Sign estimating software that quotes in minutes
Describe the job or drop a photo. SignEstimator prices materials, machine time, labor, install and margin, then sends a branded quote.
Channel letters, monuments, pylons, banners, wraps. Install, lift and crane priced in.
Estimate draft
Channel letters, front lit
2 letters, 72 in tall, 14 ft wide, install at 26 ft, 25 miles
+ 7 more lines
Sale price
$5,365.00
Price every part of the job
Most underpriced sign jobs do not lose money on one big mistake. They lose it on ten small lines nobody added. SignEstimator adds every line for you, from the aluminum coil to the boom lift, so the price you send covers the whole job.
You pick a sign type, enter the size and a few details, and the estimate builds itself. Area, perimeter, waste, LED count, power supplies and machine hours come from your own material library and your own rates. You see every number, and you can change any of them.
- Materials by area, by linear foot, by sheet or by each, with a waste percent on every line
- Sheet nesting on 4x8 and 5x10 sheets, so faces and backs are priced by the sheets you really cut
- Returns by depth and gauge, such as 5 in aluminum returns in 0.040 coil
- Trim cap by linear foot of stroke, matched to your return depth
- LED modules per foot of stroke, with power supplies sized to the load (60 W or 100 W, your choice)
- Raceway or backer, priced by length or by panel
- Router, laser, wide format printer and letter bender time at your machine rates
- Design, fabrication, wiring and paint hours at your labor rates
- Install crew, hours, lift or crane class, travel and permits
- Overhead rate and target margin on top, so the sale price is not a guess
What a channel letter estimate looks like
Here is a real estimate screen for a common job. In this example, a shop prices 6 front lit channel letters, 24 in tall, about 14 ft overall, mounted on a raceway at 18 ft, 25 miles from the shop. The rates and material costs are example numbers. Your own numbers replace them the day you set up.
Every line shows quantity, unit, waste and rate. An estimator can check the logic in seconds, and an owner can see where the money goes before the quote leaves the shop.
- See how we price letters in detail on channel letter pricing
- Try a quick number on the sign pricing calculator
-
Materials $88.20
Aluminum returns, 5 in, 0.040 coil, 8 percent waste
63 lf × $1.40 per lf
-
Materials $330.00
Acrylic faces, 3/16 in white, nested on 4x8 sheets
2 sheets × $165 per sheet
-
Materials $210.00
Aluminum backs, 0.063, nested on one 5x10 sheet
1 sheet × $210 per sheet
-
Materials $72.60
Trim cap, 1 in
66 lf × $1.10 per lf
-
Materials $278.40
LED modules, 3 per foot of stroke
174 each × $1.60 each
-
Materials $144.00
Power supplies, 100 W
2 each × $72 each
-
Materials $252.00
Raceway, painted to match the wall
14 lf × $18 per lf
-
Machine $212.50
Router time, faces and backs
2.5 h × $85 per h
-
Machine $112.50
Letter bender time, returns
1.5 h × $75 per h
-
Labor $130.00
Design and shop drawing
2 h × $65 per h
-
Labor $770.00
Fabrication and wiring
14 h × $55 per h
-
Install $700.00
Crew of 2 for 5 hours
10 h × $70 per h
-
Install $325.00
Boom lift, 30 ft class, half day
1 × $325
-
Install $62.50
Travel, 25 miles each way
50 mi × $1.25 per mi
-
Install $250.00
Permit and permit drawing
1 × $250
- Direct cost
- $3,937.70
- Full cost
- $4,528.36
- Sale price
- $6,966.71
- Gross profit
- $2,438.35
In this example, the groups add up like this. Materials come to $1,375.20, machine time to $325.00, labor to $900.00 and install to $1,337.50. That is $3,937.70 of direct cost. A 15 percent overhead rate adds $590.66, so the full cost is $4,528.36. With a 35 percent target margin, the sale price is $6,966.71 and the gross profit is $2,438.35.
Templates for the signs you build every week
You do not start from a blank page. SignEstimator includes estimate recipes for the work most sign shops quote again and again. Each recipe knows which lines that sign type needs and how to calculate them.
