage in money as well as in grams changes decisions. If closing the gap costs more than the order margin, the correct answer is to renegotiate quantity or price rather than to buy.
This is where shortage and costing meet. Calculate material cost per unit alongside the shortfall and the profitability of accepting becomes visible before you commit.
Makeable is production capacity and inventory planning software for small businesses that make physical goods from recipes or bills of materials. It stores your materials and recipes, keeps stock current as orders arrive, and runs the calculation on this page continuously rather than on request, so the answer to "can I make this?" is always current.
You can start on the free plan with three products and fifteen materials, see how the production engine works, or compare plans and limits.
Requirement minus stock, per ingredient. The requirement is the per unit amount multiplied by the planned quantity; anything left positive after subtracting stock is the shortage.
Exactly the sum of the positive shortages. The calculator lists them per material, in the unit you buy in, along with the cost of covering them.
Partly. Reorder points based on daily usage and lead time prevent the routine ones. Large or unusual orders always need a shortage check before acceptance.
For information and estimates only. Makeable's formulas, batch limits and margin calculations are mathematical estimates based on your inputs. They are not certified accounting, financial, pricing or tax advice. You are solely responsible for setting your own wholesale and retail prices, ensuring profitability, and checking cost calculations before committing money.