Free Cost of Goods Sold Template Download: Excel, Word, PDF, Google Sheets & Docs

What is Cost of Goods Sold (COGS)?

Cost of goods sold is the direct cost of the goods a business sold in a period. Not the goods it bought. The goods it sold.

The formula: COGS = Beginning Inventory + Purchases During the Period − Ending Inventory

What counts as "direct" depends on what you do. A shop pays a supplier, so its COGS is mostly the purchase price. A factory turns raw materials into products, so its COGS also carries direct labor and factory overhead.

Here is the line most people get wrong:

What is The Cost of Goods Sold Template?

A cost of goods sold template is a ready-made worksheet that does that subtraction for you, period after period, without you rebuilding the math every time.

The template follows the standard COGS formula:

COGS = Beginning Inventory + Purchases During the Period − Ending Inventory

Here is what a cost of goods sold template is not. It is not your income statement, where COGS is just one line. It is not a tax return. It is the worksheet that produces the number those documents use.

What Does a Cost of Goods Sold Template Contain?

Most free templates give you three boxes: beginning inventory, purchases, ending inventory. That gets you a number. It does not give you a cost of goods sold format you can check, print or hand to your accountant.

Here is every sheet in the Enerpize file, and why it is there:

If I could keep only one line, I would keep goods available for sale. It is the number that tells you whether your counts and your purchase records actually agree.

What Our COGS Template Includes

Most free COGS templates online give you the formula and one calculation. Ours goes further.

Unlimited Batches, Real Landed Cost

Real inventory doesn't move in two neat steps. Prices shift with every purchase or production run. This template takes as many batches as you have, and each one gets a landed cost: freight-in and duties added, returns and discounts taken off.

All Three Methods Calculated Side by Side, on One Sheet

Most competing templates make you choose FIFO, LIFO, or Weighted Average upfront and rebuild the whole thing if you want to compare. Ours runs all three simultaneously from the same batch data, splitting consumption across batch boundaries automatically when a sale doesn't line up neatly with a single batch, so you see the actual dollar difference between methods before deciding which one fits your business.

Already settled on one method? The FIFO template, the LIFO template and the weighted average inventory template each go deeper on a single method.

Ending Inventory and Average Unit Cost Calculated Automatically for Each Method

Most templates stop at the COGS figure itself. Ours also shows what's left in inventory, both in units and in value, under each method, since that number feeds directly into your balance sheet.

Works for Any Quantity, Not Just the Example Shown

The example data is a working scenario, not a hardcoded demo. Change the units, the costs, or the number of batches, and every figure recalculates.

The Excel Formula Printed Next to Every Line

The periodic sheet shows the formula behind each number. You don't click into cells to learn how COGS is built. You read it.

One Summary for Every SKU

Selling more than one product? The multi-SKU summary gives each one its own COGS and margin, and the totals tie back to the periodic sheet to the cent.

A COGM Schedule That Feeds the Statement

Manufacturers get a four step cost of goods manufactured schedule. The printable COGS statement pulls from it, so you never type the same number twice.

Available in Excel, Word, PDF, Google Sheets and Google Docs.

A Worked COGS Example

Numbers make the difference between methods concrete. Here's one scenario run through all three.

A business produces 100 units. The first 60 units cost $8 each to produce; the last 40 cost $12 each, due to a mid-period price increase from a supplier. The business sells 70 units during the period.

Total inventory cost: (60 × $8) + (40 × $12) = $480 + $480 = $960. With no beginning inventory, that $960 is also the goods available for sale: $0 + $960 = $960.

Under FIFO, the 70 units sold are assumed to come from the oldest stock first: all 60 units at $8, plus 10 units at $12. COGS = $480 + $120 = $600. Ending inventory (30 units at $12) = $360.

Under LIFO, the 70 units sold are assumed to come from the newest stock first: all 40 units at $12, plus 30 units at $8. COGS = $480 + $240 = $720. Ending inventory (30 units at $8) = $240.

