A Screen Printing Quote Calculator That Shows Your Margin
A screen printing quote calculator that shows your margin: cost blanks, screens, spoilage, and real press time live, with a plain flag on every job you quote.
Most screen printing quote calculators do one thing: turn a quantity and a color count into a price. That is useful right up until you realize the price they hand you says nothing about whether the job actually makes money at your shop.
A calculator worth using should show your margin, not just your price. Here is how PrintShopCRM costs a screen print job live and tells you, in plain language, whether to send the number or rethink it.
Price is not the same as profit
A number that looks fine at the counter can be a loser once you account for what the job really consumes. PrintShopCRM costs each quote against blanks, screens, spoilage, and labor, then shows the margin alongside the price. You see both sides of the equation before you commit.
- Blanks costed on live prices from S&S Activewear and SanMar.
- Screen count pulled straight from the separation studio.
- Spoilage built into the estimate instead of forgotten.
- Per-size pricing so a 3XL is not blended in with a large.
The press-time correction most calculators miss
The single biggest reason quotes lie is labor. A press only prints roughly a quarter to a third of the working clock, so costing labor at a raw hourly rate understates the true cost by about three times. PrintShopCRM charges labor at real press time, which is why its margin number reflects reality instead of a fantasy.
- Labor costed at real press time, not raw hourly rate.
- Setup and teardown counted as real, paid time.
- The correction that turns a fake healthy margin into an honest one.
- Consistent math whether the owner or a new hire builds the quote.
A plain-language verdict on every job
Numbers are only useful if the person quoting understands them, so PrintShopCRM turns the margin into a flag anyone can read. Instead of interpreting a spreadsheet, your counter staff see whether the job is a winner or a warning. That keeps pricing discipline consistent across the whole team.
- Every quote flagged Losing Money, Too thin, Tight, Healthy, or Strong.
- Warnings visible before the price is sent, not after the invoice.
- Screen count flowing into price automatically from separations.
Common Questions
Can I set my own labor and markup rates?
Yes. The calculator reflects your real costs and margins, so the flags match your shop rather than a generic template. You set the inputs, and the live costing keeps every quote consistent with them.
Does it work for multi-color and multi-location prints?
Yes. Screen count from the separation studio flows into price, so additional colors and locations are reflected in both the number and the margin. The more complex the job, the more the honest costing matters.
Why does press-time labor matter so much?
Because presses idle for setup, teardown, and changeovers, they print only a fraction of the clock. Costing labor at a raw rate ignores that and understates cost by roughly threefold, which is how shops stay busy yet unprofitable. Real press-time costing fixes it.