My Corporate Order Uses Three Candle Sizes and Four Fragrances — How Do I Create a Raw-Material Requirement Sheet Without Double-Counting Wax or Fragrance?

Step 1: the count matrix

A mixed corporate order usually arrives as a list: so many small tins in this scent, so many large jars in that one. Lists hide structure. Turn it into a grid with sizes as rows and fragrances as columns, and write only candle counts in the cells. Do not put grams in yet, and do not add tests yet. The grid below is this page's example: a three-tier corporate gift in four fragrances.

Two totals already exist, and both must say 1,900. The row totals (1,000 + 600 + 300) tell you how many containers of each size to buy. The column totals (580 + 370 + 500 + 450) tell you how many candles each fragrance goes into, which is useful but is not the oil figure, because a Bergamot Amber tin and a Bergamot Amber large jar hold very different amounts of oil. That is why the next step converts counts to grams before anything is summed.

Step 2: finished weight, then oil and wax

Multiply each cell by the finished weight of its size. Then apply the CSI convention used across this series: load is a share of the finished weight. At 8%, a small 80 g candle holds 6.4 g of oil and 73.6 g of wax; a medium 160 g holds 12.8 g and 147.2 g; a large 220 g holds 17.6 g and 202.4 g. Now each cell has an oil figure and a wax figure, and the direction you sum them in depends on how you buy them.

The bottom row is what matters: one oil figure per fragrance, because each fragrance is a separate bottle. The right-hand column shows oil by size, which is interesting (large jars carry 5.28 kg of oil across all scents) but you never buy oil by size, so it is greyed out of the buying plan. White Royal Oud has the smallest candle count of the four (370), but it holds more large jars (120) than any other fragrance, so its oil figure (4.67 kg) is almost the same as Cucumber Green Tea's (4.72 kg) across 500 candles. Candle counts do not predict oil; grams do.

Wax can be read along the rows because all twelve cells use the same wax, so the row totals simply add to one wax line. Reading it by row still helps, because it tells you how much wax each size consumes and therefore how much melter time each size needs. The cross-check: 222.64 kg of wax plus 19.36 kg of oil is 242.00 kg, which equals Σ(count × size) = 242.00 kg. The sheet balances. Treating finished weight as pure wax explains why that check catches the most common mistake in the series.

Three ways to count twice

Tests and loss — added once, in the right place

A mixed order needs more testing than a single-scent one, because each size-and-fragrance combination can burn differently: a large jar needs a wider melt pool, and some fragrances affect how a wick behaves. This page allows 3 test candles per cell, 36 in all, as a labelled working assumption. Put them inside the cells so they carry the right size and the right oil, and they flow into every total automatically. Then apply a 3% pour-loss allowance once, to each material total.

If one cell is tiny (say 20 candles of a large oud), 3 test candles is a large share of it, and you may decide to test that combination on a smaller jar instead. That is fine, as long as the decision is written into the cell and not added later as a loose extra. A Client Wants 1,000 Candles but Expects 20 Samples Before Final Production — Should the Sample Raw Materials be Included in My Procurement Calculation? covers the separate question of formal client samples, which are a pre-production purchase rather than an allowance. For the allowance stack at much larger volume, see I Have a 10,000-Piece Festive Candle Order — How Much Additional Raw Material Should I Purchase Above the Theoretical Requirement to Protect Against Production Loss?.

The priced requirement sheet

This is the sheet you send to a supplier: one row per purchasable line, the gross need, the packs and the listed price. Every quantity traces back to the grid, and every line has one owner: a fragrance column, the wax total, or a size row.

Three notes on the containers. The Golden Aluminium Tin has a published fill of 85 g, so an 80 g small candle fits it. The 200 ml Salsa jar and the White Matte Glass Jar have no published fill weight; the 160 g and 220 g fills are this page's examples, and you should weigh a test pour to your fill line before committing hundreds of jars. I Ordered 100 × 200 ml Candle Jars — How Do I Calculate How Much Wax They Actually Need When 200 ml Does Not Mean 200 g of Candle Wax? explains why 200 ml is not 200 g of wax. The wick split (Thin C1 for small and medium, Thick C2 for large) is also an example: wick size per diameter is not published, so your 36 test candles decide it, and I'm Testing Three Wick Sizes Across Five Fragrances — How Many Wicks of Each Size Should I Buy Before Committing to a Bulk Pack? covers how many of each wick to buy for that test.

Per candle, material cost ranges from ₹101.28 (small tin, Cucumber Green Tea) to ₹344.09 (large jar, White Royal Oud), excluding labour, packaging, freight and GST. The same grid gives you that per-cell cost for the quotation, which is how I Need to Quote a 5,000-Candle Order Before Buying Anything — How Do I Convert the Client Quantity into Wax, Fragrance, Wick and Jar Procurement Quantities? turns a client quantity into a quote before anything is bought. If this order shares a month with two others, I Have Three Bulk Orders Happening in the Same Month — How Do I Combine Their Wax Requirements While Keeping Fragrance Oils and Packaging Quantities Separate? shows how to pool the wax lines across orders while keeping each client's oil columns apart.

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