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Boost profits by using dependable budgeted hourly rates in your estimating, pricing, and costing software!


CostRatesAdvisor.com is the #1 budgeted hourly rates and
cost analysis software for printing and packaging businesses.
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CRA Screens
Gain insight into the true costs of your equipment and services.
Get a detailed breakdown of every cost component and budgeted hourly rates including:
  • fixed factory costs
  • variable factory costs
  • selling, general & administrative (SG&A) costs
  • assets depreciation costs
  • factory budgeted hourly rates
  • SG&A budgeted hourly rates
  • all Inclusive budgeted hourly rates
"If your rates are inaccurate or outdated, so are your estimates, price markups, job costs, job profitability, commissions, and other key reports."
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Boost "Good Sales"
Eliminate "Bad Sales"

Knowing your true costs is key for competitively and profitably pricing jobs, and running a successful business.

Cost Rates Advisor tells you the minimum amount you must charge for your equipment and services in order to cover your operating costs and break-even, but more importantly, what you need to charge to make a profit.
Benchmark your costs against other companies

  • Compare your labor, factory, and overhead costs to thousands of other companies.
  • Compare individual equipment and services.
  • Or compare your entire plant to similar companies.
  • Are your costs and rates are higher or lower than the competition?
Sign up now    Schedule a Demo
Compare your costs and rates


blue book study
Built-in industry "Blue Book" rates study.

Includes cost and rates studies for thousands of equipment and services for comparisons.
  • Prepress, design, proofing, and platemaking.
  • Sheetfed and web offset presses.
  • Digital cut sheet and roll production and injet presses.
  • Large format printing and finishing equipment.
  • Flexographic presses, rewinders, and shrink sleeve equipment.
  • Die cutting, stripping, and folder glueing equipment.
  • Finishing, coating, binding, mailing equipment and services.
  • Apparel & embroidery equipment and services.
  • Handwork, assembly, kitting, and fulfillment services.
  • and much more.
Try it for a month risk free!

If you're not 100% happy within the first 30 days of your purchase, for any reason, we'll refund your money. What do you have to lose?
Join hundreds of other users.
Cost Rates Advisor is used by hundreds of printing and packaging organizations and consultants throughout the North America and the world!
advocate
anstadt
Blitzprint
command
copresco
flsun
gilson
greenwell
hatteras
hkm
Knight Abbey
Liberty Creative Solutions
simon
nutis
oneil
wilen
sheridan
simon
spectrum
Strategic Factory
wilen
5 Stars
Key component for continuing to grow and profit

Cost Rates Advisor gives us a clear picture of our costs and supports our pricing strategy. It’s a key component for continuing to grow and profit.
5 Stars
Why re-invent the wheel?

Why re-invent the wheel? Cost Rates Advisor is so much easier than my old spreadsheet. All the formulas are already included. Plus, it does a whole lot more.
5 Stars
Increases sales and profits within a few months

We noticed an increase in sales and profit margins within a few months of setting up our BHRs and using them in our EFI estimating software.
5 Stars
So easy, we update BHRs every few months.

Updating our rates was such a big ordeal we only did it every 3 or more years using spreadsheets. CostRatesAdvisor is so easy; we now update them every few months.
More customers and reviews >
Track changes in your costs and rates
  • Tracks factory costs, SG&A, labor allocations, equipment productivity, and other important data.
  • Identifies historic trends and shifts in your costs and why.
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Compare your costs and rates




Import Wizard Import your data. Save time & money
  • Import your data Screen1
  • Import your data Screen2
The Data Import Wizard will save you hours of manual entries by importing your spreadsheets, income statements, budgets, payroll, and other data.
  • The Data Import Wizard will save you hours of manual entries by importing your spreadsheets, income statements, budgets, payroll, fixed assets, and other data directly into Cost Rates Advisor.
  • Use our pre-formatted import templates or your own spreadsheets using field matching functionality.
  • Import data from spreadsheets or software products such as QuickBooks, MIS Software, Pace, Enterprise 32, Avanti, Monarch, Radius, Microsoft Dynamics, Sage Accounting, and other products.
import
Makes Spreadsheets Obsolete.


