There is no mystery to pricing. Cost of materials plus cost of labor plus overhead plus sustainable profit.
There is an excellent guide, "How to Estimate & Price Signs", by Dan Hale (2002, ST Media Group). A copy should not be too hard to find. The book is over twenty years old, and some of the examples are somewhat irrelevant these days (we tend to out-source much more fabrication), but the pricing logic is solid and 100% relevant today.
I suggest using simple spreadsheets to keep track of what materials cost. Labor costs can be determined (burdened labor rates which include all the costs of fielding an employee, including insurance, payroll tax, and other costs). Overhead can be determined by adding up all your expenses and applied as a percentage to each job (usually between 20% - 30%, this can be tricky because many shops underestimate this - you must include depreciation and equipment replacement costs).
If you get the costs right, you need to multiply the total by a factor that results in adequate profit. Shoot for 20% at minimum. Anything less (business is risky) and you will probably be better off shuttering your business and investing in less risky securities.
For specialized shops who do volume work using consistant materials, pricing programs can be helpful. Most of us, however, tackle all manner of projects. Lack of consistency is the hallmark. It will be a struggle to shoehorn your business into a pricing program. Simple spreadsheets will be more useful and easier to maintain (it is important to remember that pricing programs will still require you to determine and enter all your costs, shop rates, overhead percentage, and necessary profit). Seeing as though you have to do all the heavy lifting to keep your database current anyway, I recommend keeping it simple and just using Excel or something similar.
YMMV. Just my thoughts.
