Rex says
Money math without the spreadsheet headache. Plug in your numbers and I'll show you exactly where the dollars land.
Try a scenario
Click to load — tweak from there.Inputs
Result
Hourly rate to hit profit target
$100.81
Breakeven hourly rate
$70.56
Billable hours per month
198
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How to use this
- 1Enter monthly fixed overhead ($).
- 2Enter target monthly owner profit ($).
- 3Enter total staff hours available per month.
- 4Enter billable utilization rate (%).
- 5Read your hourly rate to hit profit target on the right — it updates as you type.
- 6Hit Share to keep the scenario or send it to someone.
About this calculator
Many sign and print shops price jobs off gut feel or competitor rates without ever calculating what their own overhead requires per billable hour. This calculator takes your monthly fixed overhead (rent, insurance, equipment leases, salaried staff, utilities), a target owner profit, and your realistic billable hours per month, then computes the hourly rate needed just to break even and the rate needed to hit your profit target. Billable hours are always less than total working hours because of quoting time, material ordering, cleanup, and non-billable admin work — a shop with two production staff working 160 hours each per month might only convert 55-70% of that into billable production or install time. Getting this number right prevents the common trap of pricing jobs off cheap material cost estimates alone while quietly under-recovering the fixed cost of keeping the doors open.
Worked example
Using the values the calculator loads with:
Inputs
- Monthly fixed overhead: 14000 $
- Target monthly owner profit: 6000 $
- Total staff hours available per month: 320
- Billable utilization rate: 62 %
Results
- Hourly rate to hit profit target: $100.81
- Breakeven hourly rate: $70.56
- Billable hours per month: 198
What each field means
Inputs
- Monthly fixed overhead ($)
- The monthly fixed overhead used in the calculation, measured in $. Starts at 14000 $ so you have a working example on load.
- Target monthly owner profit ($)
- The target monthly owner profit used in the calculation, measured in $. Starts at 6000 $ so you have a working example on load.
- Total staff hours available per month
- The total staff hours available per month used in the calculation. Starts at 320 so you have a working example on load.
- Billable utilization rate (%)
- The billable utilization rate used in the calculation, measured in %. Starts at 62 % so you have a working example on load. Accepted range: 10–100 %.
Results
- Hourly rate to hit profit target
- Returned as a money amount in US dollars and shown as the headline result. It recalculates instantly whenever you change an input, so you can compare scenarios without reloading.
- Breakeven hourly rate
- Returned as a money amount in US dollars. It recalculates instantly whenever you change an input, so you can compare scenarios without reloading.
- Billable hours per month
- Returned as a whole number. It recalculates instantly whenever you change an input, so you can compare scenarios without reloading.
FAQ
What's a typical billable utilization rate for a small sign shop?
Most shops land between 55% and 70%. Time spent on quoting, design revisions, material ordering, machine maintenance, and general admin all eat into total staff hours without generating billable output, so don't assume every clocked hour bills to a job.
Does this rate apply to design time too?
Yes, if you bill design time separately, it should use the same rate logic — many shops undercharge for design because they think of it as 'included' rather than a real labor cost competing for the same overhead recovery.
How do I know if my current pricing is below this rate?
Add up hours actually billed on recent invoices versus revenue collected for the same period; if the resulting effective rate is below your calculated target rate, your job pricing isn't recovering full overhead even if individual jobs look profitable on paper.
Should equipment depreciation be in monthly overhead?
Yes — spread the purchase cost of large-format printers, laser cutters, or embroidery machines over their useful life (often 5-7 years) and include that monthly amount in overhead, since replacement cost is a real future expense your rate needs to fund.
Accuracy and limitations
- Results are estimates before tax, fees, and inflation unless an input explicitly covers them.
- Rates are treated as fixed for the whole period — variable-rate products will drift from this projection.
- This is educational maths, not financial advice. Check anything contractual with the lender or your accountant.
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Cite this calculator
Writing about this topic? Grab a citation — every link helps keep these tools free.
RevenueLab. (2026). Sign Shop Hourly Rate Calculator. Retrieved from https://www.revenuelab.fyi/toolbox/sign-shop-hourly-rate
<p>Source: <a href="https://www.revenuelab.fyi/toolbox/sign-shop-hourly-rate" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Sign Shop Hourly Rate Calculator — RevenueLab</a> (2026).</p>
Source: [Sign Shop Hourly Rate Calculator — RevenueLab](https://www.revenuelab.fyi/toolbox/sign-shop-hourly-rate) (2026).