Estimate this job- Channel letters, front lit, back lit and open face
- Cabinets and lightboxes, single and double face
- Monument signs, see monument sign pricing
- Pylon signs with steel, footings and crane
- Dimensional letters and ACM panels
- Vinyl banners and window graphics, see vinyl banner pricing
- Vehicle wraps and fleet lettering, see truck lettering prices
- Wayfinding and interior signs
Quote from a photo, drawing, PDF or email
Customers do not send clean specs. They send a phone photo of a storefront, a PDF from an architect, or a three line email. SignEstimator turns all of that into a draft estimate, so you stop retyping and start pricing.
- Photos from your phone, taken on site
- Drawings and shop drawings as images or PDF
- Architect and general contractor PDFs with sign schedules
- Customer emails with the job in plain words
Draft spec
Check every field- Sign type
- Channel letters, front lit
- Letter count
- 6
- Letter height
- 24 in
- Overall width
- 14 ft
- Illumination
- Front lit LED
- Mounting
- Raceway, 18 ft
How a photo becomes a priced quote
You stand in front of the building and take a photo. You upload it, or you upload the drawing the customer sent. SignEstimator reads the file and fills a draft spec with the sign type, the letter count, the approximate height and width, the illumination and the mounting.
Then your rates price it. The AI never sets the price. It only drafts the spec. Your material costs, your labor rates, your machine rates, your overhead and your margin do the math, the same way they do for every other job.
You review every line before anything goes out. Change the letter height, swap the raceway for a backer, raise the lift class, and the price updates right away.
Email-in quoting on Shop and up
On the Shop plan and higher, your shop gets its own inbox address. Forward a customer email to it, with or without attachments. A draft quote is waiting in your queue a few minutes later, linked to that customer.
This is the fastest way to clear a pile of quote requests on a Monday morning. You forward, you review, you send.
Read more about AI quotes from a photo or PDF
You stay in control of every number
An AI draft is a starting point. It is never a sent quote. Nothing reaches your customer until a person in your shop opens the estimate, checks the lines and presses send. If the photo is unclear, the draft says so and leaves the field for you to fill.
Estimate this jobKnow your margin before you send
Many shops find out what a job really made a month after the install. SignEstimator shows you the margin while you are still quoting, so you can fix the price before the customer sees it.
Overhead and target margin, set once
You enter your overhead rate one time. That is the share of rent, insurance, trucks, software and office time that every job has to carry. You also set a target margin, such as 35 percent. Every estimate then shows the full cost, the sale price and the real margin on the same screen.
A margin gauge sits next to the total. Green means you are at or above your target. Amber means you are close. Red means the job is priced below your target, and you see why: maybe the install hours went up, or someone lowered the price by hand.
Monument sign, 8 x 5 ft
Cabinet sign, 10 x 3 ft
Close to your target margin
Channel letters, install hours raised
Below your target margin
Markup and margin are not the same number
This is the mistake that quietly costs sign shops the most. Markup is profit as a share of your cost. Margin is profit as a share of the sale price.
For example, a job costs you $1,000. If you add a 35 percent markup, you charge $1,350. Your profit is $350, and $350 divided by $1,350 is only about 25.9 percent margin. To earn a true 35 percent margin, you need to charge $1,000 divided by 0.65, which is $1,538.46.
SignEstimator always prices from margin, so a 35 percent target really means 35 percent. You can still see the markup on every quote if your team thinks in markup.
35 percent markup
- Cost
- $1,000.00
- Sale price
- $1,350.00
- Profit
- $350.00
Below your target margin
35 percent margin
- Cost
- $1,000.00
- Sale price
- $1,538.46
- Profit
- $538.46
- Overhead rate applied to every estimate
- Target margin with a live margin gauge
- Markup and margin shown side by side
- Good, better and best options, each with its own margin, on Shop and up
Estimate versus actual on Team
On the Team plan, job costing closes the loop. Your crew logs actual hours, and your purchase orders log actual material. When the job is done, you see the estimate next to the actual, line by line, and the real margin for that job.
Over a few months, the pattern shows. Maybe your installs always run two hours long, or your router time is set too low. You fix the rate once, and every future quote is closer to the truth.
