Free tool
Staff, leave, overheads and machines in. What a chargeable hour costs you, your charge-out rate and each machine's rate out.
Loads that state's payroll tax, workers comp, long service leave and public holidays.
Showing a Victorian example. Pick your state to load its figures.
Charged time
Same staff, same overheads, same machines. Only the share of production time charged to a job changes.
At your figures, 5 points less charged time adds $7.34 to every hour. Charging every workable hour, the cost would be $77.03.
| Charged | Chargeable hrs a year | Cost an hour | Charge-out | Against what you charge now, a year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 50% | 2,436 | $154.06 | $200.28 | $207,727 short |
| 60% | 2,923 | $128.39 | $166.90 | $151,703 short |
| 70% | 3,410 | $110.04 | $143.06 | $95,680 short |
| 75% (yours) | 3,654 | $102.71 | $133.52 | $67,668 short |
| 80% | 3,897 | $96.29 | $125.18 | $39,656 short |
| 90% | 4,384 | $85.59 | $111.27 | $16,367 over |
| 100% | 4,872 | $77.03 | $100.14 | $72,390 over |
The working
Your figures, one step at a time.
Notes
Overheads are recovered on labour hours and each machine recovers its own cost. It's simple and nothing gets recovered twice.
The cost of a chargeable hour is everything the shop costs to run, every person fully on-costed plus the overheads, divided by the hours your production people actually charge to jobs. Their wages are already in that total, so they aren't added on again.
Chargeable hours are the hours at work, after leave and public holidays, times the share of the week that ends up on a job. That share is usually the number that moves the rate most. 75% is an example, not a benchmark; your job times will tell you yours.
A machine's cost an hour is its yearly cost, the lease or finance payments, or the purchase price spread over the years you expect to run it, divided by the hours it actually runs. Paid off? Keep charging the rate and bank it for the replacement.
Super is 12% of qualifying earnings from 1 July 2026, when Payday Super replaced ordinary time earnings as the base, up to $270,830 of earnings a person a year.
Leave loading is 17.5% of four weeks' pay under the Manufacturing and Joinery awards, the two that usually cover sign shops. It's a cost, not lost hours, so it raises the cost of an hour without taking any away, and super is paid on it. If a salary already includes it, set it to 0.
Workers comp loads at your state regulator's published industry rate for sign manufacturing, on pay and leave loading, and on super in the states that count it. Electric signs, metal signs, signwriting and installation are classed differently; your premium notice has your actual rate.
Payroll tax is worked out on the whole payroll, pay, leave loading and super, against your state's threshold, phase-out and rates. Under the threshold it's $0.
Related businesses are grouped and share one threshold. If yours are grouped, use the group's wages or the threshold you actually claim.
Annual leave (4 weeks), personal and carer's leave (10 days) and compassionate leave (2 days each time it's needed) are the National Employment Standards. Long service leave is costed as it accrues at your state's rate, though it's only paid once someone qualifies.
Public holidays are the weekdays in 2026 for your state, counting substitute days. Some are regional: Melbourne Cup, show days and Hobart Regatta among them. Change the number if yours differ.
Ex GST throughout, and every figure is yours to change. Nothing you type leaves your browser. This is an estimate, not payroll, tax or legal advice; your accountant has the final figures.
Sources
FY 2026-27figures from the ATO, the Fair Work Ombudsman and each state's revenue office, workers comp regulator, long service leave authority and public holiday list, checked 29 Oct 2026. Anything marked estimate couldn't be checked against an official figure. The share of production time charged (75%) is an example, not a statutory figure.
Price with it in Sign OS
Sign OS keeps an hourly rate on each production department and each machine, and every quote prices from them.
Estimate, not advice; your accountant has the final figures.
