For years I have used “count item” functions & plugins in Finale and Sibelius to calculate a fair price for my customers. Is there anything like that in Dorico?
Not currently, no.
You can easily do this exporting your file to XML and opening it with a text editor such as Notepad++. Then search for the string “” and the text editor will give you the count of pitches. If you want to avoid the counting of tied notes, then you will have to search for “” and subtract this second quantity.
It’s quite simple.
I just tell them, “I use Dorico: if you have to ask, you can’t afford me.” 
This would be a really cool option. I was wondering that myself. A simple note count per flow or in total.
Do people charge by the note…?
Most engravers I’ve seen charge by the finished page, or by the ‘frame’, which is a bar with something in it.
Finale gives you an active frame count (though a document can only have 32,767 active frames, so at $0.2 per frame, you’re limited to charging $6, 553.40…)
Certainly, some kind of ‘project stats’ info would be nice.
When you run Data Check/File Maintenance in Finale you can get some other stats as well.
I’ve never used that info for billing, but I suppose you could.
+1 for this feature. I’m currently doing a deep dive into learning Dorico and I used Finale’s “File Statistics” all the time to bill clients based on “Active Frames.” Any update on the possibilities of this being implemented?
This is an old thread, and it was implemented some time ago.
You’ll find it under File > Project Statistics.