No need to reinvent the wheel with complicated and unwieldly spreadsheets. Cost Rates Advisor is considerably easier, faster, and more reliable than spreadsheets.
  • Embedded with industry best practices formulas.
  • Easy to add, change, and remove equipment as your company changes.
  • Data is automatically verified during entry.
  • Intuitive and easy user interface, and detailed online help.
  • Pulldown menus, buttons, and mouse control.
  • Over 20 easy-to-read preformatted reports.
blue book study
  • Quick Start Guide
  • Online Help
Fast and easy to use
Fast and easy to use

No accounting or budgeted hourly cost rates knowledge needed. Thanks to the innovative design, embedded formulas, import abilities, online help, and free 1:1 expert consulting support
Try it for a month risk free!

If you're not 100% happy within the first 30 days of your purchase, for any reason, we'll refund your money. What do you have to lose?
Reconcile your budgeted hourly rates with our financials

Create an income statement based on your budgeded hourly rates and see your projected profit margins and financial ratios.
  • Calculates your projected annual:
  • Income amount and profit margin ratio
  • Factory costs & ratios
  • Material costs & ratios
  • SG&A costs & ratios
  • Sales per Factory employee
  • Sales per SG&A employee
  • Profit per Factory employee
  • Profit per SG&A employee
  • Value Added per employee
  • Payroll analysis
  • and more...
financial statements from your budget
Create multiple sets of rates & what-if scenarios.
rates for multiple companies
Manage budgeted hourly cost rates for multiple companies, divisions, locations, or what-if scenarios from one dashboard.
  • Manage budgeted hourly cost rates for multiple companies, divisions, or locations from one dashboard.
  • Create what-if scenarios for new equipment, expansions, acquisitions, shift changes, or other reasons.
  • Make copies of companies to see how future cost changes will affect your rates.
Need more information? Talk to an industry expert.
Secure, Protected, and Confidential.
  • Profectus takes data security and the privacy of your information very seriously.
  • Cost Rates Advisor is built with industry-standard security practices and employs strict policies to protect your data.
  • Your information is held in strict confidentiality and is protected and secure using the highest levels of security.
  • Password Strength Standards are used as a first line of defense against unauthorized access to your account.
Works anywhere you do!
Start immediately
Because Cost Rates Advisor runs in the cloud, there's no software to install and you can start using it right away from anywhere with internet.
  • Cost Rates Advisor can be accessed from anywhere, anytime including your office, home, accountant's office, or favorite coffee house.
  • There's no software to install, no downloads, and you automatically receive the latest enhancements at no extra cost.
  • You can use a PC, MAC, notebook, iPad, or tablet with internet access and a compatible browser. (Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari)
  • Includes FREE Live consulting and support from an industry expert.
Start calculating my BHRs now!
Includes FREE expert consulting support
All customers receive live support from one of Profectus' expert printing and packaging industry business consultants. You can speak with a real live consultant for any reason.
  • Help on setting up and using Cost Rates Advisor.
  • Free reviews of your costs and rates with an expert consultant.
  • Advice on best practices for implementing and managing rates.
  • Help maximizing the benefits of Cost Rates Advisor to improve your organization.
Live Consulting Support
Frequently Asked Questions

Expand Content What are budgeted hourly cost rates?

Budgeted hourly rates (BHRs) are necessary to accurately and confidently estimate, price, and cost orders, so that you can be more competitive and profitable. They are a best practice used by the printing and packaging industry for over 100 years.

BHRs are the hourly cost rate in which you must sell your equipment or services in order to break-even or recover your out-of-pocket costs. Some organizations make the mistake of using rates from publications or use outdated rates.

