Time tracking makes estimating and pricing easier

Tracking what it costs you to produce a sign—the time and materials involved—provides essential information that you need for pricing and estimating, and ultimately, to survive and succeed in the sign business. But it can be a pain to record and analyze.

Besides having his own sign business, over the years Brad Getter [Megagraphics, Loleta, California] has worked in sign shops that used printed job sheets to track the time used on each task. He’s even tried using them in his own shop.

“In most cases,” says Brad, “they seldom got analyzed. Although they’re better than nothing, we regularly went back and ‘fibbed’ the sheets if we forgot to write in the info while we were working on the sign.”