“Caddy Is Too Expensive, So We’ll Just Hire Someone.” Do the Math First.
If you've looked at inventory and traceability software and decided it costs too much, you're probably planning to hire someone to keep up with the clipboards and spreadsheets instead. That feels cheaper, but it isn't. A full-time hire costs roughly 8 times more than the software in year one, whether you're in the US or Canada. And you still have a manual process.
The short version:
One more hire: about $56,000 USD a year for a full-time food technician at the US median wage, including employer payroll taxes. In Canada, it's about $60,000 CAD.
Software: Caddy is $5,988 a year for your whole team, with unlimited users, plus a one-time setup fee starting at $1,000. US companies pay in USD and Canadian companies in CAD.
The difference: roughly $49,000 USD or $53,000 CAD back in year one, and more every year after.
The catch with hiring: the new person still writes everything down twice. You've doubled the people running a manual process, not fixed it.
One more hire vs. inventory and traceability software
Even a part-time hire costs about 4 times more than the software.
Year-one cost:
Full-time hire, median wage: $56,160 in the US (USD) · $60,125 in Canada (CAD)
Full-time hire, low-end wage: $42,908 in the US (USD) · $42,565 in Canada (CAD)
Part-time hire, 20 hrs/week at median wage: $28,098 in the US (USD) · $29,958 in Canada (CAD)
Caddy: $6,988 in the US (USD) · $6,988 in Canada (CAD)
A hire costs the same again every year. Caddy drops to $5,988 a year after the one-time setup.
How we got these numbers:
US wages: the national median for food science technicians is $25.06/hr, with $39,820/yr as the 10th-percentile low end (BLS, May 2025).
US employer taxes: Social Security at 6.2%, Medicare at 1.45%, and federal unemployment tax (FUTA) at 0.6% on the first $7,000. State unemployment tax varies by state and isn't included.
Canadian wages: Job Bank's national figures for food processing QC technicians, with $26.80/hr as the median and $19.00/hr as the low end.
Canadian employer costs: 2026 CPP at 5.95% above the $3,500 exemption, and EI at 2.282%.
Hours: full-time is 2,080 hours a year.
Not included: benefits, workers' comp, overtime, raises, recruiting, training, or a manager's time. The real cost of a hire is higher than shown.
Caddy: $5,988 a year, plus a one-time setup fee starting at $1,000 in year one.
Look at it in hours
$5,988 a year buys about 240 hours of a technician's time at the US median wage, or about 220 hours at the Canadian median. Either way, that's about 5 hours a week.
So here's the real question: does your team spend more than 5 hours a week on paperwork? If it does, Caddy is the cheaper option, and that's before you count recruiting and training.
Why another person won't fix a paper process
A new hire gives you more hands, but every record still gets written, re-typed, filed and dug back out.
More hands, more errors. In one study, 2.8% of hand-entered fields were wrong, and 24% of records had at least one error (BMJ Open, 2013). On a batch sheet, one of those errors could be a lot number.
The person may not stay, or show up at all. 65% of US manufacturers say attracting and keeping talent is their top challenge (Manufacturing Institute and Deloitte, 2024). In Canada, 7 in 10 food processors struggle to recruit and keep staff (FPSC, 2023). When your paperwork person leaves, your records knowledge leaves with them.
The rules don't care who's on shift. In the US, FSMA 204 requires records for foods on the FDA's Food Traceability List within 24 hours of a request, including an electronic, sortable spreadsheet, from July 20, 2028 (FDA). In Canada, CFIA can already ask for traceability records with 24 hours' notice (CFIA). A filing cabinet can't produce a sortable spreadsheet.
A slow traceback is expensive. A US industry study put the average food recall at $10 million in direct costs, before brand damage and lost sales (FMI/GMA via Food Dive). The faster and more precisely you trace a lot, the less you have to pull.
Where that hire's job goes instead
Write out the job description for the person you're about to hire. In most small plants, it's some version of the list below. Here's what happens to each task with Caddy.
Typing up sanitation, temperature and receiving logs. On paper, it means collecting clipboards and re-entering every line into Excel. With Caddy, the operator fills in the form once, on a tablet, as they do the check. Still a job? No. There's nothing left to re-type.
Building batch records. On paper, it means rebuilding what was made, from what, at the end of the shift. With Caddy, the batch record fills in as production happens, from the recipe and the lots used. Still a job? No. It's done when the batch is done.
Counting and reconciling inventory. On paper, it means weekly counts, then hunting down why the numbers don't match. With Caddy, receiving adds stock and production draws it down, by lot. Still a job? Mostly no. Spot checks replace full recounts.
Chasing missing sign-offs. On paper, it means walking the floor for initials before an audit. With Caddy, forms are signed digitally when they're completed. Still a job? No. Gaps show up the same day.
Prepping for audits. On paper, it means days of pulling binders and filling holes. With Caddy, records are already filed, dated and searchable. Still a job? No. It's a search, not a project.
Running mock recalls and customer traceability requests. On paper, it means hours tracing paper from the supplier to the customer. With Caddy, one lot search, forward or back. Still a job? No. It takes minutes.
Reviewing records for problems. On paper, it means reading through stacks of paper. With Caddy, reviewing digital records on screen. Still a job? Yes, but it's a slice of your QA lead's day, not a role.
Connecting the dots: the hire you were planning exists to move information from paper into a usable record. Caddy captures it in usable form the first time, at the moment the work happens. Your floor team keeps doing the checks they already do, just on a tablet instead of a clipboard. What's left is review, and that fits inside your existing team's day.
That's how you grow without the extra headcount. It's not that someone gets cut. It's that the job you were about to post never needs to exist.
You also don't have to set it up alone. Every plan includes your own implementation team. Most plants are live in about 45 days, and the fastest in 14 (joincaddy.com/pricing).
When hiring is the right call
Hire people to make food, not to push paper. US manufacturers will need as many as 3.8 million new workers by 2033 (Manufacturing Institute and Deloitte, 2024), and Canadian food processors 173,000 by 2034 (FPSC, Sept 2026). Put the people you can find where they add output.
The smart order of operations:
Put Caddy on the paperwork first. At $5,988 a year, it handles the records your next hire would have spent their time on.
Count the hours your team gets back.
Then hire, if you still need to, for production, sales or the line, where a person actually adds output.
Before you post that job ad
Book a 20-minute call. We'll go through your current forms and records, count the hours with you, and put Caddy's cost next to the hire you're planning.
Sources
BLS OEWS May 2025, Food Science Technicians, national, via Wagedex
Job Bank, Quality Control Technician – Food Processing wages, Canada-wide row (updated Nov 2023)
Food Processing Skills Canada, Labour Market Insights 2026–2034, via Retail Insider (Sept 23, 2026)
Food Processing Skills Canada, At the Crossroad to Greatness (Aug 2023)
FDA, FSMA Final Rule on Requirements for Additional Traceability Records
Hong et al., Error rates in a clinical data repository, BMJ Open (2013)
