How does the yield percentage turn one wholesale price into per-cut cost?

Each cut's finished weight, expressed as a percent of the carcass weight, is its yield. Apply that percent to the total wholesale cost to get the cut's share of cost, then divide by the cut's finished weight for a per-pound figure. As long as every line including bone, fat, and shrink is in there, the percentages total 100% and the whole wholesale cost is allocated.

Does Cash Workspace calculate the per-cut cost automatically?

No. You weigh the cuts, work out the percentages, and enter the allocated figures. Cash Workspace gives the math a consistent, organized home with the invoice and cut sheet attached, but it does not auto-calculate, read your documents, or pull anything from your bank.

Should I include bone, fat, and trim in the record?

Yes. They are weight you paid for, so leaving them out makes your saleable cuts look cheaper than they are. List them as their own lines and add a note saying whether their cost was absorbed into other cuts or held separately, so the per-cut numbers stay defensible.

Can I reuse last carcass's percentages for the next one?

It is better not to. Yield varies with the animal and the break-down, which is exactly why each carcass gets its own record. Save a blank worksheet template to clone, but weigh and re-percent each new input rather than copying old figures.

Is this the same as the per-pound price I charge customers?

No. This record tells you what a cut cost you, not what to sell it for. Pricing is your decision and depends on demand, competition, and waste. Cash Workspace organizes the cost side only and does not give pricing or tax advice.

Cash Workspace

Use the Freelancer template

For butcher shops and meat counters

Butcher Shop Per-Carcass and Per-Cut Cost Records

You pay one wholesale price for a whole side of beef or a primal, then break it into a dozen retail cuts that each sell at a different price. The question every counter owner faces is simple but annoying to answer: what did this tray of ribeye actually cost me? Cash Workspace gives you a free, organized home for that math. You create one record per carcass, attach the supplier invoice and your cut sheet, list the cuts you got with the weight or yield percentage of each, and let those percentages allocate the wholesale cost down to a per-cut and per-pound figure. This page covers exactly that single-input-to-many-outputs yield split. It is organizational structure, not a calculator that posts to your books and not accounting software.

Start a free workspace Browse business-type cost record examples

The problem

Why one wholesale invoice is hard to turn into per-cut cost

A whole carcass enters as a single line on a single invoice, then leaves your block as fifteen or twenty differently priced trays. Without a deliberate record, the cost stays locked in that one wholesale number and you are guessing at margin on every cut. The yield split is the part people skip because it feels like spreadsheet drudgery, but it is the only honest way to know which cuts carry the load.

The supplier invoice shows one price for a 600 lb side; nothing tells you how that breaks across striploin, brisket, trim, and bone.
Yield varies by carcass and by butcher, so last month's percentages do not reliably describe this week's animal.
Trim, fat, and bone are real weight you paid for but rarely sell at full price, and ignoring them inflates the apparent margin on prime cuts.
When a carcass record lives in your head, nobody else at the counter can reconstruct what a cut cost when you price the case.
Invoices, kill-floor cut sheets, and your pricing notes end up in three different places, so the cost trail breaks the moment you need it.

The yield-allocation workflow

Splitting one carcass cost across its cuts

A repeatable way to take one wholesale purchase and end with a per-pound cost on every cut. You do the weighing and the percentages; Cash Workspace keeps the record, the attachments, and the layout consistent from carcass to carcass.

1
Open one record per carcass
Create a record named for the input, e.g. 'Beef Side - Angus - 2026-06-22 - 612 lb'. Record the hanging/wholesale weight, the total wholesale cost from the supplier invoice, and the supplier. One record = one physical input.
2
Attach the source documents
Attach the supplier invoice (the proof of the total cost) and your kill-floor or break-down cut sheet to the same record. Now the wholesale number and the cuts that came from it sit together, not in two systems.
3
List each retail cut with its yield
Add a line per cut: cut name, finished weight, and that weight as a percent of the carcass. Ribeye 28 lb / 4.6%, striploin 22 lb / 3.6%, brisket 26 lb / 4.2%, ground/trim 140 lb / 22.9%, fat and bone as their own lines. The percentages should sum to 100% including waste.
4
Allocate the wholesale cost by yield
Apply each cut's yield percent to the total wholesale cost to get that cut's share of cost, then divide by its finished weight for a per-pound cost. A 4.6% yield on a $3,200 side carries about $147 of cost across 28 lb, roughly $5.25/lb before any handling note you add.
5
Record waste and low-value lines honestly
Bone, fat, and shrink carry real cost that you are reallocating onto saleable cuts. Note how you handled it (absorbed into trim, written to a 'waste' line) so the per-cut numbers stay defensible later.
6
File the closed carcass and move on
Once every cut is costed, file the record into a 'Carcass Costing/2026' folder. The next carcass gets its own fresh record so each input keeps its own yield reality instead of being averaged away.