Under Weighted Average, the cost per unit is averaged across all 100 units: $960 ÷ 100 = $9.60 per unit. COGS = 70 × $9.60 = $672. Ending inventory (30 units at $9.60) = $288.

Same 70 units sold, same $960 in total inventory cost, three different COGS figures, ranging from $600 to $720. That $120 swing changes gross profit, taxable income where LIFO is allowed, and the value of what's left on the balance sheet. This template runs this exact calculation automatically across all three methods so the comparison takes seconds, not a rebuilt spreadsheet.

Want a bigger example? The filled cost of goods sold sample follows Ember Hill Coffee Roasters, a fictional roaster, through one quarter: 5,400 bags available, 4,500 sold. COGS comes to $32,695.83 under FIFO, $34,488.33 under LIFO and $33,550.00 under weighted average. A $1,792.50 gap, from one product.

Cost of Goods Sold Formula in Excel

The cost of goods sold formula in Excel is simple. Put beginning inventory, purchases, freight-in, returns and ending inventory in their own cells, then add beginning inventory to net purchases and subtract ending inventory. On the template's layout, that is =B6+B10-B12, and the same formula works in Google Sheets.

Here is the periodic cost of goods sold format from the sample, cell by cell:

With revenue of $212,000, gross profit is $116,150 and gross margin is 54.8%.

Need the weighted average cost per unit instead? Divide total landed cost by total units: =SUM(I8:I200)/SUM(D8:D200) on the Batch Log. In the sample, that is $40,260 ÷ 5,400 = $7.46 a bag.

COGS Template for Google Sheets

Prefer the browser? The cost of goods sold template in Google Sheets uses the same tabs, in the same order, as the Excel file:

• Inputs: Settings, Batch Log, Sales Log
• Results: Method Comparison, Periodic COGS, Multi-SKU Summary
• Reports: COGM Schedule, COGS Statement, Restaurant Food Cost

You type in the first three tabs. Everything else calculates.

Open the filled COGS sample in Google Sheets. Google will ask you to make a copy, and the copy is yours to edit.

What Is a Cost of Goods Sold Statement?

A cost of goods sold statement is a formal financial document that breaks down the total cost of goods sold during an accounting period in more detail than a standard income statement provides. While the income statement shows COGS as a single line item, the COGS statement expands it into its component parts: beginning inventory, raw materials used, direct labor, manufacturing overhead, and ending inventory.

It follows this structure:

Beginning Inventory + Purchases − Ending Inventory = Cost of Goods Sold

Manufacturers use it most frequently because their cost structure is more complex than a retailer's. A retailer can often calculate COGS directly from purchase invoices. A manufacturer needs to account for materials consumed, labor applied, and overhead absorbed before arriving at the final figure.

Cost of Goods Sold Statement Format

A manufacturer's cost of goods sold statement format runs in four steps. Here they are with the sample numbers:

1. Direct materials used: beginning raw materials $14,200 + purchases including freight-in $61,500 − ending raw materials $12,800 = $62,900
2. Total manufacturing cost: direct materials $62,900 + direct labor $18,400 + manufacturing overhead $12,250 = $93,550
3. Cost of goods manufactured: $93,550 + beginning work in progress $1,800 − ending work in progress $1,350 = $94,000
4. Cost of goods sold: beginning finished goods $9,600 + $94,000 − ending finished goods $11,200 = $92,400

Against revenue of $168,000, that leaves gross profit of $75,600, a 45% gross margin.

A retailer skips steps 1 to 3. Its cost of goods sold format is just the periodic sheet: beginning inventory, net purchases, goods available for sale, ending inventory.

How is it different from this template?

This COGS template is a calculation tool, not a formal statement. You use it to work out your COGS figure under different inventory methods (FIFO, LIFO, Weighted Average). Once you have that figure, it feeds into your cost of goods sold statement, which then feeds into your income statement. Think of the template as the engine and the statement as the report it powers.

If you are using accounting software like Enerpize, your COGS statement is generated automatically from your inventory and purchase records, eliminating the need to build it manually.

