SpecSol Lab · Procurement
Cost-in-use calculator
Compare two or three ingredient offers on what they cost per tonne of finished product, not per kilo on the quotation.
Cost in use per tonne
Per 1,000 kg of finished productEnter a quoted price and a dose for Offer A and Offer B, and the comparison appears here.
Inputs used
Against what you use now
Breakdown per tonne
What to prove in a trial before you switch
Method, assumptions and limits
What this does not account for. Consistency between lots, pack size and
shelf-life write-off, handling time on the line, payment terms, the finance cost of stock
held or paid for in advance, currency movement between order and payment, and the value of
technical support. Any of these can outweigh the arithmetic, so weigh them alongside it.
The answer is only as good as the doses and losses you enter: figures from your own trial
beat figures from a data sheet.
Assumptions
- Every offer delivers the same function in the finished product. If one does more or less, the comparison is not like for like.
- A dose in % of the batch is converted to kg per tonne of finished product by multiplying by 10.
- Ingredient cost per tonne is the quoted price plus landed extras, multiplied by the kg used per tonne.
- Product lost to rework or rejection is valued at the material cost of the finished product you enter: the loss percentage of 1,000 kg, times that cost per kg. Leave the cost blank and losses are not counted.
- Extra water an offer lets you add is credited at the value of the material it replaces, with the water itself treated as free.
- Cost in use is ingredient cost plus the value of lost product, less any water credit, per 1,000 kg of finished product.
- The yearly difference is the per-tonne difference multiplied by the annual volume you enter.
- Break-even price is the quoted price at which a challenger's cost in use equals Offer A's, with its dose, extras and losses held as entered. Break-even dose is the same idea, holding its price.
- The gap between two offers is split into quoted price and landed extras (valued at Offer A's dose), dose (valued at the challenger's landed price), rework and water. The parts add up to the total.
- Nothing is assumed about any ingredient's price or dose. Every figure is arithmetic on the values you entered.
Method and sources
- The per-tonne formula (price per kg times dose in % times 10), the valuing of product lost to rework at the material cost of the finished product, the other costs worth counting and the five-step comparison come from: SpecSol technical team, "Price per kilo or cost in use: comparing ingredient offers properly", SpecSol Ingredients, 2026. specsol.in/articles/comparing-ingredient-offers-cost-in-use.html. Accessed 25 September 2026.
- Landed extras, and why a direct import price is not like for like until it carries freight, insurance, duty, clearance, finance cost and currency movement: SpecSol technical team, "Buying through a distributor or importing directly: what actually differs", SpecSol Ingredients, 2026. specsol.in/articles/distributor-or-direct-import.html. Accessed 25 September 2026.
- The trial checklist (a control on the same day, one change at a time, conditions recorded): SpecSol technical team, "Running a plant trial that produces a result you can act on", SpecSol Ingredients, 2026. specsol.in/articles/running-a-plant-trial-that-works.html. Accessed 25 September 2026.
- No research paper is cited, because the tool contains no measured value: cost in use is a costing convention, and the only evidence it needs is your own trial.
- Accurate as of 25 September 2026.
Comparing offers for an ingredient?
Send us the application and the options on the table. We will help plan a trial that measures dose and losses side by side.
Produced with the cost-in-use calculator at specsol.in. Every figure is arithmetic on
user-entered values; SpecSol states no price or dose. SpecSol Ingredients LLP, Mumbai.
Questions on this?