Price kitchens, vanities and built-ins from your own shop costs
You tell it what your shop costs to run one time. From then on, every run of cabinets is priced from your own numbers instead of a foot price you picked up somewhere.
- Know what a shop hour really costs you Rent, heat, dust collection, insurance and every wage, yours included, turn into one break-even rate per shop hour.
- Price the whole kitchen, not just the boxes Sheet goods, doors, hardware, each shop step, bought-in drawer boxes and delivery each get their own line.
- Still quote by the linear foot You get the price for the whole job and the price per foot, and it shows what the same kitchen costs per foot at other lengths.
- Get paid for drawings and trim Design time, site measures, crown and fillers sit on a checklist that must be answered before the quote is ready.
- Hand the client a clean estimate A one-page quote with the scope, deposit and your cabinet shop terms, ready to print or save as a PDF.
- See which kitchens made money The Job Log keeps every quote, won or lost, next to the hours each job really took.
- One-time payment, no subscription
- Instant download
- Excel and Google Sheets
How it turns sheet goods and shop hours into a per-foot kitchen quote
There are six tabs. You set the shop up once, update prices when your supplier changes them, and fill in one Quote tab per job.
- Start HereWhat to fill in first, in order. Plan on one evening.
- Shop SetupYour yearly shop costs, people and machines like the spray booth and edge bander, turned into a break-even rate and a cost per machine hour.
- Price ListWhat you pay for plywood by the sheet, hardwood by the board foot, hinges, slides and finish, each dated so old prices get flagged.
- QuoteEnter the linear feet, the materials per foot and the hours for cutting, banding, doors, sanding and finishing, add bought-in parts, answer the checklist, and read the job price and the price per foot.
- Customer QuoteThe page your client signs: scope, price, deposit and terms.
- Job LogOnce the kitchen is installed, the real hours go in, so you know if it paid.
What is a break-even rate? It is the least one shop hour has to bring in to pay the wages and every other cost of running the shop, before any profit. What you charge above it is profit. The true hourly rate guide walks through it, and the cabinet shop rate page applies it to a three-person shop.
Prefilled example built-in
The file comes filled in with a made-up cabinet shop and its $9,795 kitchen quote, so you see a finished quote before you type in your own numbers.
The sample shop is an owner, a cabinetmaker and a finisher, with a break-even of $58.80 per shop hour. Its quote is 20 linear feet of base cabinets: paint-grade maple Shaker doors, plywood boxes, soft-close hinges, undermount slides and bought-in dovetail drawer boxes, delivered, with install quoted separately.
| A | B | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Part of the price | Amount |
| 2 | Materials, drawer boxes and about 47 shop hours | $5,954 |
| 3 | Easy-to-miss costs | $1,457 |
| 4 | Markup, cushion and profit | $2,384 |
| 5 | Price for 20 ft (about $490 a foot) | $9,795 |
The $2,384 is what the shop keeps after every cost, the owner's wage included, and the job works out to about $97 per labour hour. The step-by-step version is in how to price custom cabinets.
$1,457
That is what the easy-to-miss lines alone added to this one example quote. It is about 29 times what the calculator costs. Miss them once and the file has paid for itself.
- One-time payment, no subscription
- Instant download
- Excel and Google Sheets
Why one foot price for every job loses money on vanities
Most small shops quote cabinets by the linear foot, and many use the same foot price on every job. The trouble is that a lot of the work does not grow with length. Drawings, the site visit, the sample board and the trip to the house are about the same for an 8 ft vanity as for a 20 ft kitchen.
The sample shows it. Its 20 ft kitchen prices at about $490 a foot. Quote an 8 ft run at that same rate and you get $3,918. Price that 8 ft run from its own costs and it comes to $5,144, about $643 a foot. The flat foot price leaves $1,226 on the table on one small job.
The calculator prices each job from its own costs first and gives you the foot price at the end. You still quote by the foot, but the number fits the job in front of you.
Drawings, site visits, crown and the other cabinet costs it catches
The Quote tab won't mark a quote ready until each of these lines has a Yes, No or N/A:
- Design, drawings and the cut list, including the kitchens you draw and never build.
- Site measure and client meetings, which can mean several visits before a board is cut.
- Pull-outs, spice racks and blind corner units, priced on top of the foot price.
- Crown, fillers, scribe and toe kick, the trim that never shows up in a box count.
- Loading, driving and carrying the cabinets in, with two people and a truck.
- Unloading, checking and sending back bad lumber. Left as No in the sample on purpose, so the warning stays until you set your own number.
Exactly what you get
One .xlsx file, sent the moment you pay. It opens in Excel and Google Sheets, with no subscription, app or login.
- The six-tab calculator, set up for cabinet work and ready for your numbers.
- A sample cabinet shop, with a finished 20 ft kitchen quote to study first.
- Cabinet shop terms you can edit, covering approved drawings, extras, install and deposit, plus a line that sends changes after approval to a signed change order.
- A Job Log that shows your win rate and which kitchens ran over their hours, the habit explained in job costing.
How it compares
Most owners price a job one of these ways. Here is what each one gives you.
| Copying another company's price | A free estimate template | Estimating software | This calculator | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starts from your own costs | No | No | Varies | Yes |
| Makes you answer the easy-to-miss costs | No | No | Varies | Yes |
| Shows which jobs made money | No | No | Varies | Yes |
| Works in Excel and Google Sheets | – | Yes | No | Yes |
| Cost | Free | Free | Usually a monthly fee | $49.95 once |
Who it's for: cabinet shops building kitchens and built-ins
It fits one-person and small cabinet shops, about 1 to 15 people, building kitchens, vanities, closets and built-ins and quoting per linear foot. Working alone in a garage shop or running a crew with a spray booth, doing a single vanity or a whole house, it works the same way, because every rate and price in it is yours.
It is not for homeowners budgeting a kitchen, shops whose cabinet design software already does their job costing, or anyone who only wants a blank estimate form. To try the idea before buying, work out your rate in the free true hourly rate calculator.
Stop guessing a foot price and hoping it covers the job. Price every kitchen from your own costs, catch the drawings and trim that usually go unpaid, and see which jobs made money.
Cabinet Shop Pricing Calculator
$49.95 one-time
Buy now and download- One-time payment, no subscription
- Instant download
- Excel and Google Sheets