C Program To Calculate The Selling Price Of Circuit Board

Calculating the selling price of a product, especially in manufacturing, is crucial for profitability and business sustainability. For intricate items like circuit boards, this involves more than just material costs, requiring consideration of manufacturing overheads and desired profit.

In this article, you will learn how to develop a C program to calculate the selling price of a circuit board, incorporating its manufacturing cost and a specified profit margin.

Problem Statement

Businesses in electronics manufacturing need an accurate way to determine the selling price of their circuit boards. This price must cover all associated costs (materials, labor, overhead) and yield a desired profit margin to ensure financial viability. Manually calculating this for every product variation can be time-consuming and prone to errors. A programmatic solution can streamline this process.

Example

Consider a scenario where a circuit board has a manufacturing cost of $40.00. If the business aims for a 25% profit margin on this cost, the selling price would be calculated as follows:

• Manufacturing Cost: $40.00
• Profit (25% of cost): $40.00 * 0.25 = $10.00
• Selling Price: $40.00 + $10.00 = $50.00

Background & Knowledge Prerequisites

To understand and implement the C program for calculating selling price, readers should have:

• Basic C Programming Concepts: Familiarity with variables, data types (especially float or double for currency), input/output operations (printf, scanf), and arithmetic operators.
• Understanding of Costing: A basic grasp of manufacturing cost, profit margin (as a percentage), and how these relate to the final selling price.

Use Cases or Case Studies

Here are practical applications for a program that calculates circuit board selling prices:

• Small-Scale Electronics Manufacturers: Quickly determine the competitive pricing for custom-designed circuit boards, considering varying component costs.
• Product Prototyping and Development: Assess the potential market price of a new circuit board design early in its development cycle to evaluate its commercial feasibility.
• Inventory and Price List Management: Automatically update product selling prices in a database when component costs fluctuate or profit margin targets change.
• Business Planning and Forecasting: Model different pricing strategies to forecast revenue and profit based on projected sales volumes and cost structures.
• Educational Tool: Serve as a practical example for students learning C programming, demonstrating real-world applications of basic arithmetic and input/output.

Solution Approaches

The most direct approach to calculating the selling price involves adding a desired profit percentage to the manufacturing cost.

Calculating Selling Price with Fixed Profit Margin

This approach directly applies a user-defined profit percentage to the known manufacturing cost to arrive at the selling price.

One-line summary: Takes manufacturing cost and a profit percentage as input to compute the final selling price.

Code example:

// Circuit Board Selling Price Calculator
#include <stdio.h>

int main() {
    // Step 1: Declare variables to store cost, profit margin, and selling price.
    float manufacturingCost;
    float profitMarginPercentage; // As a percentage, e.g., 25 for 25%
    float sellingPrice;

    // Step 2: Prompt the user to enter the manufacturing cost.
    printf("Enter the manufacturing cost of the circuit board ($): ");
    scanf("%f", &manufacturingCost);

    // Step 3: Prompt the user to enter the desired profit margin percentage.
    printf("Enter the desired profit margin percentage (e.g., 25 for 25%%): ");
    scanf("%f", &profitMarginPercentage);

    // Step 4: Calculate the selling price.
    // Convert percentage to decimal (e.g., 25% -> 0.25)
    float profitMarginDecimal = profitMarginPercentage / 100.0;
    sellingPrice = manufacturingCost * (1 + profitMarginDecimal);

    // Step 5: Display the calculated selling price.
    printf("\\n--- Calculation Result ---\\n");
    printf("Manufacturing Cost: $%.2f\\n", manufacturingCost);
    printf("Profit Margin: %.2f%%\\n", profitMarginPercentage);
    printf("The calculated selling price is: $%.2f\\n", sellingPrice);

    return 0;
}

Run

Sample output:

Enter the manufacturing cost of the circuit board ($): 40.00
Enter the desired profit margin percentage (e.g., 25 for 25%): 25

--- Calculation Result ---
Manufacturing Cost: $40.00
Profit Margin: 25.00%
The calculated selling price is: $50.00

Stepwise explanation for clarity:

1. Variable Declaration: Three float variables (manufacturingCost, profitMarginPercentage, sellingPrice) are declared to hold decimal values for costs and percentages.
2. Input Manufacturing Cost: The program prompts the user to enter the base cost of producing the circuit board and stores it in manufacturingCost using scanf.
3. Input Profit Margin: The user is then asked to input the desired profit margin as a percentage (e.g., 25 for 25%). This value is stored in profitMarginPercentage.
4. Calculate Selling Price:

• The profitMarginPercentage is converted into a decimal by dividing it by 100.0 (e.g., 25 becomes 0.25).
• The sellingPrice is then calculated using the formula: manufacturingCost * (1 + profitMarginDecimal). This effectively adds the calculated profit (which is manufacturingCost * profitMarginDecimal) to the manufacturingCost.

1. Display Result: Finally, the program prints the original manufacturing cost, the profit margin, and the calculated sellingPrice, formatted to two decimal places for currency using %.2f.

Conclusion

Accurately determining the selling price of manufactured goods like circuit boards is fundamental for business success. The C program presented provides a straightforward and efficient method to calculate this price by incorporating manufacturing costs and desired profit margins. This approach helps in informed decision-making and ensures that all costs are covered while achieving profitability targets.

Summary

• The selling price calculation involves adding a profit margin to the manufacturing cost.
• A C program can automate this calculation, reducing manual errors and saving time.
• Key inputs are the manufacturingCost and profitMarginPercentage.
• The formula used is Selling Price = Manufacturing Cost * (1 + (Profit Margin / 100.0)).
• The program facilitates quick pricing adjustments based on cost fluctuations or strategy changes.