What it does
A printed box is priced from a sheet, not from a box. How many sheets the order takes, what the board weighs, how many passes the print needs, whether the die already exists — each of those moves the number, and none of them is visible in the finished carton.
The Printed Box Cost Calculator works the sheet arithmetic for you. Pick a cost model, describe the carton and the order quantity, and it resolves the board and the six conversion charges into a total order cost, a cost per box, and a selling price per unit once your margin is applied.
How it works
- Open Printed Box and choose New quote.
- Pick a cost model — entries are badged Template, Mine or Supplier.
- Enter the box specification and the order quantity.
- Read the live cost breakdown as you adjust the job.
- Save the quote against the customer it belongs to.
What a cost model holds
Six rate tables. Tap any rate row in the model list to edit it in place:
- Paper The boards you buy, priced per kg, which set the effective grammage and the material cost per square metre.
- Printing charges Press type and colours, a rate per sheet, a minimum order in sheets, and plate cost per colour.
- Punching charges Die cost per square inch of die area, and a punching charge quoted per 1000 sheets.
- Surface finish Lamination, varnish and other finishing, charged per 100 square inches of sheet.
- Pasting charges Side pasting and the conversion work around it, quoted per 1000 boxes.
- Freight charges Delivery, costed with the order rather than bolted on afterwards.
Where the sheet arithmetic bites
Four things about carton costing catch people out, and the calculator handles each of them explicitly rather than averaging them away:
- Sheets do not divide evenly Sheets per order is the order quantity over the boxes per sheet, and it is carried at full precision — rounding it would quietly move the order weight and the material cost.
- Punching is the exception Punching rounds up to whole sheets, because a part sheet cannot be punched. Everything else runs off the unrounded figure.
- Fluting eats more than its grammage A flute ply consumes its grammage multiplied by the corrugation factor; a flat liner consumes exactly its own. That is what makes the effective GSM, and the material cost per square metre, differ from the paper spec.
- Plates are an order cost, not a box cost Plate cost is colours times the plate cost per colour, charged once against the order — so it lands whole on a short run and thins out across a long one. Print carries a minimum order in sheets too: below it, you pay the minimum.
What the breakdown shows
- Sheet and weight Total effective grammage, material cost per m², sheets needed for the order, order weight, and the weight of a single box derived from it.
- Charges Material, plate, printing and surface-finish cost; punching split into die cost and punching charge; side pasting; conversion; and freight, added into the order rather than quoted separately.
- Result Total order cost, cost per box, and selling price per unit at your margin.
A cost per box is a costing, not a quotation. It is what the carton works out to against one cost model's rate tables on the day — board prices, press rates and freight all move, so confirm the final price with the supplier before you commit to it.
Rates change; saved quotes say so
Board is the volatile line on a carton, and a quote written three months ago was written at three-month-old paper rates. Edit the paper rate in a cost model and every unlocked quote built on that model recalculates at the new rate on its next open, with a banner flagging that the totals have moved since the quote was saved — so a stale number never leaves the building unnoticed. A locked quote keeps the rates it was locked at.
Who uses it
- Carton manufacturers One shared rate basis for the whole sales team, and locked quotes that never silently re-price.
- Sales teams Customer-ready quotation PDFs with your logo, tax details and currency, shared by WhatsApp or email.
- Buyers and procurement With calculator access, price a job against a published cost model to understand what you are being charged for.
The use cases on the home page cover all eight roles and which modules answer each.