Working document
The commission intake and stage approval checklist
Every commission dispute a designer ever has traces back to something on this list that nobody wrote down.
Free resources
Resources for designers who quote custom work
Everything here is built for a studio where the price of the job is decided by grams, stones and hours rather than a price tag on a case.
There are three kinds of resource on this site. The calculators do arithmetic you would otherwise do badly on the back of an envelope: what a commission should be quoted at, and how many bench hours your week genuinely holds. The checklist is a working document for taking in a client stone and getting written approval at each stage of a build. The comparisons say honestly which kind of studio each software category suits.
Alongside them, The Bench Ledger carries longer pieces on the questions that come up over and over in this trade, from heirloom gold and disclosure rules to what a rush wedding commission really costs a studio. None of it assumes you have staff, a sales floor or a marketing budget. All of it assumes you are the one at the bench.
Free tools
Free calculators for commission pricing and bench capacity
Both of these answer questions designers usually settle by feel, and feel is what leaves a month of setting work unpaid.
Comparisons
BeadInvoice compared with the tools designers already use
Every option below can send an invoice, so the real question is which one knows what a gram of alloy and an hour at the bench are worth.
Main guide
How do I price a custom engagement ring when the gold market moves every single day?
It settles how to build a commission quote that survives a gold price swing between the deposit and the casting, without you eating the difference.
Magazine
The Bench Ledger
Pricing, process and paperwork for independent designers who take custom jewelry commissions and remount work in the US.
About
Who writes all of this
The author page, on who writes The Bench Ledger, the bench and commission work behind the pricing advice here, and why remount paperwork gets as much attention on this site as prong work does.
When the paperwork should live on the job
Everything on this page works with a clipboard, a phone camera and a pen, and plenty of studios run that way for years without trouble. It gets harder when four commissions are open at once and you cannot remember which client approved the head style. Bring one live job to a walkthrough and see the intake photos, the quote and the stage approvals sitting on the commission record instead of scattered across your desktop.