Want to work through your own order?
Open the free calculatorStart with the whole order
A stitch count gives you one part of the production picture. It does not tell you what you paid for the blank, how long hooping takes, whether the design needs digitizing, or how much of the order should contribute to shop expenses. Build your estimate from those components before choosing a selling price.
For a mixed order, list each garment type separately. A cap and a polo may share a logo but have different blank costs, handling times and effective machine speeds. The calculator uses one effective speed for the entire job; if garments require different speeds, estimate those runs separately and reconcile shared one-time costs before combining quotes. If the same design needs a different stitch count or a new digitized file for caps, enter it as a separate design with its actual additional cost.
1. Count garments and consumables
Multiply each blank’s landed cost by its quantity. Include inbound freight in the blank cost or as a one-time expense, consistently. Each embroidery location may also consume thread, bobbin thread, backing, topping or packaging. Enter those costs per placement and per piece.
Customer-supplied garments can have a blank cost of zero. Your handling and production costs remain. If an order needs a test sew-out, spare garments or a spoilage allowance, add an explicit expected expense; the calculator does not assume a waste percentage.
2. Separate machine time from hands-on time
Use a measured effective speed, allowing for how your design actually runs. A machine’s advertised maximum speed can overstate output on a design with short stitches, trims or difficult material. The calculator models one head working sequentially. Multi-head production needs a separate capacity and scheduling assessment.
Machine cost is run time divided by 60, multiplied by your hourly machine operating cost. Include only the expenses you intend that rate to cover. Operator labor uses hooping, loading, trimming and thread-change minutes, plus any explicitly entered active attendance during stitching.
If you hoop the next garment while the current garment stitches, charging a full hour of operator time for every hour of run time can double-count labor. Set active attendance to the fraction that needs additional hands-on attention. Do not count the same minute in handling and attendance.
3. Add one-time expenses once
Digitizing and initial design setup are shared across the order. In the calculator, the same design can be assigned to several garment lines and locations. Its digitizing cost and initial setup minutes are charged once as long as the design is used. An unused design adds no cost.
Enter thread-change time that repeats on every piece in the location’s per-piece field. Put a one-time machine preparation task in design setup. Other one-time expenses can include an outsourced sample, an art charge or inbound freight. Enter a fee as a cost only if it is a cost to your business.
4. Give overhead a clear home
Rent, utilities, maintenance and administrative work are real expenses, but a useful quote does not need a complicated accounting system. This calculator applies your overhead percentage to garment, production and one-time costs, then adds any fixed job overhead.
For example, a $200 cost base and 10% overhead adds $20. A further $5 fixed overhead brings total estimated cost to $225. Choose rates from your own records. Keep depreciation or utilities out of overhead if your machine hourly cost already includes them.
5. Choose margin or markup deliberately
Markup measures profit against cost. Gross margin measures profit against selling price. They use different denominators.
Margin price = cost ÷ (1 − margin percentage ÷ 100)
| Target | Selling price | Estimated profit | Resulting margin |
|---|---|---|---|
| 40% markup | $140.00 | $40.00 | 28.57% |
| 40% margin | $166.67 | $66.67 | 40.00% |
There is no universal target that fits every shop. The tool’s defaults are illustrative. Compare the price with your actual costs, capacity, service and market. Estimated profit is quote revenue minus all entered costs, including your entered overhead; it is not a substitute for business accounts.
A worked example: 24 embroidered polos
Suppose an illustrative order uses 24 blanks at $8 each. Each gets one 8,000-stitch logo. Effective machine speed is 650 stitches per minute, machine cost is $12 per hour, and operator labor is $24 per hour. Each polo needs 3 minutes of handling, 0.5 minutes of thread changes and $0.60 in consumables. Active attendance during stitching is set to zero.
The design needs a $25 digitizing fee and 15 minutes of one-time setup labor. Other one-time expenses are $10. Overhead is 10% with no additional fixed overhead. These are example inputs, not recommended rates.
| Component | Calculation | Job cost |
|---|---|---|
| Blanks | 24 × $8 | $192.00 |
| Machine | (24 × 8,000 ÷ 650) ÷ 60 × $12 | $59.08 |
| Handling labor | 24 × 3.5 ÷ 60 × $24 | $33.60 |
| Consumables | 24 × $0.60 | $14.40 |
| Digitizing | Once for this design | $25.00 |
| Design setup labor | 15 ÷ 60 × $24 | $6.00 |
| Other expenses | Once for this job | $10.00 |
| Overhead | 10% of the above, rounded | $34.01 |
| Total estimated cost | $374.09 |
At a 40% target margin, the unrounded job price is cost ÷ 0.60. Rounding the unit price upward to cents gives $25.98 per polo and a $623.52 quote. Estimated profit is $249.43 and the achieved margin is 40.00%. The $75 minimum order price does not apply because the calculated quote is already higher.
Make shared costs and rounding visible
For mixed garments, shared setup and overhead are allocated in proportion to each line’s direct costs. When all direct costs are zero, quantity provides the allocation. Every cent is assigned using largest-remainder allocation so line costs add back to total job cost.
The target job price is allocated by each line’s full cost. Unit selling prices are then rounded upward to whole cents and multiplied by quantity. This keeps customer quote arithmetic consistent and prevents rounding below the intended job price. The final quote can slightly exceed the target or minimum.
Review before you send
- Confirm which garments, sizes and embroidery locations are included.
- Check design stitch counts and effective speed against the file or a sample.
- Make sure shared digitizing appears once, and recurring handling appears on every piece.
- Add missing waste, freight or outsourced work explicitly.
- Review tax, shipping, turnaround and payment terms separately.
- Compare estimates with actual production time after the order is complete.
The customer quote includes garment quantities, decorations and selling prices. It omits your internal costs, rates, margin and profit. Preview it before printing or downloading.