From quote to install
A won quote is only the start. On the Team plan, SignEstimator carries the job from the first estimate to the final invoice, so nothing falls between the office, the shop floor and the install crew.
One jobs board for the whole shop
Every job moves through the same stages, and everyone sees where it stands.
| 01 Estimate | 02 Quote | 03 Approval | 04 Production | 05 Installation | 06 Invoice | 07 Profitability |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| You build the price from the job details, photo or drawing | You send a branded PDF and a quote link | Your customer approves online and signs by name | Work orders and cut lists go to the shop floor | The crew, the date and the lift or crane are booked | The approved quote becomes an invoice in your accounting | Estimate and actual are compared, and you see the real margin |
Work orders and cut lists
When a quote is approved, SignEstimator turns it into a work order. Each station gets its own list. The router sees the faces and backs to cut, nested on the sheets you priced. The bender sees the return lengths. The paint booth sees the colors. Estimated hours are set per station, and your crew logs the actual hours against them.
Install calendar with crews and equipment
Installs are where schedules break. The install calendar shows each crew and each piece of equipment, so you do not book the same 45 ft boom lift for two jobs on the same morning. You see which lift class or crane each job needs, because the estimate already decided it by install height.
- Crews with members and availability
- Lifts and cranes with booked days
- Install dates on the jobs board and the calendar
See more on install estimating and production
Purchasing and accounting
Purchase orders come straight from the material list of the estimate. You see what is in stock and what you need to order. When the job is approved, the invoice goes to QuickBooks Online or Xero, so nobody types it twice.
- Purchase orders from the estimate material list
- Inventory with stock levels
- QuickBooks Online and Xero export on Shop and up
Learn how it fits together on sign shop software
What faster, safer quotes are worth to your shop
If you own the shop, you care less about the quote screen and more about two numbers. How many hours your team spends on quotes, and how much margin slips out on jobs that were priced too low. Put your own numbers in and see both.
Your shop today
What changes with SignEstimator
- Hours saved per month
- 60
- Labor cost saved per month
- $2,700
- Margin recovered per month
- $1,200
- Plan cost as a share of one average job
- 25%
$3,900 per month
Estimate this jobA worked example
For example, say your shop sends 15 quotes per week, and each one takes 1.5 hours today between measuring, pricing in a spreadsheet and writing the PDF. We assume each quote takes 0.5 hours with SignEstimator, and we count 4 weeks in a month. That saves 1 hour per quote, times 15 quotes, times 4 weeks, which is 60 hours per month.
Now say your shop hourly cost is $45. Then 60 hours times $45 is $2,700 of labor per month that goes back to selling, designing or building.
Next, say that once a month a job goes out without the lift, the extra crew hours or the permit, and it costs you $1,200. We assume SignEstimator catches it, because install height, crew and equipment are part of every estimate. That is $1,200 of margin recovered per month.
In this example, the total is $2,700 plus $1,200, which is $3,900 per month. The Shop plan costs $888 per year when billed yearly, which is $74 per month. If your average job is $3,500, one year of Shop costs about a quarter of one average job.
These are example numbers, not a promise. Use the fields above with your own numbers. More detail for owners is on the owner page.
Why owners pick SignEstimator
- Flat price per plan, with no extra fee for each estimator you add within your plan
- Live in an afternoon with the starter library, not weeks of setup
- Every quote shows margin before it goes out
- Data is yours, and you can export quotes and customers anytime
- Roles, audit log and SSO on Team, see security
How SignEstimator compares
Sign shops usually quote in one of four ways. Here is how they compare on the things that decide whether a quote is fast and profitable. We only use public facts about each category.