Cost of Goods Manufactured Template

Do you make what you sell? Then COGS needs a step before it.

Cost of goods manufactured is the cost of the products you finished this period. The COGM template in the file builds it like this:

COGM = Beginning WIP + Direct Materials Used + Direct Labor + Manufacturing Overhead − Ending WIP

The overhead block lists indirect labor, factory utilities, depreciation of production equipment, repairs and factory supplies. In the sample, those add up to $12,250. COGM lands at $94,000, then flows straight into step 4 of the statement.

Why separate the two? Because COGM tells you what production cost. COGS tells you what the products you actually sold cost. The difference sits in finished goods on your shelf.

COGS vs Operating Expenses vs Capital Expenditures

Three buckets. Every dollar you spend lands in one of them.

The rule: if you would not have spent it without making the sale, it is COGS.

How to Use the Cost of Goods Sold Template

1- Gather Your Inventory and Cost Data

Pull your opening stock count, every supplier invoice, freight and customs bills, and any returns. Use documented numbers. Don't estimate.

2- Fill In the Settings Tab

Enter your business name, currency, product and period, then pick the method you report with. Every printable sheet picks these up.

3- Log Every Batch

Opening stock goes in the first row. Then add each purchase or production run in date order, because FIFO and LIFO read the batches top to bottom.

4- Record Your Sales

Enter units sold and the selling price on the Sales Log. If units sold are higher than units available, the template flags it. That usually means a missing batch.

5- Compare COGS Across Methods

Open Method Comparison. When costs are rising, FIFO gives the lowest COGS and the highest margin, LIFO the highest COGS, and weighted average lands in between. In the sample, that gap is $1,792.50. What happens to your margin if your supplier raises prices again? Test it here.

6- Check the Periodic COGS and Ending Inventory

Enter your counted ending inventory on the periodic sheet. If it disagrees with the batch log by a lot, you have shrinkage, damage or a missed invoice.

7- Pick One Method and Stick With It

LIFO lowers taxable income when prices rise, but only in the US, and only if you also use it in reports to owners and lenders. Outside the US, IFRS and most local tax rules allow FIFO or weighted average only. Whichever you choose, keep it. Frequent method changes raise red flags in audits.

8- Print the Statement and Keep Your Records

Print the COGS statement, save a copy of the workbook for every period, and keep the invoices behind each batch.

How Enerpize Handles COGS

A template gets you one COGS figure for one period, calculated by hand. It doesn't update itself the next time inventory moves, and it doesn't catch a data entry error before it throws off your gross margin.

Real-Time COGS, Not a Once-a-Period Calculation

Enerpize's inventory management links directly to sales and purchase records, so COGS is calculated automatically as stock moves rather than reconstructed manually at the end of a period. If you want the mechanics without the software, the Cost of Goods Sold Calculator runs the same core formula instantly, useful for a quick check before committing to a full inventory setup.

One Formula, Explained Once, Applied Everywhere

For the full breakdown of the formula with retail and manufacturing examples, the Cost of Goods Sold Formula and How to Calculate guide walks through it step by step. This template applies that same formula automatically across FIFO, LIFO, and Weighted Average, so the underlying math never has to be rebuilt by hand for each method.

Purchases, Suppliers, and Expenses in One Place

COGS is only as accurate as the purchase and expense data feeding into it. Enerpize's purchase management keeps purchases, suppliers, and expenses in the same system that tracks inventory, so a new stock purchase updates the cost basis automatically instead of requiring a separate manual entry before it reaches your COGS figure.

Production Costs Allocated to the Product

Enerpize's manufacturing management builds a bill of materials, tracks labor and time, and allocates direct and indirect costs to finished products. That is the COGM schedule, without the spreadsheet.

Full Financial Visibility, Not Just One Number

Once COGS is calculated, it feeds directly into real-time financial reporting, gross profit, margin analysis, and broader business visibility, without exporting numbers into a separate spreadsheet to see the bigger picture.

If your business is tracking inventory across multiple SKUs or locations, that's usually the point where a static template starts costing more time in upkeep than it saves in calculation.

