CostBite – From Idea to Business Case in Seven Steps
Iterative Scenario Analysis for Food Factory Investments.
CostBite is the flagship application within the CostStack platform, purpose-built for professionals who need to evaluate the financial viability of new food production lines and factories. In seven structured steps, CostBite guides you from an initial concept to a complete business case — covering equipment selection, cost modelling, Bill of Materials, and full P&L projections. What makes CostBite unique is its iterative approach: start with rough estimates in minutes, then progressively refine your analysis as your project matures.
Choose between simple cost assumptions or detailed factory designs for CAPEX, and between a single ingredient cost price or a full multi-product assortment for your Bill of Materials. Every scenario you build is saved, compared, and ready to share. Whether you are an entrepreneur exploring a first product idea or a senior engineer optimising an existing facility, CostBite turns complex financial modelling into a structured, repeatable workflow — from rough to refined, at your own pace.
CostBite – Engineering Design Translated into Financial Performance (CAPEX, OPEX, P&L).
CostBite connects engineering design directly to financial performance. By importing a validated process model from FlowBite, users can instantly translate technical configurations into structured CAPEX calculations. Equipment sizing, utilities, and process parameters are converted into transparent investment estimates, providing a solid financial foundation for project evaluation.
To calculate operating performance, users can either work with predefined raw material prices or import a detailed Bill of Materials (BoM), for example generated via RecipBite. This enables a fully integrated cost price calculation at product level.
Based on these inputs, CostBite automatically generates a forward-looking five-year P&L projection, including revenue, OPEX, depreciation, and margin development. The result is a clear bridge between engineering assumptions and financial decision-making — enabling confident evaluation of greenfield and brownfield investments.
Data Security & Privacy
CostStack employs a dual-layer authentication model designed for enterprise-grade security. The first layer operates at the organisational level — each company receives a dedicated login environment, fully isolated from other organisations.
The second layer requires individual users to authenticate through trusted identity providers such as Google, Microsoft, or Apple, ensuring secure and verified access at all times.
Within the CostStack environment, every user maintains a private My Data workspace. Data sharing between colleagues within the same organisation is possible on a record-by-record basis, giving full control over what is shared and with whom.
Any external data exchange occurs via JSON files, placing responsibility for proper handling entirely with the user. This architecture ensures that sensitive project data remains protected at every level.
The FlowBite Suite Ecosystem – Full Presentation
This video introduces the engineering design software suite consisting of FlowBite, BioFlow, PackBite and CostStack. The video explains how these integrated tools support process design, bioprocess modeling, and packaging line configuration, enabling engineers to conceptually design, calculate, and optimize complete food and biotech production systems within one coherent digital environment.