Every estimate starts with your inputs.

Shared calculation rules

• Required industry-dependent fields begin blank.
• Optional costs may be entered as zero, with a warning to check for omissions.
• Calculations keep full precision; money is displayed to two decimal places.
• Results are before sales tax and owner income tax.
• USD and CAD are display currencies only. Switching currency never converts a value.
• An invalid input pauses updates and keeps the prior output labeled as the last valid estimate.

Photography Cost of Doing Business & Overhead

annualized item = monthly amount × 12, or annual amount as entered
annual fixed overhead = Σ(valid annualized cost items)
monthly fixed overhead = annual fixed overhead ÷ 12
overhead per completed booking = annual fixed overhead ÷ planned completed bookings

Blank starter rows are ignored and are not benchmarks. The calculator excludes client-specific direct costs, owner salary, income tax, sales tax, exchange-rate conversion, and market-price recommendations. An equipment replacement amount is a user-defined planning reserve, not accounting depreciation.

Session Pricing & True Hourly Earnings

processing fees = revenue × percentage fee + fixed fee × transactions
owner earnings = revenue − direct costs − overhead − processing fees
true hourly earnings = owner earnings ÷ business hours
required revenue = (target hourly earnings × hours + costs + fees) ÷ (1 − fee rate)

The calculator blocks zero hours and processing rates at or above 100%. Expected add-on revenue can reduce the required base price but does not disappear from the required total revenue.

Mini Session Profit & Capacity

cycle minutes = session minutes + turnaround minutes
slot capacity = floor((bookable minutes + turnaround minutes) ÷ cycle minutes)
planning profit = revenue − fixed costs − variable costs − processing fees
break-even slots = ceil(fixed costs ÷ contribution per completed slot)

Bookings above slot capacity and completions above bookings are invalid. If contribution per completed slot is not positive, the calculator reports that break-even cannot be reached with those inputs.

Annual Booking Goal & Package Mix

package contribution = revenue − variable cost − processing fees
weighted contribution = Σ(package mix × package contribution)
required contribution = max(0, earnings goal + overhead + cushion − other contribution)
required bookings = ceil(required contribution ÷ weighted contribution)

Package allocation uses the largest-remainder method so whole-package counts add up exactly to the required bookings. Advanced capacity is feasible only when both booking-count and person-hour limits are respected.

Sources, review, and authorship

Published tools and guides require at least one primary or authoritative URL, a review date, a formula version, assumptions, and exclusions. Source notes explain how a source is used; they do not turn public guidance into a price recommendation.

PortraitPace Editorial Team is an organization author. A personal reviewer is omitted unless a real person has reviewed a documented scope. Corrections change the review date or version when they materially affect a formula or conclusion.

Important limits

These calculators do not model every tax, contract, refund, financing, labor, insurance, or local compliance issue. Use the outputs as planning estimates and seek qualified local advice when a decision depends on those matters.