Cost of Goods Sold Template for Businesses in the United States

The US is the one big market where the LIFO column is a real option.

On Schedule C, the IRS has you subtract cost of goods sold from gross receipts to get gross profit, as set out in IRS Publication 334. LIFO is allowed, but you elect it on Form 970, and the LIFO conformity rule in Section 472(c) means that if you use LIFO for tax, you must also use it in reports to owners and lenders, as The Tax Adviser explains.

What to add to a US COGS template:

• The method you elected, and the year you elected it
• A note of any Form 970 filing
• Your year-end physical count, signed and dated

Practical note for US businesses: look at the LIFO column before you switch. In the sample, it cuts gross profit by $1,792.50 in one quarter. That is less tax, but also a weaker margin on the reports your lender sees.

COGS Template for Businesses in Indonesia (HPP)

In Indonesia, COGS is harga pokok penjualan, or HPP. Same formula, different name.

The rules on method are stricter. Article 10(6) of the Income Tax Law (UU PPh) values inventory for HPP at cost using either the average method or first in, first out. LIFO is not permitted, as DDTC News explains.

What to add to an HPP template:

• Currency set to IDR on the Settings tab
• FIFO or weighted average as your reporting method, never LIFO
• Freight-in and import duties on every batch, since they are part of acquisition cost

Practical note for Indonesian businesses: the HPP formula is beginning inventory plus purchases minus ending inventory, exactly as the periodic sheet lays it out. Rename the row labels to Indonesian if your accountant prefers. The formulas do not care.

Cost of Goods Sold Template for Businesses in India

Indian businesses get two cost formulas for tax, not three.

ICDS II, the income computation standard on inventories, allows specific identification for items that are not interchangeable, and FIFO or weighted average for everything else. LIFO is not on the list. Ind AS 2, India's version of IAS 2, does not allow it either.

What to add to an Indian COGS sheet:

• Currency set to INR
• Purchases entered net of input GST you can claim back
• FIFO or weighted average as your reporting method

Practical note for Indian businesses: GST you claim as input tax credit is not part of the cost of stock. Leave it out of the unit price, or your COGS will be inflated.

Cost of Goods Sold Template for Businesses in the Philippines

Philippine financial reporting follows PFRS, which mirrors IFRS. So the inventory rules come from PAS 2, the local adoption of IAS 2.

IAS 2 allows FIFO and weighted average and does not permit LIFO, as Deloitte's IFRS and US GAAP comparison sets out.

What to add to a Philippine COGS template:

• Currency set to PHP
• FIFO or weighted average as your reporting method
• Purchases entered net of input VAT you can claim

Practical note for Philippine businesses: many small distributors use weighted average because it is the easiest to keep up between counts. The template calculates it for you on the Method Comparison tab.

COGS by Business Type

The FIFO, LIFO, and Weighted Average comparison above works for any business, though LIFO is only an option in the US. What actually counts as a direct cost differs depending on what kind of business is doing the counting.

Retailers and Resellers

If you buy finished goods and resell them, your COGS is close to your purchase invoices, but not identical. Freight-in charges, import duties, and customs fees on incoming inventory all belong in COGS, since they're costs of getting sellable goods into your hands. Freight-out, the cost of shipping to your customer, does not; that's a selling expense, not a production cost.

E-commerce sellers follow the same rule. Inbound shipping to your warehouse is COGS. Outbound shipping to the buyer is a selling expense.

Manufacturers

Manufacturers have the most complex COGS structure, since it isn't just the price of materials. Direct labor for workers actually producing the goods, manufacturing overhead like factory utilities and equipment maintenance, and work-in-progress inventory that hasn't finished production all factor in. A manufacturer with unfinished goods on the factory floor at period-end needs to value that work-in-progress separately from finished, sellable inventory.

Restaurants and Bars

Restaurants and bars calculate COGS primarily around "pour cost" and food cost, the direct cost of the ingredients and beverages that go into what's actually sold, plus an allowance for spoilage and waste, which is a real and recurring cost in food service that most generic templates don't account for at all. A restaurant's COGS percentage (food and beverage cost divided by revenue) is one of the most closely tracked numbers in the business, since even a few points of drift directly erodes margin on every dish or drink sold.

