Laser job pricing

How to price laser engraving jobs without guessing

A useful quote begins with a cost model you can explain. The goal is not to discover one universal hourly rate. It is to make your own assumptions visible before you commit to a customer price.

1. Start with material actually consumed

Use the purchased unit that matches your records: sheet, square centimeter, square inch, blank, or piece. Convert that cost to the amount used by the job. Then add realistic waste for test burns, kerf, positioning, defects, or unusable offcuts.

Material cost = material used × cost per unit × (1 + waste rate)

A waste rate is an assumption, not a fact. Review it against your own production history instead of copying an industry-looking number.

2. Separate machine time from labor time

Laser run time and human time are related but not identical. The machine may run while the operator prepares another job, or the operator may spend substantial time on design, setup, cleaning, masking, finishing, and packing outside the laser run.

Machine cost = productive machine hours × modeled machine-hour cost

Labor cost = hands-on labor hours × chosen labor rate

Counting only laser run time can omit the work that makes the job deliverable. Counting every calendar minute as full labor can overstate cost when work overlaps. Record the workflow you actually use.

3. Include an overhead method you understand

Overhead can include software, workspace, insurance, administration, tools, and other business costs that are not tied neatly to one job. There is no single correct allocation method for every shop. A simple model may apply an overhead rate to direct cost; another may allocate monthly overhead across productive hours.

Keep the model reviewable. A rough method you update from records is more useful than a complicated method whose assumptions nobody checks.

4. Treat selling fees as part of the equation

Percentage fees and fixed per-order fees affect the customer price differently. If a platform takes a percentage of the final price, simply adding that percentage to cost does not exactly recover it because the fee is calculated on the higher selling price.

Floor price = (modeled cost + fixed selling fee) ÷ (1 − percentage selling fee)

The denominator must stay above zero. Taxes, payment terms, advertising charges, currency conversion, and platform-specific rules may need separate treatment. Verify current fees from the actual channel before quoting.

5. Separate floor price from target-margin price

The floor is the modeled price that covers the included costs and fees. A target-margin price adds a chosen margin on the selling price. They answer different questions and should not be presented as guarantees.

Target price = (modeled cost + fixed selling fee) ÷ (1 − percentage fee − target margin)

If the denominator is zero or negative, the assumptions cannot produce a valid finite price. That should trigger a warning, not a plausible-looking result.

6. Convert batch price to per-item price carefully

Calculate shared setup and design effort once when appropriate, then divide the modeled batch price by a valid quantity. Quantity must be positive. For very small runs, setup dominates; for larger runs, material, run time, rejects, and packing may scale differently.

7. Review the quote like a customer

Before sending anything, confirm scope, quantity, material, artwork assumptions, turnaround, delivery, revisions, and what is excluded. A calculator can check arithmetic and required inputs. It cannot determine whether the scope is complete or the customer will accept it.

A compact quote checklist

Replace every sample with a verified job assumption.
Include waste, setup, finishing, and packing where relevant.
Check machine time and hands-on labor separately.
Use current selling-fee assumptions.
Review both floor and target price.
Confirm quantity is valid before calculating per-item price.
Read the customer-facing quote before sending it.

Scope note: This guide explains arithmetic planning. It is not tax, accounting, legal, pricing-policy, or machine-safety advice and does not predict customer demand or profit.