Job Estimating
How is everyone calculating job costs for clients? Commercial software? Spreadsheets? Just plain guessing?
We’ve been using an ooooooold license of PrintSmith, but it’s got its bugs and is no longer supported by the manufacturer. It seems like most of the commercial softwares no longer offer Letterpress-specific features, and trying to use a digital or offset estimator doesn’t really cut it. I’m just curious if anyone has any good solutions for coming up with consistent, fair estimates for custom printing jobs.
Spreadsheet and common sense right here….
Estimate initial parses of work in the minimum increment based on experience (say, 250 pieces of 5x7, vs 500, 750, 1000, 3,000- so estimate based on what you think 250 will cost, and go from there).
This is broken down into sections in the form of:
Static charges:
~Initialization fee. Single time charge, starts the project. Any computer/typesetting/platemaking/etc is covered in this fee.
~a small fee for maintenance, Etc…
Variable charges:
~a labor charge per unit of work;
~and then factor in a separate materials fee,
~a single fee for cutting per 250 pieces,
~A fee for the paper, including your markup and overages required, per unit of pieces….
Mult. the initial parses based on amount of pieces required…. Perhaps the maintenance fee stays singular, and even the cutting may only take you so long… But the paper must meet your requirements per unit and be able to evenly multiply out across the various quantities.
1x Init Fee (layout/platemaking/initial paper cutting/setup)
+
1X Labor per 250
+
1X Materials
+
1X Paper
+
1X Cutting
+
1XMaintenence
=
250 pieces
~~~~
1x Init Fee (layout/platemaking/initial paper cutting/setup)
+
2X Labor per 250
+
2X Materials
+
2X Paper
+
2X Cutting
+
1XMaintenence
=
500 pieces
~~~~
1x Init Fee (layout/platemaking/initial paper cutting/setup)
+
3X Labor per 250
+
3X Materials
+
3X Paper
+
3X Cutting
+
1XMaintenence
=
1000 pieces
Optional sliding scale:
…… And then season with the customer’s record of transactions/loyalty/relationship via a customer-specific D.A. charge which gets logged with their invoice. The charge is higher for customers with an abusive history of the relationship, lower for customers with a history of being pleasant to work with.
(D.A. stands for “Dicking Around” but I can add it as any line item to the invoice I want, or distribute it amongst the others as a general % increase. Mostly happens with badly behaving advert agencies or large companies with a propensity for taking their sweet time paying, beyond even normal 60-90 day terms. Like, in my case, a certain large media company will always end up with a 300% DA fee in the future, because they have been late so many times with payment, and I’m not talking multiple weeks late… Try multiple months of badgering..)
Made a handy spreasheet calculator for myself, that can calculate the cost for various circumstances (running a full time press shop, printing as supplement, hobby printing etc.)
There’s a preview here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1J6lc44G2_0kGb9dxBNNr0w7WzCkOH54z...
But it won’t let you plug in new values.
Lemme know if you are interested in an actual spreadsheet file.
oprion, I’d love the actual spreadsheet if you’re willing to share. I’m in the process of working up my own pricing guidelines but didn’t break it out quite like this!
1919 STANDARD ESTIMATING COURSE FOR PRINTERS BOOK THPOTHETAE OF AMERICA GREEN BO
Copy of above is available now on eby for less than ten bucks. Just modernize the numbers!
When making up our estimate forms we included a column for our more irritating clients headed “PIA CHARGES”
We explained this as “Printing Industries of America” charges, but what we meant was “Pain In the A$$” charges. Some of our clients were very deserving of this extra charge!!
Stan- see my comment about D.A. charges/fees ;-)