Ingredients and cost units
Model your real production costs in Print Price Engine, from rolls, sheets, per-area rates, litres and labour hours to fixed fees, with all eleven cost units explained.
Ingredients are the foundation of every price: the actual things you buy and the labour you spend, entered at what they cost you. Recipes combine them and add margin, so when a supplier changes a price, you update one ingredient and every product reprices.
Build with them live#
Build a recipe
Sample job: 30 × 40 cm × 10 units. Toggle ingredients and adjust your markup.
What the engine computes
- Material cost / unit
- $2.22
- Labour / unit (at cost)
- $4.00
- Setup / unit ($15 ÷ 10)
- $1.50
- Markup ×1.6 on materials
- $1.33
$9.05 / unit
$90.50 total · 15% margin
Markup applies to variable (material) costs only: labour and setup pass through at cost, so quantity discounts never eat your fixed costs.
The eleven cost units#
| Cost unit | You enter | The engine computes |
|---|---|---|
| Per Roll | Cost per roll + roll width & length | Cost per m², from your roll's real dimensions |
| Per Sheet | Cost per sheet + sheet dimensions | Cost per m² from the sheet's real dimensions |
| Per Sheet, whole sheets only | Cost per sheet + sheet dimensions | Bills in whole sheets: the engine nests your pieces onto sheets and charges for every sheet started |
| Per Meter/Ft | Cost per running metre/foot + material width | Cost per m² from the running rate |
| Per Sq Meter (m²) | Cost per m² | Direct area cost |
| Per Sq Foot (ft²) | Cost per ft² | Converted to the job's area |
| Per Sq Cm (cm²) | Cost per cm² | Converted to the job's area |
| Per Liter | Cost per litre | Area-proportional coverage (inks, coatings) |
| Per Hour | Hourly rate | Time-based labour per unit |
| Fixed Cost (per item) | Flat amount | Added to every unit: weeding, application tape |
| Fixed Cost (per order) | Flat amount | Added once per order and spread across the quantity: setup, plating |
Ingredient types (Media, Ink, Labor, Laminate, Finish) are labels to keep your list organised. The cost unit is what drives the maths.
Variable vs fixed: why it matters#
The engine treats the two groups differently, and it's the detail that protects your margins:
- Variable costs (roll, length, area, litre) scale with the job's dimensions, receive your recipe's markup, and are what volume discounts apply to.
- Fixed costs (per item, per order, hourly labour) pass through at cost. They're never marked down by a quantity discount, so a 100-unit order discounts the vinyl, not your setup time.
Worked example#
"3M Vinyl Roll" at $450 per roll, 30 m × 1.37 m:
cost per m² = 450 ÷ (30 × 1.37) = $10.95/m²
30 × 40 cm job = 0.12 m² → $1.31 of vinyl per unit
Add "Gloss Laminate" at $6.50/m² (+$0.78) and $4 fixed finishing labour, and the engine knows a unit truly costs you $6.09, before your markup does its job.
Enter costs honestly (what you pay, not what you charge) and put all margin in the recipe's markup. When your supplier raises vinyl 10%, you change one number and every affected product reprices correctly.
Related guides#
- Recipes for combining ingredients with markup and rules
- Quantity discounts for what gets discounted and what never is
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