Record structure

Fields to capture per carcass and per cut

The carcass-level fields describe the single input; the cut-level fields describe each output and carry the yield split. Keeping the same fields on every record is what makes one carcass comparable to the next.

Carcass ID / record name: A unique label tying the record to the animal or primal, e.g. 'Pork Half - 2026-06-22 - 118 lb'. This is the single physical input everything allocates from.
Wholesale cost (total): The full price paid for the carcass from the supplier invoice. This is the pool of cost the yield percentages divide up.
Hanging / wholesale weight: The weight you bought and paid for, before breakdown. Used as the denominator when you compute each cut's yield percent.
Supplier and invoice reference: Who you bought from and the invoice number, so the attached cost document is traceable.
Cut name (per output line): The retail cut, e.g. ribeye, striploin, chuck, brisket, ground, plus separate lines for fat, bone, and shrink.
Finished cut weight: Weight of that cut after breakdown. The basis for both its yield percent and its per-pound cost.
Yield percent: Finished cut weight divided by carcass weight. All lines including waste should total 100% so no cost goes unallocated.
Allocated cost and per-pound cost: Yield percent applied to the wholesale total gives the cut's cost share; divided by finished weight gives the per-pound cost you price against.
Waste-handling note: How bone/fat/shrink cost was treated (absorbed into saleable cuts or held on a waste line) so margins stay honest.

Example setup

An example carcass-costing folder layout

A simple structure that keeps each physical input as its own record, with the cost proof and cut sheet attached, grouped by year. Names are illustrative.

Carcass Costing / 2026 / Beef Side - Angus - 2026-06-22 - 612 lb

Record with wholesale total ($3,200), supplier invoice attached, cut sheet attached, and cut lines: ribeye 28 lb / 4.6%, striploin 22 lb / 3.6%, brisket 26 lb / 4.2%, chuck 84 lb / 13.7%, ground+trim 140 lb / 22.9%, fat 96 lb, bone 110 lb, shrink line.

Carcass Costing / 2026 / Pork Half - 2026-06-18 - 118 lb

Wholesale total, supplier invoice, cut sheet, and cut lines for loin, shoulder/butt, belly, ham, spareribs, fatback, and bone, each with finished weight and yield percent.

Carcass Costing / 2026 / Lamb Whole - 2026-06-15 - 64 lb

Wholesale total, invoice, cut sheet, and lines for leg, loin, rack, shoulder, breast/shank, and trim with per-cut yield and per-pound cost.

Carcass Costing / Reference / Yield-percent worksheet template

A reusable record skeleton with empty carcass fields and blank cut lines (cut, weight, yield %, allocated cost, per-lb) to clone for each new carcass.

Carcass Costing / Suppliers

Per-supplier folder holding invoices and any standing price sheets, so each carcass record links back to the cost document it came from.

Common mistakes

Common mistakes when costing cuts by yield

Letting yield percentages sum to less than 100% by leaving out bone, fat, and shrink, which silently understates the cost loaded onto saleable cuts.
Reusing one carcass's percentages for every animal instead of weighing each break-down, so the per-cut cost drifts from reality.
Spreading the wholesale cost evenly across cuts by weight only, ignoring that you deliberately price prime and value cuts differently.
Filing the supplier invoice somewhere separate from the carcass record, breaking the link between the cost total and the cuts it funded.
Treating the per-pound figure as a final selling price rather than a cost input; this record tells you cost, not what to charge.
Averaging several carcasses into one record, which hides the yield variation that the per-carcass grain exists to expose.

