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Keeping track of production cost and market profit
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hnfnfhfthfth fthftjhnjfjf
Doomheim
#1 - 2014-05-12 14:04:36 UTC
Hello, I have a smallish scale production and my bottleneck seems to be me being able to figure out how to deal with the fact that by the time my production is done (usually 24h+) item price AND mineral price is not the same anymore, and since sometimes I have to stock minerals, having to go back to my transaction history and manually input every single component price to figure out if I should sell, wait or haul is suffering.
Is there any way to make it less painful? thanks
Katiya Khadiija
The Juice Factory
#2 - 2014-05-12 15:14:57 UTC
Sounds like a job for.... *drum roll*

EXCEL
Falin Whalen
Federal Navy Academy
Gallente Federation
#3 - 2014-05-12 15:30:30 UTC
Really, if you haven't figured out your sell floor price, before you even start production, then I don't have any sympathy for you.

"it's only because of their stupidity that they're able to be so sure of themselves." The Trial - Franz Kafka 
Shoogie
Serious Pixels
#4 - 2014-05-12 15:49:23 UTC
Add up your costs just before manufacturing. This is the point where you decide if something is worth building, or if you would be better off selling the minerals. That is how much it cost you to build that item, just as if you had purchased one from the market at that price.

Let the mineral markets fluctuate. It does not affect how much you paid for your item.

As long as you are selling above cost plus taxes and fees, then you are making a profit.

If you hold too long, and the mineral markets change too much, it might be worth calculating if you would be better off reprocessing your stock back into minerals. --At least until June 3rd. After June 3rd, that will no longer be an option.
hnfnfhfthfth fthftjhnjfjf
Doomheim
#5 - 2014-05-12 16:03:12 UTC
Falin Whalen wrote:
Really, if you haven't figured out your sell floor price, before you even start production, then I don't have any sympathy for you.

I do, but manually and it's painful, that's why I asked if there is a tool made to "snapshot" the market at x time and/or an easier way to get mineral data from your transactions for when I feel like babysitting buy orders.

It's not that much of a problem now if I were to be honest, but I don't see it scaling well with a bigger production, especially if you are waiting to sell and have the option to haul, having a precise data about how much that item cost you would be nice.

Shoogie wrote:
Add up your costs just before manufacturing. This is the point where you decide if something is worth building, or if you would be better off selling the minerals. That is how much it cost you to build that item, just as if you had purchased one from the market at that price.

Let the mineral markets fluctuate. It does not affect how much you paid for your item.

As long as you are selling above cost plus taxes and fees, then you are making a profit.

If you hold too long, and the mineral markets change too much, it might be worth calculating if you would be better off reprocessing your stock back into minerals. --At least until June 3rd. After June 3rd, that will no longer be an option.

Thanks I know all this but I still think that having a clear history about your manufacturing costs via a 3rd party tool would be better than manually looking it up, that's why I asked is there such tool?
BigWolfUK
Sons-of-Liberty
#6 - 2014-05-12 16:23:14 UTC  |  Edited by: BigWolfUK
I know of many people who use IPH
It can gather data from Eve-Central, and you can put prices in manually (if you spot Eve-Central's prices are to outdated for example)

Edit: Here is the forum thread for it
https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&t=63663
Logan Revelore
Symbiotic Systems
#7 - 2014-05-12 18:19:57 UTC
hnfnfhfthfth fthftjhnjfjf wrote:
Hello, I have a smallish scale production and my bottleneck seems to be me being able to figure out how to deal with the fact that by the time my production is done (usually 24h+) item price AND mineral price is not the same anymore, and since sometimes I have to stock minerals, having to go back to my transaction history and manually input every single component price to figure out if I should sell, wait or haul is suffering.
Is there any way to make it less painful? thanks


Two things for you :)

Spreadsheets & Price History

Enjoy ;)
Inka Heluene
Inka Industrial
#8 - 2014-05-12 18:45:50 UTC  |  Edited by: Inka Heluene
Excel works wonders. I'd also take a look at http://eve-cost.eu Little confusing to setup at first but once running it will import all of your transactions from the API. Track the price of all your minerals/components, final build cost, accounts for transaction taxes/brokerage fees everything. It even has a handy reporting tool that will give your total profit over build price for any set period of time. Works wonders for tracking build costs when you bulk buy minerals. It takes all the work out of it....other posters points are valid for a small operation where its easy to track such costs, but when buying billions worth of minerals a day at prices all over the map things get more complicated.

Edit: I should also note eve-cost has some handy shopping cart/build queue features that can give you buy lists taking in account whats already in your warehouse. If your like me and will bulk buy components months in advance if I find a good deal, this becomes really valuable.
Gully Alex Foyle
The Scope
Gallente Federation
#9 - 2014-05-12 19:13:56 UTC
I would strongly suggest NOT using RL cost-accounting methods such as LIFO or FIFO for EVE - unless you want to go crazy. Big smile

Focus on producing stuff with a big enough profit margin that mineral cost fluctuations don't really matter.

Then make your own spreadsheet where you manually update mineral costs once a week or so, and base your decisions on that.

Make space glamorous! Is EVE dying or not? Ask the EVE-O Death-o-meter!
SJ Astralana
Syncore
#10 - 2014-05-12 20:46:56 UTC
hnfnfhfthfth fthftjhnjfjf wrote:
Hello, I have a smallish scale production and my bottleneck seems to be me being able to figure out how to deal with the fact that by the time my production is done (usually 24h+) item price AND mineral price is not the same anymore, and since sometimes I have to stock minerals, having to go back to my transaction history and manually input every single component price to figure out if I should sell, wait or haul is suffering.
Is there any way to make it less painful? thanks


Follow the link in my signature. This is precisely the scenario that Eve Production Manager was designed for.

Hyperdrive your production business: Eve Production Manager

Tau Cabalander
Retirement Retreat
Working Stiffs
#11 - 2014-05-12 21:12:19 UTC
Free alternative to Excel:
* Open Office [Originally Sun Open Office]
* Libre Office (forked from Open Office)
I've been using Open Office since I installed EVE Shocked
Silvetica Dian
Imperial Shipment
Amarr Empire
#12 - 2014-05-13 11:34:50 UTC
I use a method called "Not checking at all in any way"
It keeps me sane and my manufacturing alt keeps me in plex and pvp ships.
i update prices in IPH about once a month and just build whatever.
i buy stocks of raw materials and keep no record at all of the price i paid for them.
I suspect i am the worst manufacturer in eve.
I also do all research , invention and copying in a high sec station and never even considered a POS.
Follow my madness OP and stay ignorant of how spreadsheets work.

Money at its root is a form of rationing. When the richest 85 people have as much wealth as the poorest 3.5 billion (50% of humanity) it is clear where the source of poverty is. http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jan/20/trickle-down-economics-broken-promise-richest-85