Before the SignQuote SA program can be used, it is necessary to enter some parameters into the program to make it work for your business.
These parameters used by the program are all located in the Hourly Rate Calculator. The user has to fill in all the fields on each form and calculate the rates before the rest of the SignQuote SA program can be used.
- Overhead Expenses.
- Salaries and Contributions.
- Annual Business Hours and Number of Employees
- Profit, Mark-ups, Handling Expenses and VAT Registration.
- Average Default Printer Ink Cost per Square Metre.
When you first open the SignQuote program you will see this welcome form (Fig.1.1) from which the rest of the program is run. Click on the

Fig.1.1
This is the Hourly Rate Calculator. (Fig.1.2) Note the three tabs;

Fig.1.2
Overhead expenses:
On the Overhead Expenses tab enter the values appropriate to your expenses. Do not include your Cost of Sales figures, as this is represented in the materials, substrates and consumable databases in the program.
It is not necessary to fill in every box and these descriptions are suggestions only. If you already know the total amount of your overhead expenses from, for instance, your Annual Income Statement, you can enter that in any field and leave all others blank.
Select Monthly or Annually for the expense values you are entering.
Salaries and Contributions. (Fig.1.3.)

Fig.1.3
In the Salaries and Contributions section you have to supply the total amount the business spends on salaries, bonuses, overtime and and all the employer's contributions regarding remuneration.
If the owner of the business is also involved in everyday production in the business, a salary must also be entered for the owner and the owner must be added to the total number of permanent employees.
Annual Business Hours and Number of Employees. (Fig.1.4.)

Fig.1.4
Enter the business' production hours per day. These hours should not be the total work hours per day, seeing that a full workday cannot be used only for production. A suggestion is to insert approximately six to seven hours maximum.
Enter the production weeks per year. Remember to exclude public holidays and employees annual leave.
Enter the production days per week as well as the total number of employees. This includes the owner of the business if the owner is also involved in everyday production.
Profit, Mark-ups, Handling Expenses and VAT Registration. (Fig.1.5)

Fig.1.5.
When calculating the hourly labour rate, a profit on all costs must also be inserted. This figure is also used as the mark-up on materials, substrates and consumables used for production. This figure usually varies from 15 to 50 % depending on the type of products manufactured. This will be a default amount added to all products manufactured. The amount of profit on labour is always shown as the Total Annual Profit (Fig.1.6). You can always play around with the percentage to achieve the profit you wish.

Fig.1.6
Handling Expenses (Fig.1.7) consists of expenses like waste materials, traveling expenses when the business needs to collect materials, substrates or consumables from suppliers and any other expense which cannot be recovered from production expenses. A percentage of 5 to 15% usually covers these unforeseen expenses.

Fig.1.7
If the business is registered for VAT it must also be shown in the form. The program adds VAT to the materials, substrates and consumables if the business is not registered, to achieve the correct cost price as basis for calculating the end price of the product. If a business is registered for VAT, the VAT is only added to the total quotation right at the end of the calculation. (Fig.1.8)

Fig.1.8
When all the fields on all the pages in the Hourly Rate Calculator form have been filled in correctly, click the Calculate button to calculate the hourly rate and save the default information which will be used in the SignQuote SA program. (Fig.1.9) Click on Save to save the information for future use. Now when using the Hourly Rate Calculator in future, all the information entered is available when clicking on the Open button.

Fig.1.9