Production Rental Price and Profit Calculator

How much should I charge?

This calculator helps determine a fair rental price for your equipment by analyzing its total cost of ownership and your desired profit. It's designed for anyone in the live event and production industry, from audio and lighting to staging and video.

By inputting key financial data, you can generate a suggested daily rental price that ensures you not only cover your expenses but also achieve sustainable profitability. Market prices for specific items may still differ.

The factors used in this calculation are:

• Equipment Cost: The initial purchase price of the equipment.
• Depreciable Life (Years): The number of years the asset is expected to be in service.
• Residual Value (%): The estimated resale value of the equipment at the end of its useful life.
• Time Utilization (%): The percentage of time the equipment is actively rented out and generating revenue.
• Annual Overhead (% of Cost): Your annual costs for storage, insurance, and maintenance, expressed as a percentage of the initial equipment cost.
• Desired Profit Margin (%): The percentage of profit you want to make on each rental after all costs are covered. A typical margin is between 25% and 50%.

How It Works

The calculator first determines your break-even point by calculating the total lifetime costs (depreciation and overhead) and dividing them by the total number of days the equipment is expected to be rented. This gives you the minimum daily rate you must charge to avoid losing money. It then applies your desired profit margin to this break-even rate to arrive at a suggested daily rental price.

This calculator is also available as a simple API for integration into dynamic price calculators. For information on developing with this API please send a brief email of introduction explaining your project to [email protected]