The primary goal of BHRs and the Cost Rates Advisor is to recover 100% of your expenses with the production hours you sell to customers. Cost Rates Advisor does this by distributing all of your expenses (wages, leases, depreciation, supplies, utilities, insurance, etc.) among each piece of equipment or cost center; and then recovering those expenses based on the equipment production hours you expect to sell.

Inaccurate rates can cause you to:

  • Price without a clear understanding of your true costs
  • Overprice and lose beneficial and profitable work
  • Sell orders below your cost and lose profits
  • Be deceived by your estimating and costing figures
Expand Content Why do I need budgeted hourly cost rates and Cost Rates Advisor?

If you're reading this, you probably already know that developing BHRs is a time consuming and often dreadful process; finding and gathering the required information, determining how to allocate expenses, and getting management approval on the new rates. This is the main reason why so many companies neglect to update their BHRs on a timely basis. Nevertheless, accurate BHRs are essential for estimating, sales, costing, and ultimately profitability.

We know the pain. For over 25 years, our consultancy had been calculating hourly cost rates for our customers using substandard software and homemade spreadsheets. We needed a more robust tool, flexible enough to handle the unique needs of any printing or packaging company, and easy to use. So we developed Cost Rates Advisor.

Cost Rates Advisor will:

  • Give you an accurate picture of your true costs so you can confidently and strategically estimate, price, and cost jobs
  • Ensure all of your costs are fully absorbed and accounted for in estimates, quotes, job costs, and accounting reports
  • Confirm that 100% of your expenses are recovered in the production hours you charge to customers
  • Help you be more competitive on the desirable profitable work, and avoid the less lucrative work
  • Provide a catalyst for measuring the performance and cost effectiveness of your organization
  • Determine the rates needed for your estimating and job costing software (Enterprise 32, Monarch, Avanti, EPace, CRC, Radius, Globe-Tek, Printsmith, Franklin, etc.)
Expand Content What types of equipment and companies does CostRatesAdvisor calculate budgeted hourly cost rates for?

CostRatesAdvisor will calculate Budgeted Hourly Cost Rates for any of the following:

Equipment and services: prepress, design, proofing, sheetfed presses, web presses, flexographic presses, digital printers, large format printers, screen presses, high volume production printers, extrusion, inspection stations, rewinders, cutters, folders, stitchers, perfect binders, collators, folder gluers, die cutters, foil stamping, embossing, grommeting, sewing, cellophane windowing, film laminating, drills, shrink-wrapping, handwork, fulfillment, warehousing, hand assembly, kitting, packing, delivery…

Businesses and processes: lithographic printing, digital printing, large format printing, flexographic printing, label printing, packaging, folding carton printing, corrugated printing, UV printing, newspaper, publication printing, POP printing, banner printing, sign printing, screen printing, rotogravure printing, in-plant operations, mailing, prepress trade, finishing trade, photography studio…

Expand Content What information do I need to figure my budgeted hourly cost rates?

You will need to enter or import the following information:

  • Equipment list or cost centers, available production hours, and square foot occupied
  • Assets list with equipment investment costs and depreciation - fixed assets
  • Company expenses typically from an income statement or operating budget
  • Employee list with annual wages and benefits
  • Allocations of employees, expenses, and assets (overhead, occupancy, department, or cost center)
Expand Content How long will it take to enter and figure my budgeted hourly cost rates?

This depends primarily on how organized and available your information is. If your information is available, the average size company can take between 2-5 hours to import or enter the information, set up the allocations, and finalize budgeted hourly cost rates.

Expand Content How do costs get allocated?

Cost Rates Advisor gives you the flexibility of allocating costs a number of methods manually or automatically using built in industry formulas.

Company Sales & Administrative Overhead Costs - Managers, salespeople, office employees, office furniture, supplies, advertising, utilities, automobile expenses, and asset depreciation can be allocated as indirect Sales and Administration Overhead costs. These expenses are automatically allocated to each cost center proportionately based on the cost center's direct expenses.

