MadeKeeper is inventory and pricing software for 3D print and laser makers.
The slicer says 86 grams. It says nothing about the one that failed at hour three, or the share of machine run time the good one ate, and those two are most of what it actually cost.
Free tools, no signup: the fair profit calculator.
free to start, and no card to start. No order-line meters, ever.
$19/mo for the whole back office, kept for as long as you stay. No card to start — MadeKeeper asks for one when you subscribe, not before. The shop stays free for cost a piece and one fair — no product cap. The tax packet, Etsy and Square, and more fairs are the $19.
3D print, laser & CNC, specifically
Same books underneath — the numbers below are the ones that change.
Laser engraving
An engraving business sells the burn, not the blank: a 62-cent basswood ornament leaves at $14 because it has a grandkid's name on it. The economics are blanks by the case, laser hours with their quiet lens-and-power cost, and the misfires nobody invoices. MadeKeeper counts all three so the personalization premium stays a premium.
Say you engrave 24 personalized ornaments:
- 24 basswood ornament blanks @ 62¢$14.88
- Laser time, 3.2 hrs @ $2.10/hr$6.72
- Ribbon and poly bags$2.40
- Test pieces and misfires$1.86
At $14 personalized, each ornament clears $12.92 — the whole margin is the name, which is the point. The ledger keeps it that way when blank prices creep and December gets loud.
Your slicer already tells you the piece is 86 grams; your spreadsheet was supposed to turn that into a cost and never quite did. Filament by the kilo spool, sheets nested to fight the kerf, machine hours, and the failed-print bin — that's the real economics of a print farm. MadeKeeper turns sliced weight into cost per piece automatically.
How MadeKeeper maps to your machines
MadeKeeper buys filament by the kilo and charges it by the gram
A $19.99 spool is 2¢ a gram. Log the sliced weight on a product's recipe and its material cost computes itself — per color, per material, PLA to resin.MadeKeeper puts failed prints in the math
Set a scrap rate — 5%, 8%, what your farm really runs — and every good print carries its share of the spaghetti. Honest costs, no heroic assumptions.MadeKeeper meters machine hours and consumables
Printer wear, electricity, laser lenses, CNC bits — log a per-hour rate and each piece's machine time becomes a line item instead of a shrug.MadeKeeper nests sheet goods so the offcut is costed
Laser and CNC stock logs by the sheet; jobs pull their nested share with kerf waste included. STL files are free to sell twice — sheets are not.One printed piece, to the penny
Say you sell an 86 g articulated print:
- 86 g of PLA @ $19.99/kg, +8% fail rate$1.86
- 5.5 machine hours @ 30¢/hr$1.65
- Magnets and hardware$0.85
At $24 at the con table, you keep $19.64 before fees. Multiply across a farm running day and night, and the difference between 2¢ and 3¢ a gram finally means something you can see.
For anything food-contact or licensed-IP-adjacent, MadeKeeper keeps clean records of what you made, from what, and when — the paperwork half; the judgment calls stay yours.
Market Saturday, for 3D print and laser makers
The bench is one half of it. MadeKeeper follows 3D print and laser makers out to the booth as well: it opens on one bar of signal, rings a sale in taps and files it against that day's event, holds that sale on the phone if the signal quits and puts it through when the bars come back, reads the tag you printed, and prints a market-day sheet before you load the truck.
None of that is a card reader. 3D print and laser makers take payment however they already take it; MadeKeeper only keeps the count honest while you sell. Everything it does at the booth →
Straight about what's live
Materials and true cost per piece, batch "makes" with your labor amortized in, the suggested-price coach, product variants, sales that drain stock, the market-day quick-sale screen, lot tracking, the was-this-fair-worth-it event math, money-insight reports, multi-location consignment, the cure/best-by heads-up engine, mileage, expenses, and the Schedule C tax packet are all in the app today, with guided setup and a full Craftybase history migration to get you started. So are Etsy order sync, Square card sync, your own shop page, a Buy button on your own Square account, and custom-order requests off a piece you already sold. On the $24 MadeKeeper AI plan you also get receipts, shelves and recipe cards read from a photo — photo reads are on that plan; hand entry is how the $19 shop starts. Still building: your own books answered in plain words, buying a shipping label inside the app, and a best-customers report. MadeKeeper does not send marketing email to your buyers and is not going to: every maker here sends from one shared reputation, and a quote that has to arrive matters more than a mailing list. Nothing above is dressed up as done when it is not. See the full live-vs-building list →
Questions 3D print and laser makers ask
Can MadeKeeper cost prints from sliced weight?
Yes — that's the native motion. Put the sliced grams on the product's recipe and the spool price does the rest. Update the spool cost when you change brands and every product reprices.
How do failed prints get counted?
A scrap-rate percentage on the recipe loads each successful print with its share of failures. Your farm's real yield becomes part of the price instead of a quiet loss.
Does it work for laser and CNC sheet goods?
Yes — sheets log at cost, jobs pull their nested share, and kerf waste rides the waste factor. Same honest math, different machine.
How do I put a number on laser time?
Estimate what an hour of your machine costs — power, lens and gantry wear, a share of the machine against its working life — and log it as a per-hour consumable. Jobs then carry bed time honestly, which is where deep engraves earn their premium.
What about engraving customer-supplied items?
Their tumbler logs at zero material cost on a job that's almost pure labor and laser time — often your best per-hour work. The books will show whether supplied-item jobs deserve more of your calendar.
How does bulk pricing work for corporate orders?
Cost one unit honestly — blank, bed minutes, packaging — and the 100-piece quote is arithmetic with a volume discount you choose on purpose, not one you discover at the end.
Ready to see your real numbers?
The app is live. $19/mo, kept for as long as you stay.