How to price a laser-cut part in a quote

A laser-cut line price is a share of an order, not a mystical euro-per-metre constant. This guide lists the usual cost stack for shop quotes, then describes exactly how AllTerra Calculator spreads the order total across specification lines today.

What usually goes into a part price

Estimators typically think in these buckets:

• Material share — sheets used × sheet price (or mass-based sheet pricing when configured).
• Machine time share — cut, corners, pierces, and idle as billed in your model.
• Pierce-related cost — time and, in full cost models, gas per pierce where set.
• Setup / handling — loading sheets, bridge break-out, crane unload, reposition norms when enabled.
• Margin — percent on cost in Business plan (or embedded in an hourly rate).
• VAT — optional tax on selling price when enabled in company settings.
• Minimum price — do not sell below cost (or below cost plus a minimum margin rule).

AllTerra does not invent missing catalogue prices or hour rates. Empty inputs stay empty or zero rather than becoming fake market averages. Money on calc.1cterra.ru is in RUB.

Two live pricing models

Business plan builds itemised cost lines (material always; labour, gas, energy, depreciation, rent, logistics, administration when switched on), then applies margin percent, then optional VAT.

Hourly rate (norm-hour) prices material plus Hourly rate × billable time (machine time plus configured handling). Gas, energy, depreciation, and rent lines are zeroed in that mode so they are not double-counted on top of an all-in rate.

Both models start from the same machine-time core driven by the nest. Choose the model that matches how you already explain price to customers.

How AllTerra splits the order total into line prices

The PDF specification shows quantity, unit price, and line total that must reconcile with the order grand total. The live logic works as follows.

First the engine computes the order total (after margin and VAT when applicable). Separately it builds a direct-cost weight per order line from material, cutting, gas, and energy shares of that line. Those direct pieces use area share for material, cut-length share for cutting/energy, and pierce share for gas.

1. Weight of each line = its direct subtotal (material + cutting + gas + energy). If every direct subtotal is zero, weights fall back to area × quantity; if that is also empty, equal weights.
2. The full order total (not only direct cost) is allocated across lines by those weights — so overheads embedded in the total are included in the specification column that customers add up.
3. Allocation is performed by spec_alloc: primary figure is unit price in kopecks; line total = unit price × quantity. Rounding remainder is resolved so the sum of line totals matches the order total to the kopeck whenever possible.
4. Negative unit or line amounts are blocked (zeroed) as a safety net. Reference fields on the line still expose direct material/cutting/gas/energy for transparency.

When you edit a quote’s total price after the fact, the same allocator rescales lines: relative weights stay, the new total is spread again, so quantity × unit price still matches the printed sums under the same rules.

Exact modules: economic_engine.calculate_order_price itemisation + app/spec_alloc.py allocate_lines; quote edits via quote_price using the same allocator.

Minimum price and margin floor

After calculation, quote price editing can enforce a floor: cost, or cost × (1 + minimum margin percent), with VAT included in the floor when VAT is already in the selling price. A zero minimum-margin setting means the floor is exactly cost.

That stops a quote from being pushed below cost without a clear rule. It does not invent a profitable market price for you.

In AllTerra Calculator

Upload DXF → nest → cost with your company settings → PDF quote with specification lines. History keeps utilisation and price context for later.

Per-part unit prices on the quote are allocated shares of the order total as above — not independent black-box “catalogue part prices” disconnected from the nest.

VAT default when enabled is driven by company VAT percent (commonly 20% when you turn VAT on). If VAT is off, no tax amount is added.

For formula-level machine time and model comparison, use the how pricing works page. For shop inputs, use the cost calculator page. For PDF workflow, use the quoting software page.

Estimator checklist

Confirm material catalogue prices and cutting modes before arguing about a unit price. Geometry-only debates cannot fix a zero sheet price.

When a customer challenges one line, remember lines carry shared overhead via the total allocation. Changing one unit price by hand without reseating the total breaks the reconciliation the allocator was built to protect — use the product’s price edit flow.

Sign in at calc.1cterra.ru to price your own DXF. This article states live behaviour only; it does not publish client jobs or invented market benchmarks.

Setup and handling lines (sheet load, bridge break-out, crane picks when enabled) enter the order total through the economic modules. They then ride into unit prices via the same weight-based split — you do not need a separate manual “setup fee per SKU” unless your commercial process adds one outside the calculator.

If two lines have similar outlines but different hole counts, pierce-weighted gas and pierce time shift their direct weights. Expect different unit prices even when outer envelopes look alike on the plot.

Minimum price rules protect floor discipline when editing a PDF total. They do not replace your sales judgment about rush premiums or strategic discounts — those still need an explicit total change inside the supported quote price tools.