To price a charcuterie board, start from the person: decide how many ounces of cheese and cured meat each guest gets, cost them with an allowance for trim, add the crackers, fruit, nuts and garnish, and multiply by the people the board serves. Then add the board or box, your assembly time and the small things, and price for the margin you want after card fees. In the example below, the food is $5.35 a person, and a board for 8 costs $67.13 and sells for $130, $16.25 a person. Bigger boards cost less a person to make, because the box and the assembly are spread wider; grazing tables cost more, because they're built on site. Below is the food a person, what a board costs, prices from a box for two to a table for fifty, delivery, the rules, and a free calculator.
The short version
- Cost the food a person: cheese and meat by the ounce, plus trim, plus accompaniments.
- Multiply by the people, then add the board or box, assembly time and labels.
- Price = cost ÷ (1 − margin − card fees), rounded up to $5.
- Quote a price a person as well as a price a board; customers think in guests.
- Premium cheeses move the price more than anything else.
- Charge delivery and grazing-table setup as their own lines.
- TaroStack costs every board from what the cheese and meat really cost. More below.
The food a person
Silver Sage Boards, a made-up charcuterie board company in Reno, Nevada, I use in these examples, plans on 2 ounces of cheese and 2 ounces of cured meat a guest for a board served as an appetizer:
| A person | Cost |
|---|---|
| Cheese, 2 oz at $12 a pound | $1.50 |
| Cured meat, 2 oz at $16 a pound | $2.00 |
| Trim and offcuts, 10% | $0.35 |
| Crackers, bread, fruit, nuts, jam and garnish | $1.50 |
| Food a person | $5.35 |
The trim is the rind, the ends of a salami and the odd cracked wedge; weigh what you cut off for a few weeks, or keep a waste log, and use your own number. A board served as the meal needs more a person, and that's a different price.
What a board costs
| A board for 8 | Cost |
|---|---|
| Food, 8 people at $5.35 | $42.80 |
| Board or box with lid | $10.00 |
| Assembly, 40 minutes at $20 an hour | $13.33 |
| Label, napkins and picks | $1.00 |
| Cost of the board | $67.13 |
With a 45% margin wanted after 3% card fees, the price is $67.13 ÷ (1 − 0.45 − 0.03) = $129.10, rounded up to $130. The food is 33% of the price, a food cost percentage that works for a food business that also pays for boxes and assembly; what's typical is in what is a good food cost percentage. The arithmetic is the same as costing a plate, in plate cost formula.
From a box for two to a table for fifty
| Order | Board or setup | Assembly | Cost | Price | A person |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Box for 2 | $4.50 | 15 min | $20.20 | $40 | $20.00 |
| Board for 8 | $11.00 | 40 min | $67.13 | $130 | $16.25 |
| Board for 8, premium cheeses at $24 a pound | $11.00 | 40 min | $80.33 | $155 | $19.38 |
| Board for 15 | $16.50 | 60 min | $116.75 | $225 | $15.00 |
| Grazing table for 50 | $60.00 | 4 hours | $407.50 | $785 | $15.70 |
The board column includes labels and napkins. A box for two costs $20 a person to sell because the box and the 15 minutes are shared by only two guests; a board for 15 spreads them over fifteen. A grazing table is built on the client's table, with platters, paper and display pieces, and four hours of building and clearing, so it costs more a person than a large board. Switching to $24-a-pound cheeses adds $1.65 a person in food and $25 to the board for 8, which is why a premium board is its own price, not the standard board with better cheese.
Delivery
Delivery is its own line. Half an hour of driving and 15 miles at 70 cents a mile for the car is $20.50, so Silver Sage charges $25 within 10 miles and quotes farther trips by the mile. Folded into the board price, delivery makes pickups pay for drivers.
The rules
Boards of cheese and cured meat need refrigeration, and cottage food laws generally cover only foods that don't, so most board companies work from a licensed commercial kitchen under a retail food or catering permit from the county health department; how cottage food rules work is in how to start a cottage food business. Customers need to know how long the board can sit out: food shouldn't be left out of refrigeration more than 2 hours, or 1 hour above 90°F (USDA), which is worth printing on the label. This is general information, not legal advice.
Get the calculator
Download the charcuterie board pricing calculator. Type how many people the board serves, what your cheese and cured meat cost a pound and the ounces of each a person, your trim allowance, accompaniments a person, the board or box, assembly minutes and your rate, labels and napkins, card fees and the margin you want. It works out the food a person and for the board, the cost, the price rounded up to $5, the price a person and what's left. It's an ordinary Excel file with no macros, and it works in Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers.
Where this stops working
Twelve cheeses and eight meats bought from three suppliers at prices that change every order, boards for weekend events booked weeks ahead, and soft cheeses that won't keep past Thursday. A sheet can't say what a board costs this week, how much brie to buy for Saturday's orders, or which wedges need using first.
How TaroStack does it
TaroStack costs every board from what the cheese and meat really cost.
Boards as recipes. Each board is a recipe of its cheeses, meats, accompaniments and box, by the ounce, and units convert: brie bought by the wheel, cut by the ounce. Recording the day's boards takes everything off stock from the lots used, at what you paid, so the cost of a board moves with this week's prices.
Orders and what to buy. Event orders are sales orders for their date that show whether the cheese to fill them is in the walk-in while you're still typing. Lots carry their best-by dates, the oldest are picked first, and the reorder list works in days of cover against each supplier's lead time.
And what each board earns. A price-creep report per supplier shows whose prices are rising, and margins are reported by product and by customer, so the board that slipped under its margin when prosciutto went up shows up.
| The job | Notebook | In TaroStack |
|---|---|---|
| What a board for 8 costs this week | Last spring's number | Each day's boards, at what they used |
| Brie for Saturday's orders | Guess and buy extra | Sales orders, checked against stock |
| Which wedges to use first | Read the labels | Oldest picked first |
| Whose prices are rising? | Noticed on the invoice | Price creep by supplier |
Recipes, batches, lots, sales orders and margins by product and customer are on every plan, from $49 a month. The first 30 days are free, with no credit card. If you'd like a hand setting up, ask, and we'll do it with you.