Price polo, cap and tee orders from your own costs
You enter what your shop costs to run one time, and every logo order after that is priced from your rent, your machines and your minutes.
- Know what an hour at the machine really costs Rent, machine payments, thread, insurance and wages, yours included, turn into one break-even rate per billable hour.
- Price the whole order, not just the stitches Blanks, thread, backing, hooping, trims, folding, bagging and digitizing each get their own line.
- Quote a price each at four quantities One quote shows the order total and the price per piece at 12, 24, 48 and 100, so the customer sees why more pieces cost less each.
- Stop giving away the small stuff The mock-up, the sew-out, the spare blank and the wholesaler's freight sit on a checklist that has to be answered before the quote is ready.
- Send a clean quote before the customer shops around A one-page customer quote with the price each, the deposit and terms written for logo orders.
- See which orders paid for the machine time The Job Log keeps every quote, won or lost, and the real hours each run took.
- One-time payment, no subscription
- Instant download
- Excel and Google Sheets
How it turns stitch counts, blanks and minutes into a logo order quote
There are six tabs. You set up the shop once, update blank and thread prices when your wholesaler changes them, and build one quote per order.
- Start HereWhat to fill in first, on one page. Plan on one evening.
- Shop SetupYour yearly costs, your people and each machine (single head, multi-head, screen press, heat press), turned into a break-even rate and an hourly cost for each machine.
- Price ListWhat you pay for blanks, thread per 1,000 stitches, bobbins, backing, transfers and ink, each with the date you last checked it.
- QuoteType the stitch count and the real stitches a minute your machine runs, add hooping and folding minutes and digitizing, answer the checklist, and it gives the order total and the price each at four quantities.
- Customer QuoteThe page your customer sees: the price each per quantity, the deposit and your terms.
- Job LogAfter the run, the real hours go in, so you know if the order made money.
What is a break-even rate? It is what one billable hour in your shop has to bring in to pay your wages, rent and machines before any profit. Every dollar an hour above it is profit. The true hourly rate guide walks through it.
Prefilled example built-in
The file comes filled in with a made-up embroidery shop and its $839.22 polo order quote, so you see a finished quote before you type in your own numbers.
The example shop runs a 4-head machine and has a break-even of $53.28 per billable hour. Its sample order is 24 company polos with a left-chest logo of about 7,000 stitches in 3 colors, mixed sizes, with the logo sent out for digitizing.
| A | B | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Part of the price | 24 polos |
| 2 | Blanks, thread, backing, bags and machine and bench time | $407.54 |
| 3 | Digitizing | $35.00 |
| 4 | Easy-to-miss costs | $114.78 |
| 5 | Markup, cushion and profit | $281.90 |
| 6 | Price for the order | $839.22, or $34.97 each |
The shop keeps $281.90 after both wages and the rent are paid, which works out to about $110 for every labor hour on the order. The same quote prices 12 polos at $44.85 each and 100 at $27.46 each, because setup and digitizing are paid once however many pieces are ordered. The step-by-step version is in how much to charge for embroidery.
$115
That is what the easy-to-miss lines alone added to this one example quote. It is about 2 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 $1 per 1,000 stitches can pay you less than minimum wage
The old rule of pricing embroidery at $1 per 1,000 stitches only counts the thread going into the garment. It leaves out hooping, trims, color changes, folding and the time the machine sits while you swap hoops.
Here is simple math. A 5,000-stitch cap logo at $1 per 1,000 is $5. If that cap takes 20 minutes on a single head from hooping to bagging, three caps an hour earn $15 an hour, before rent, machine payments or the blank. On a 4-head machine the same logo earns more per hour, so the right price depends on the machine you actually run, not on a number from another shop.
The calculator starts from your shop rate and the real minutes each piece takes, then adds the blank and digitizing. You can still check the result against a per-stitch price, but now you know whether it covers your time.
Sew-outs, spare blanks, freight and the other order costs it catches
The Quote tab won't show the quote as ready until each of these lines has a Yes, No or N/A:
- The mock-up and written sign-off before any blanks are ordered.
- A sew-out test on scrap for every new design.
- A spare blank for the piece the machine chews.
- Trims, color changes and thread breaks, machine minutes the stitch count doesn't show.
- The wholesaler's freight bill, which arrives after the quote went out.
- Sorting a mixed-size order, since 24 polos in six sizes are six small counts.
- Card fees. Left as No in the example on purpose, so the warning stays until you set your own.
Exactly what you get
One spreadsheet, sent as an instant download after checkout. It opens in Microsoft Excel and in Google Sheets with no macros, no subscription and no login.
- The six-tab calculator, ready for your shop's numbers.
- A complete example embroidery shop, with the 24-polo order already priced so you can see how each number is built.
- Logo order terms you can edit, including a deposit before blanks are ordered and customer-supplied garments at the customer's risk.
- A Job Log that shows which orders ran over their minutes, 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: embroidery and small print shops with one to four heads
It fits home and small-shop embroiderers with one to a few machines, and small screen print, DTF and heat press shops quoting company polos, team caps and event tees. One single-head machine or several multi-heads, 12 pieces or 500, it works the same way, because the machines, speeds and prices in it are yours.
It is not for large contract shops already running shop-management software with costing built in, hobbyists stitching gifts who don't need to cover rent, or anyone who wants a chart of what other shops charge. To see your own rate before buying, try the free true hourly rate calculator.
Stop pricing logos from $1 per 1,000 or someone else's price sheet. Price every order from your own rent, machines and minutes, catch the small costs, and see which orders made money.
Embroidery & Screen Print Pricing Calculator
$49.95 one-time
Buy now and download- One-time payment, no subscription
- Instant download
- Excel and Google Sheets