How it helps

How Cash Workspace helps (and what it will not do)

One record per physical input

Each carcass gets its own record holding the wholesale cost, weight, supplier, and every cut line, so the single-input-to-many-outputs split stays self-contained.

Cost proof attached to the cut sheet

Attach the supplier invoice and your break-down cut sheet to the same record. The number you allocated from and the cuts you allocated to never drift apart.

A reusable yield worksheet you clone

Save a carcass record skeleton as a template and clone it for each new animal, so the fields and cut layout stay consistent week to week.

Product-defined cost lines and year folders

Set up cut-line categories once and group closed carcasses into fiscal-year folders, keeping records accountant-ready for export.

It does not do the arithmetic for you

You enter weights, percentages, and the allocated figures. Cash Workspace organizes and stores them; it does not auto-calculate, read your documents, or sync with your bank.

It is organization, not accounting software

These records help you reason about cost per cut. They are not certified accounting, not a bookkeeping system, and not tax or pricing advice.

Potter studio batch and firing cost records

The neighboring maker page for batch material plus kiln-energy costing rolled to per-piece, when your cost driver is a shared batch rather than one carcass split by yield.

Christmas tree lot seasonal cost records

A buy-once, sell-down example for a single bulk purchase reconciled against daily takings over a short season, a different shape from per-input yield allocation.

Farmers market stall and spoilage records

For tracking per-market-day takings, stall fees, and unsold spoilage if you also sell cuts at weekend markets across venues.

Antique dealer per-item margin records

A per-unique-item buy-restore-resell margin ledger, useful if any of your inputs are one-off rather than broken into many outputs.

Business expense categories

Set up product-defined categories such as carcass purchases, packaging, and trim handling so your meat-counter expenses file consistently.

Receipt and invoice organizer

Keep the supplier invoices and packaging receipts that back each carcass record attached and findable.

Finance workflows hub

The wider library of finance organization workflows if you want monthly close, backup, or handoff routines around your costing records.

FAQ

Butcher cost-record questions

How does the yield percentage turn one wholesale price into per-cut cost?: Each cut's finished weight, expressed as a percent of the carcass weight, is its yield. Apply that percent to the total wholesale cost to get the cut's share of cost, then divide by the cut's finished weight for a per-pound figure. As long as every line including bone, fat, and shrink is in there, the percentages total 100% and the whole wholesale cost is allocated.
Does Cash Workspace calculate the per-cut cost automatically?: No. You weigh the cuts, work out the percentages, and enter the allocated figures. Cash Workspace gives the math a consistent, organized home with the invoice and cut sheet attached, but it does not auto-calculate, read your documents, or pull anything from your bank.
Should I include bone, fat, and trim in the record?: Yes. They are weight you paid for, so leaving them out makes your saleable cuts look cheaper than they are. List them as their own lines and add a note saying whether their cost was absorbed into other cuts or held separately, so the per-cut numbers stay defensible.
Can I reuse last carcass's percentages for the next one?: It is better not to. Yield varies with the animal and the break-down, which is exactly why each carcass gets its own record. Save a blank worksheet template to clone, but weigh and re-percent each new input rather than copying old figures.
Is this the same as the per-pound price I charge customers?: No. This record tells you what a cut cost you, not what to sell it for. Pricing is your decision and depends on demand, competition, and waste. Cash Workspace organizes the cost side only and does not give pricing or tax advice.

Organizational records, not accounting or pricing advice

Cash Workspace is a free organization tool, operated by HELPERG LLC (info@helperg.com). It helps you store per-carcass cost records, attach supplier invoices and cut sheets, and keep your yield percentages and allocated figures in one place. It does not do the arithmetic for you, does not read or auto-extract data from your documents, does not sync with your bank, and is not accounting, bookkeeping, tax, or pricing software. The per-pound cost you record here is your own calculation; treat it as a cost reference, not a guaranteed margin or a selling price.

Start costing your carcasses for free

Open a free Cash Workspace, create one record for your next side of beef or pork half, attach the supplier invoice and your cut sheet, and list each cut with its yield. You will have a clear per-pound cost on every cut and a record anyone at the counter can read. No bank connection, no cost, just organized records.