Soap & Candle Makers
Your complete playbook for managing a soap or candle business
Bath products, candles, aromatherapy, and skincare
This playbook covers managing waxes, fragrances, and oils with precise measurements, creating recipes with exact fragrance ratios, tracking equipment like pourers and mixers, maintaining batch records for product safety and recalls, and generating traceability reports. Soap and candle making requires careful measurement and lot tracking, and Ardent Seller handles both.
Getting Started
One-time setup tasks to configure Ardent Seller for your soap or candle business.
1. Set up your production area
Rename your default location to "Workshop" or "Production Room". If you have separate areas for production, curing, and storage, add each as a location so you can track where inventory is.
2. Add your raw ingredients
Add waxes (soy, beeswax, paraffin), fragrance oils, essential oils, dyes, lye, base oils (coconut, olive, shea), and additives. Set units (oz, lbs, ml) and cost per unit. If ingredients have density conversions (weight to volume), set those up too.
3. Add packaging and supplies
Add jars, tins, molds, wicks, labels, shrink wrap, boxes, and other packaging. Tracking packaging costs is important for accurate per-unit costing.
4. Add MRO supplies
Track maintenance, repair, and operations supplies: thermometers, stirring sticks, pouring pitchers, silicone mats, and other consumables that support production but aren't in the final product.
5. Add your equipment
Register equipment like wax melters, double boilers, mixers, soap cutters, and curing racks. Track usage hours and set up maintenance intervals for items that need regular cleaning or calibration.
6. Set up finished goods
Create entries for your finished products: 8oz soy candles, bar soaps, bath bombs, lotion bars, etc. Use variants for different scents or sizes.
7. Add vendors
Add your fragrance oil suppliers, wax distributors, and packaging vendors. This lets you track purchasing history and quickly replenish.
Day-to-Day Operations
Regular tasks for producing and selling your soap and candle products.
Create recipes with precise measurements
Build a recipe for each product: specify exact amounts of wax, fragrance oil (typically 6-10% of wax weight), dye, and additives. Include packaging items like jars and wicks. Add step-by-step instructions with pour temperatures and cure times.
Purchase supplies from vendors
When you restock wax, fragrance oils, or packaging, record the purchase. Select the vendor, add items with quantities and costs, and your inventory is updated automatically.
Run production batches with lot numbers
When you pour a batch of candles or make a batch of soap, record a production run. Assign a lot number (e.g., "SOY-2024-0315") so every finished product is traceable back to its ingredient lots. This is critical if you ever need to do a recall.
Record sales
When you sell at a market, online, or wholesale, record the sale with the customer, products, and payment method. Inventory is deducted and revenue is tracked.
Transfer stock between locations
If you cure soap in one area and store finished goods in another, use transfers to move items between locations. Both locations update automatically.
Check replenish levels before production
Before a production run, check if you have enough wax, fragrance oil, and jars. The replenish workflow flags items below their replenish point.
Periodic Reviews
Weekly or monthly tasks for safety compliance and business health.
Perform a stocktake
Count your raw materials and finished goods against what's in the system. The guided stocktake highlights variances and creates adjustment transactions to reconcile.
Run traceability reports
Generate a traceability report to see the full chain from raw ingredient lot numbers to finished product batches. Essential for product safety compliance and recall readiness.
Review equipment usage and maintenance
Check equipment usage hours and whether any items are due for maintenance. Keeping your melters and mixers well-maintained prevents production issues.
Review inventory valuation
Check the total value of your raw materials and finished goods on hand. This is important for insurance, taxes, and understanding how much capital is tied up in stock.
Review pricing
As ingredient costs fluctuate (especially fragrance oils), review whether your product prices still deliver healthy margins.
End-of-period closeout
At month or quarter end, run the closeout workflow to verify inventory, review financials, and generate summary reports.