Florist: Arrangements A Designer Finishes Per Hour

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Wedding quotes fall apart on the bench, not on the order sheet. A centerpiece is not a fixed 15 minutes — it is a stem count times a handling rate plus the fixed cost of cleaning the vase and cutting the greens.

Quick formula: Minutes per piece first, then how many fit in an hour:

=ROUNDDOWN(60/(B2*C2+D2),0)

A 24-stem centerpiece at 0.6 minutes a stem plus 4 minutes of prep is 18.4 minutes — three per designer hour, not four.

Functions used (tap for the full reference guide):

ROUNDDOWN PRODUCT

The example

Three pieces on the production list, each with its stem count, its handling rate, and its fixed prep.

	A	B	C	D	E
1	Piece	Stems	Min per stem	Prep min	Per hour
2	Bud vase	7	0.6	2	9
3	Centerpiece	24	0.6	4	3
4	Bridal bouquet	35	0.9	8	1

The formula

The denominator is the whole recipe:

=ROUNDDOWN(60/(B2*C2+D2),0) // stems x min per stem + prep = min per piece, into 60, rounded down

How it works

Build the minute cost, then divide:

B2*C2 is handling time. Time one designer processing a bucket — a soft-stem spray rose runs faster than a woody branch, so keep the rate per piece type.
+D2 is prep: cleaning the vessel, cutting foam or chicken wire, setting greens. It is fixed per piece and it is why small pieces are less efficient than they look.
60/(...) turns minutes per piece into pieces per hour.
ROUNDDOWN(...,0) because a half-finished bouquet is not a bouquet at the end of the shift.

Divide the order quantity by this column and you have designer-hours — the number that actually decides whether you take the Saturday wedding.

Try it: interactive demo

Interactive

Enter the stem count, minutes per stem, and the fixed prep time for the piece.

Stems per piece

Minutes per stem

Prep minutes

Variations

Designer-hours for the whole order

Skip the per-hour rounding and go straight to hours for a quantity.

=ROUNDUP(50*(B2*C2+D2)/60,1)

Labor cost per piece

Multiply minutes by a loaded hourly rate divided by 60.

=ROUND((B2*C2+D2)*28/60,2)

Pitfalls & errors

Do not average one rate across every piece. Bud vases and bridal work differ by more than stem count — the handling rate itself changes.

Measure the rate on a normal Tuesday, not on a wedding Friday. Rush-day speed is not a capacity you can schedule against.

Rounding up here quietly overbooks the bench. Six pieces at 18.4 minutes is 110 minutes of work, and calling it “three an hour, so two hours” is already short.

Practice workbook

📊

Download the free Florist: Arrangements A Designer Finishes Per Hour practice workbook

Edit the yellow stems, minutes-per-stem, and prep cells; the per-hour capacity recalculates.

Frequently asked questions

What if a piece takes more than an hour?

The formula returns zero, which is correct as “none per hour” but useless for planning. Switch to the minutes-per-piece variation and quote in designer-hours instead.

Should greens count as stems?

Yes, at their own rate. Greening a compote is often half the minutes and none of the stem cost, so many shops keep a separate greens row rather than inflating the flower stem count.

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Function references: ROUNDDOWN PRODUCT