Home → EstiMate Version 1 → How Do I... → How do I account for vinyl waste?
4.20. How do I account for vinyl waste?
A customer wants a 3.125" H x 14.125" W area in reflective vinyl. We have to buy a minimum quantity of 1 yard.
Do I "eat" the cost of the material I won't use and hope that I will use it someday (and remember I have it), or do I charge the customer for an entire yard, going beyond the "value" of this.
EstiMate's pricing theory is that you make your true profits on labor. This is the foundation for the "labor-based profitability" theory EstiMate is built on.
Once you've got your overhead and desired profits in the overhead worksheet, and are making what you need to make based on a proper hourly rate, your materials become incidental to pricing - any extra markup you make is "bonus" profit.
Therefore, marking materials up 100% allows you to discard up to half the material and still be OK on materials.
In circumstances like this one, when there is a special vinyl you only buy for jobs like this then specify a 150% markup or higher. You will then be A-OK on the vinyl cost.
Got the Estimate package this afternoon, Loaded like a dream, Cannot believe the depth of the program. Have been trying to get the owners to buy it since shortly after my arrival at company primarily from info gathered in th 4Edgetalk forum. They will be kicking themselves for weeks to come. It quickly revealed some very serious errors in their "off the cuff" pricing practices. This system will be a very serious profit builder for Gemini Signs. Congrats on a very good program. -- 2 months later -- The program does eveything you say it does in your advertising/web site. I only wish I had something similar when I was in the Burglar/Fire Alarm business. Took me close to a year of prodding to get the owners to "get with the program." They are now in the progress of buying all the add ons with the exception of the silk screen add on. Again a big Thank You to you for the obvious time and effort put into it's developement. Maybe over the next year they will migrate from 20 years of working for good wages to a company with a heavey +income at spread around.
-- Bill "Irish" Holohan, Gemini Signs, Marlboro, MA- EstiMate is perfect for:
- Sign estimating
- Vehicle wraps pricing
- Flatbed digital print pricing
- Wide format print pricing
- Thermal digital print pricing
- Vinyl sign pricing
- Screen print pricing
- Sandblasted sign pricing
- RTA graphics pricing
- Window graphics pricing
- Embroidery pricing
- Screen printed garment pricing
- Dimensional item pricing
- Labor item pricing
- Retail item pricing
Connect with us!