Building Occupancy Costs - Building leases, mortgages, building repairs & maintenance, real estate taxes, maintenance employees, and other building expenses can be allocated to Building Occupancy. This determines your building occupancy cost per square and are recovered based the square feet assigned and occupied by each cost center.

General Factory Overhead Costs - General Factory Overhead can include a plant manager that oversees all of manufacturing, a scheduler that schedules the plant, maintenance employees, an air conditioning system, general factory supplies shared by all factory departments, and a paper trim waste and bailing system. These expenses are automatically disseminated to each cost center proportionately based on the cost center's direct expenses.

Department Costs - Supplies, shared equipment in a department, department supervisors can be allocated to a department as direct manufacturing costs. Department costs are automatically disseminated to each cost center in the department proportionately based on the cost center's direct expenses.

Cost Centers Costs - Equipment operators, helpers, repairs and maintenance, and equipment asset depreciation that are specific to a cost center can be allocated directly to that cost center as direct manufacturing costs.

Expand Content What if I need help setting up my budgeted hourly cost rates?

Cost Rates Advisor includes easy to understand online help screens, a Quick Start Guide, and a detail Users Manual to help you setup, maintain, and implement your cost rates. You can also contact our expert consultants for advice or questions through our online Support Request Form.

We also offer more in-depth one-on-one professional consulting for an additional fee. This includes printing industry expert consultant assigned to your account, personal phone consultations, advice on best practices, what to include and exclude in your rates, a review of your finished cost rates, approaches for implementing new cost rates, and more.

Expand Content What estimating, job costing, MIS, or accounting software does Cost Rates Advisor work with?

The Cost Rates Advisor has the ability to import data from software products like EFI Pace, Enterprise 32, Avanti, Printsmith, Monarch, Radius, Franklin, QuickBooks, Microsoft Dynamics GP, Sage Accounting, and other products using the Data Import Wizard. The Data Import Wizard has Import Spreadsheet Templates and field mapping functionality that enables you to import income statements, payroll information, fixed assets, cost centers, and other data from a spreadsheet or a .csv file directly into the Cost Rates Advisor database.

Expand Content How often should I update my hourly cost rates?

The industry best practice is to update your hourly cost rates at least every 6 months or anytime there are increases or changes in expenses, equipment, staffing, utilities, and other expenses. This will help you constantly recover out-of-pocket costs, forecast profitability, manage your company, and improve your bottom line.

Expand Content How secure is my information? Can other people see or steal my information?

The Cost Rates Advisor runs on a secure SSL-protected website with 256-bit encryption, providing one of the highest levels of security and authentication. Your financial and personal information is encrypted and protected so other parties cannot gain access to your sensitive and confidential data.

Expand Content If I'm not satisfied, can I cancel my subscription?

You can cancel your subscription at any time, regardless of the reason, and you will no longer be billed for future charges associated with your subscription.

Expand Content Can I upgrade my plan?

Absolutely! You're in full control of what plan you would like and you can easily upgrade your account from within the account manager dashboard.


Start improving your profits now!
Quick Start Service Optional Quick Start Service

Let Profectus do all the work for you! Our specialists will take hours or days off your to-do list!

For a faster implementation & ROI Jumpstart the full potential of Cost Rates Advisor by having Profectus enter your data, build your rates and provide an analysis of your costs and financial situation.
  • Review, analyze, and enter your financial and production information
  • Provide training on Cost Rates Advisor
  • Discuss implementing your updated BHRs
  • Provide recommendations for improving your bottom line
  • Discuss mark-up and pricing strategies for your products and services
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Quick Start Service Consultant
Profectus Inc Profectus, Inc. · Sarasota, Florida · United States · Phone: 1-888-868-8662
Business management consultants specializing in the printing & packaging industry since 1993.
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