How to Build an Embroidery Pricing Spreadsheet (Tabs, Columns and Formulas)

By the creator who built EMBquote

Short answer: a working embroidery pricing spreadsheet needs three tabs. A Rates tab holds your price per 1,000 stitches by stitch-count band and quantity break. A Garments tab holds your blank costs and markup. A Quote tab looks both up for each line: decoration price per location, plus garment price, plus setup, checked against your minimum. Keep every rate in one place and have the quote tab look it up, so nobody types a price by hand.

Tab 1: Rates (your price chart)

This is your embroidery price chart in grid form. Put stitch-count bands down the left (for example "up to 5,000", "5,001 to 8,000" and so on, using your own bands) and quantity breaks across the top. Each cell is your price per 1,000 stitches for that band and that quantity. If you haven't set your bands and breaks yet, our guide to building an embroidery price chart walks through it step by step.

Keep a few single-value cells on this tab too, each with a clear label: your setup or digitizing fee, your per-location fee if you charge one, and your minimum order amount. Every other tab should point to these cells, never repeat the numbers.

Tab 2: Garments

One row per style and color you quote: style number, description, your wholesale cost, and your markup (or a lookup to a quantity-based markup table). The sell price column is a formula, not a typed number. Our post on how to price embroidery jobs covers quantity-based garment markup.

Add a "price checked on" column. Wholesale prices change, and this column is the only way a spreadsheet tells you a cost might be stale.

Tab 3: Quote

One row per decoration location, with these columns:

• Garment style and quantity
• Location (left chest, full back, sleeve, cap front)
• Stitch count for that location's design
• Rate per 1,000: looked up from the Rates tab by stitch band and quantity
• Decoration price per piece: stitch count divided by 1,000, times the rate
• Garment price per piece: looked up from the Garments tab (only on the first location, so the shirt isn't charged twice)
• Line total: quantity times the per-piece prices

Below the lines, add the setup fee for any new design and compare the order total with your minimum.

The formulas that do the work

These work in Excel and Google Sheets. Adjust the cell ranges to your own layout.

• Rate lookup by band and quantity: =INDEX(Rates!B2:F10, MATCH(D2, Rates!A2:A10, 1), MATCH(B2, Rates!B1:F1, 1)). Column A on the Rates tab holds the lower edge of each stitch band and row 1 holds the lower edge of each quantity break, both sorted from smallest to largest. D2 is the stitch count and B2 the quantity.
• Decoration price per piece: =D2/1000*E2, where E2 is the looked-up rate. If you charge per started 1,000 stitches, use =ROUNDUP(D2/1000,0)*E2 instead.
• Garment sell price: =XLOOKUP(A2, Garments!A:A, Garments!E:E), or VLOOKUP if your spreadsheet version doesn't have XLOOKUP.
• Minimum check: =MAX(order_subtotal, Rates!minimum_cell), so a small order is billed at least your minimum.

Where pricing spreadsheets break

• Typed-over cells. Someone overwrites a formula with a number to "fix" one quote, and every later quote inherits it. Lock the Rates and Garments tabs.
• Stale garment costs. The garment tab is only as current as the last time someone updated it.
• Rules in one person's head. Extra charges that aren't in the sheet only get added when the right person remembers them.
• Retyping into accounting. The finished quote still has to be keyed into QuickBooks as an estimate, line by line.
• Copies everywhere. Each quote saved as its own file means old copies with old rates keep getting reused.

When to move beyond the spreadsheet

A spreadsheet is a good way to get your pricing rules written down. If those problems start costing you time or margin, that's the sign to move the same rules into quoting software. EMBquote keeps your pricing rules, live garment catalogs and decoration logic in one guided wizard, then syncs the finished estimate to QuickBooks Online.

Want to test your rates first? Use the free embroidery calculator. EMBquote Pro is free for 14 days (credit card required up front), then $149/month early-bird ($299/month regular). See pricing, or read more on the EMBquote FAQ. Questions: hello@embquote.com.

FAQ

What should an embroidery pricing spreadsheet include?

Three tabs: a Rates tab with your price per 1,000 stitches by stitch-count band and quantity break, plus your setup fee and minimum; a Garments tab with blank costs and markup; and a Quote tab that looks up both for each decoration location.

What is the formula for embroidery cost per 1,000 stitches?

Decoration price per piece equals the stitch count divided by 1,000, times your rate per 1,000 stitches for that stitch band and quantity. In a spreadsheet that is =D2/1000*E2, or =ROUNDUP(D2/1000,0)*E2 if you charge per started 1,000 stitches.

How do I look up the right rate by stitch count and quantity?

Use INDEX with two approximate MATCH functions: one finds the stitch band row and one finds the quantity column. Both lookup ranges must hold the lower edge of each band or break, sorted from smallest to largest.

Should the garment price be on every decoration line?

No. Charge the garment once per piece, usually on the first location's line, and price each extra location for decoration only. Otherwise a two-location order charges for the shirt twice.

Can EMBquote replace my embroidery pricing spreadsheet?

EMBquote keeps your pricing rules, live garment catalogs and decoration logic in one guided wizard, then syncs the finished estimate to QuickBooks Online, so quotes aren't retyped from a spreadsheet. Pro is free for 14 days (credit card required up front), then $149/month early-bird ($299/month regular).