That is why the file includes a restaurant COGS template. In the sample cafe, food cost is 33.0% against a 30% target, which is $1,930 above target in one quarter. Pour cost is 22.0% against 24%, so the bar is fine. The waste log adds up $182.90 in spoiled and dropped items, 0.6% of food and beverage cost.

Key Takeaways

• COGS = Beginning Inventory + Purchases − Ending Inventory. The method only changes which units count as sold first.
• The same 70 units sold produced a $120 swing across methods in the worked example, and the filled sample shows a $1,792.50 gap in one quarter.
• Freight-in and duties belong in COGS. Freight-out, marketing and admin do not.
• Goods available for sale is the check line: if it does not match your records, your COGS will not either.
• LIFO is allowed in the US only, and only with the conformity rule. IFRS, India's ICDS II and Indonesian tax rules do not permit it.
• Manufacturers need a COGM schedule before COGS; the statement format runs in four steps.
• HPP and COGS are the same calculation under different names.
• Once inventory moves daily, a static template is a snapshot, not a live number. That is when automating COGS pays for itself.

FAQs

What is the cost of goods sold formula in Excel?

Put beginning inventory, purchases and ending inventory in separate cells, then use =B2+C2-D2, where B2 is beginning inventory, C2 is purchases and D2 is ending inventory. The formula stays the same across FIFO, LIFO and weighted average. What changes is the ending inventory value. This template calculates that for each method automatically.

What is the COGS formula?

The standard COGS formula is: Beginning Inventory + Purchases During the Period − Ending Inventory = Cost of Goods Sold. Purchases include supplier invoices, freight-in and import duties. Ending inventory is the value of unsold stock left at the end of the period.

Can I use LIFO in my country?

Only if you report under US rules. US GAAP and US tax law allow LIFO, with the conformity rule. IFRS, which most countries use, does not permit it, and neither do India's ICDS II or Indonesia's income tax law. Everywhere else, use FIFO or weighted average.

Is COGS the same as operating expenses?

No. COGS covers only the direct costs of producing or purchasing the goods you sell, such as raw materials, direct labor, and manufacturing overhead. Operating expenses (OPEX) are the costs of running the business, like rent, marketing and admin salaries. COGS comes off revenue to give gross profit; operating expenses come off gross profit to give operating income.

Is COGS a capital expenditure?

No. Capital expenditure buys long-term assets like machines and vehicles, which go on the balance sheet and are depreciated over time. COGS is the cost of goods you sold this period and hits the income statement right away. Depreciation of production equipment can be part of COGS, but the purchase itself is not.

What are examples of COGS?

For a retailer: the purchase price of stock, freight-in, import duties and customs fees. For a manufacturer: raw materials, direct labor and factory overhead such as utilities and equipment depreciation. For a restaurant: food and beverage ingredients. Shipping to customers, marketing and office rent are not COGS.

What is HPP in accounting?

HPP stands for Harga Pokok Penjualan, the Indonesian accounting term for Cost of Goods Sold. The formula is identical: Beginning Inventory + Purchases − Ending Inventory = HPP. Indonesian tax rules allow the average method or FIFO for HPP, not LIFO. This template calculates HPP with either one.

Is there a COGS template for Google Sheets?

Yes. The Google Sheets version of this cost of goods sold template has the same tabs and formulas as the Excel file. Open it, make a copy, and start with the Settings, Batch Log and Sales Log tabs. Everything else calculates.

About the Author

Omar El Bahr is a Senior Digital Growth Specialist at Enerpize, where he leads SEO, content strategy, and organic growth across international markets. He is a Forbes Communications Council contributor and has written for Entrepreneur on business communication and digital strategy.

Disclaimer

This page and template are general information, not tax, legal or accounting advice. Inventory and tax rules change and vary by country, so check the rules that apply to your business with your accountant.