Job Costing for Screen Printers: Calculate True Profit Per Order

You quoted a 12-piece custom tee job at $18 per shirt. Felt solid. But after accounting for press time, ink, setup, and labor, did you actually make money?

Most screen printing shop owners can't answer that question with confidence.

Job costing is the practice of tracking every direct cost tied to a specific order—from material to machine time to labor. Without it, you're flying blind. You might be profitable on 70% of your jobs and losing money on the other 30% without ever knowing it.

This guide walks you through a practical, implementable costing system for your shop.

Why Most Screen Printers Underprice Jobs

The problem usually comes down to incomplete cost accounting. Shop owners typically factor in:

• Blank garment cost ✓
• Ink and ink coverage (sometimes)
• Setup time (vaguely estimated)

But they often miss:

• Actual press time per piece (including speed variations based on design complexity)
• Screen reclaim labor if screens aren't reused
• Overhead allocation (rent, utilities, equipment depreciation)
• Color separation and art time
• Press downtime and changeovers between jobs
• Waste and misprint allowance

When you skip these costs, your actual margin on a job might be 8–10% instead of the 35% you thought you negotiated.

Over a year, that's tens of thousands in lost profit.

The Three-Tier Job Costing Method

Implement this system to capture true job costs:

Tier 1: Material Costs (Direct)

These are straightforward:

• Blank garments: $3.50 per shirt (your invoice cost, not retail)
• Screen printing ink: Track by color and coverage. A 6-color design might use $0.40–$0.80 in ink per shirt depending on flash cure, ink viscosity, and emulsion thickness
• Separations/film: If you're using traditional screens, allocate the cost of emulsion, photo chemicals, and film per job
• DTG ink (if applicable): $0.60–$1.20 per white ink print; $0.30–$0.60 per standard color
• Ink additives: Catalyst, thinner, hardener—often overlooked but real

Action: Pull your last 10 invoices from your ink supplier. Calculate ink cost per shirt for small, medium, and large orders. This becomes your baseline.

Tier 2: Labor Costs (Semi-Direct)

This is where most shops leak margin. Break it into categories:

Setup labor:

• Artwork prep and color matching: 15–45 minutes per job
• Screen mounting and registration: 10–20 minutes (depends on design complexity and press type)
• Squeegee/flood bar setup: 5–10 minutes

Hourly labor rate: If you pay screen printers $22/hour, a 30-minute setup = $11 in labor cost. On a 48-piece order, that's $0.23 per shirt in setup.

Press time:

• Manual press: 1–2 minutes per shirt for single-color, up to 8+ minutes for 6-color separations
• Automatic press: 12–30 seconds per shirt after setup
• Measure this in real time on your equipment. Don't estimate.

If your labor rate is $22/hour and a 12-color design takes 6 minutes per shirt on a manual press:

• 6 minutes = 0.1 hours × $22 = $2.20 labor per shirt

Screen reclaim (if applicable):

• Manual reclaim: 10–15 minutes per screen
• If you reclaim 15 screens per week and pay $22/hour, that's ~$110 in reclaim labor weekly
• Allocate this across jobs based on screen usage

Action: Time your next 5 jobs from start to finish (setup through takeoff). Record exact minutes for each stage. You'll spot where time really goes.

Tier 3: Overhead Allocation (Indirect)

Your rent, utilities, equipment payments, insurance, and software subscriptions don't disappear when you take on a job. They need to be absorbed by jobs.

Simple method:

• Calculate total monthly overhead (rent, utilities, insurance, subscriptions, equipment payments, etc.)
• Divide by your average monthly revenue
• Apply that percentage to each job

Example:

• Monthly overhead: $8,000
• Monthly revenue: $45,000
• Overhead rate: 17.8%

A job that costs $240 in materials and labor gets $42.72 added for overhead. Total cost to produce: $282.72.

If you quote $450, your margin is only 37%—and that's before accounting for unseen costs.

More sophisticated approach: Allocate overhead by machine hours used. A press that costs $45,000 to buy and operate annually should generate enough job revenue to justify its existence. If you use it 80 hours per month, your overhead is ~$46/hour on that equipment.

Building a Simple Costing Sheet

Use this template for every job quote:

Cost Category	Calculation	Amount
Blank shirts	50 × $3.50	$175.00
Ink (4-color)	50 × $0.65	$32.50
Setup labor	0.5 hrs × $22	$11.00
Press time	50 × 4 min × $0.37/min	$74.00
Screen reclaim	Allocated	$8.00
Overhead (18%)	$300.50 × 0.18	$54.09
Total Production Cost		$354.59
Cost Per Piece		$7.09

If you're quoting $18 per shirt on a 50-piece run, your profit is $10.91/shirt × 50 = $545.50, or a 61% margin.

If you're quoting $11 per shirt, you're at a loss. (This is common on small rush orders—and a clear signal to raise rush pricing or decline the job.)

How to Track This in Practice

You don't need complex accounting software to start. But you do need to:

1. Document your actual times on jobs—not estimates. Use a simple timer or job tracking log for the first month.
2. Weigh your ink usage if possible. A gram scale costs $20 and gives you real cost data vs. guessing.
3. Track screen reuse. If you're reusing screens, reduce setup labor and eliminate reclaim costs for those jobs.
4. Review quotes monthly. Compare what you quoted vs. actual costs. You'll spot patterns (e.g., "small orders always take longer than I think").

If you're using a job management platform like Kontraktr, you can attach labor hours and material costs to templates, so future quotes auto-calculate based on historical data.

The Profit Threshold Question

Once you know your true costs, ask:

• "What's my minimum margin target?" (Most screen printers aim for 40–60%, depending on market and volume.)
• "Which job types are most profitable? (Large reorders, single-color flood prints, bulk orders?) Prioritize these.
• "Which jobs drain resources? (Complex 8-color separations, tiny orders, rush turnarounds?) Either raise prices or decline them.

You'll probably discover that 20–30% of your job types are unprofitable at your current pricing. That's insight you can act on immediately.

Start Here

Begin with one week:

1. Track setup time, press time, and material costs for every job
2. Calculate your true labor rate (hourly salary + overhead burden)
3. Build a simple spreadsheet with the template above
4. Compare quoted price to actual cost

Within seven days, you'll see where your pricing is solid and where it's breaking down. From there, adjust your pricing guide, your quote templates, or your production process accordingly.

Job costing isn't about complexity—it's about visibility. Once you see the real numbers, profitability follows.