Techniques for customer charge accounting in a soft proofing system take into account one or more factors associated with a hard copy proofing job simulated by the soft proofing system. The charge for the soft proofing job can be correlated, at least in part, to the overall cost of the hard copy proofing job emulated by the soft proofing job. The factors use to calculate the customer charge for a soft proofing job may include, for example, comparable hard copy equipment costs, comparable hard copy media costs, hard copy delivery costs, avoidance of delivery and production delays relative to hard copy proofing, and the number of users that view the hard copy proofing job. A value scale factor may be applied to a base cost for a given soft proof, thereby yielding a cost that can be charged to the customer.