| What matters | SignEstimator | Spreadsheets | Generic AI quote apps for trades | Heavy shop management systems |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sign-specific line items (returns, trim cap, LED count, power supplies, sheet waste) | Built in for each sign type | Only if you build and maintain the formulas | Not modeled, they are built for many trades | Often available after setup |
| AI draft from a photo, drawing, PDF or email | Yes, priced with your own rates | No | Yes, but not with sign math | Usually not |
| Install lift and crane by height | Yes, by install height and equipment class | Manual | Not modeled | Often manual |
| Price | Flat price per plan | Your time | Usually a monthly price | Often a base fee plus a fee per user plus an onboarding fee |
| Setup time | One afternoon with the starter library | Weeks to build, ongoing to fix | Fast, but generic | Often weeks with onboarding |
| Margin check before sending | Margin gauge on every estimate | Only if your formula is right | Rarely | Varies |
| QuickBooks Online and Xero | Yes, Shop and up | Manual export | Varies | Often yes |
| First estimate without an account | Yes, right on this page | Not applicable | Usually signup first | Usually a demo call or signup first |
If you are moving from another sign shop system, read our shopVOX alternative and Cyrious Control alternative pages for a closer look, or see the full monthly math in our shopVOX pricing breakdown and the best sign shop software guide.
Estimate this jobSimple plans for sign shops of every size
Pick the plan that fits your shop. Yearly billing is the default and saves 50 percent. Every plan has unlimited manual estimates and branded quotes.
Solo
For the owner-operator who quotes every job, often at night after production.
$24 per month billed yearly ($288 per year), or $49 per month billed monthly
- 1 user
- 60 AI quote drafts per month from photo, drawing, PDF or email text, up to 10 per day
- Unlimited manual estimates
- Sign-type templates for channel letters, cabinets, monuments, pylons, banners, wraps and more
- Material library with unit cost, sheet size and waste
- Area, waste, LED, power supply, machine time and labor calculated for you
- Install calculator with crew, lift or crane class, travel and permits
- Overhead rate, target margin and margin gauge
- Branded PDF quote and quote link with online approval and e-signature by name
Most shops pick this
Shop
For a sign company with a few estimators and sales reps, up to 5 seats.
$74 per month billed yearly ($888 per year), or $149 per month billed monthly
- Everything in Solo
- Up to 5 user seats with roles for owner, estimator and sales
- 240 AI quote drafts per month, up to 40 per day
- Email-in quoting with your own shop inbox address
- Customer CRM with quote history, follow-up reminders and win rate by rep
- Good, better and best options and change orders
- Price book per customer for trade and reseller pricing
- QuickBooks Online and Xero export of accepted quotes as invoices
Team
For a shop with fabrication and install crews that runs the whole job after the quote is signed.
$199 per month billed yearly ($2,388 per year), or $399 per month billed monthly
- Everything in Shop
- Up to 20 user seats
- 600 AI quote drafts per month, up to 100 per day
- Jobs board from Estimate to Profitability
- Production work orders with cut lists and machine time per station
- Install calendar with crews, lifts and cranes
- Purchase orders and inventory with stock levels
- Job costing with estimate versus actual margin
- SSO with Google and Microsoft accounts, audit log
Multi-location
For a sign group with several branches that wants one material library and one view of margin.
$449 per month billed yearly ($5,388 per year), or $899 per month billed monthly
- Everything in Team
- Unlimited user seats and up to 5 locations
- 1,400 AI quote drafts per month shared across branches, up to 240 per day
- Shared master material library with branch price overrides
- Consolidated margin and win rate reporting per branch
- SAML SSO and custom roles
- Priority support with a 4 business hour response
- Invoice billing on the yearly plan
| Plan | Monthly | Billed yearly | What you get each month |
|---|---|---|---|
| Solo | $49 per month | $24 per month, $288 per year | 1 user, 60 AI drafts, branded PDF quotes, online approval |
| Shop | $149 per month | $74 per month, $888 per year | Up to 5 user seats, 240 AI drafts, CRM, email-in quoting, QuickBooks Online and Xero |
| Team | $399 per month | $199 per month, $2,388 per year | Up to 20 user seats, 600 AI drafts, jobs board, production, install calendar, POs, job costing, SSO |
| Multi-location | $899 per month | $449 per month, $5,388 per year | Unlimited user seats, up to 5 locations, 1,400 AI drafts, branch pricing, consolidated reporting |
There is no free plan. Try one estimate above without an account. When you upgrade, you pay only the difference right away. Cancel anytime from the billing page.
See every detail on the pricing page.
Frequently asked questions
Price your next sign job in minutes
Describe the job or drop a photo. See the materials, install and margin before you send a single quote.