About Profectus, Cost Rates Advisor, and Craig L. Press

Calculate rates for any equipment or service
Calculate budgeted hourly rates for any printing and packaging equipment or service.

Gain insight into your true costs
Get a detailed breakdown of every cost component that composes your hourly rates.

Works with any estimating software
Provides budgeted hourly rates (BHRs) required by any estimating & costing MIS/ERP software.

Fast and easy
No accounting knowledge needed. Update your budgeted hourly rates in just minutes!

Benchmark against other companies
Benchmark your labor, factory, and overhead costs and BHRs against other companies.

Increase Good Sales, Eliminate Bad Sales
Win more orders with higher profit and contribution margins.

Built-in industry "Blue Book" rates study
Includes cost and rates studies for thousands of equipment and services for comparisons.

Import your data
Effortlessly import your spreadsheets, income statements, budgets, and other data.

Find the best pricing strategy
Create various cost and material markups and pricing strategies using your budget.

Project your profitability
Create income statement based on your budget with projected profit margins and ratios.

Create multiple sets of rates
Manage rates and costs for multiple companies, divisions, locations, or what-if scenerios.

Track changes in costs and rates
See how your rates and costs have changed over time and why.

Satisfaction guarantee or your money back!
If you're not happy within the first 30 days, for any reason, we'll refund all of your money.

FREE expert consulting support
You receive support from a real live Profectus industry business consultant, for any reason.

Makes Spreadsheets Obsolete
Cost Rates Advisor is considerably easier, faster, and more reliable than spreadsheets.

Secure, Protected, and Confidential
Profectus employs strict security policies to your account and data.

Works anywhere you do 24/7/365
Cost Rates Advisor runs in the cloud. Use it anywhere with a browser and internet.

Frequently Asked Questions
The answers to common questions about budgeted hourly rates and Cost Rates Advisor.

How-It-Works

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About

About Cost Rates Advisor and Profectus
Learn more about Cost Rates Advisor and Profectus printing & packaging business management consultants.

Over 400 customers
Printing companies throughout the United States and Canada have discovered the benefits of Cost Rates Advisor.

Contact Us
Talk to sales about how Cost Rates Advisor can help your business.

Pricing

Budgeted hourly rates, cost analysis, and benchmarking software for printing and packaging businesses.

About

Printing industry business management consultants

Helping Print and Packaging Companies Drive Growth and Profitability

Profectus delivers proven products and consulting solutions that help printing and packaging companies grow sales, increase profits, and improve overall business performance. We focus on strengthening core processes - enhancing efficiency, managing budgets and costs, implementing effective pricing and sales strategies, and driving profitability.

For over 30 years, we've partnered with hundreds of printing and packaging companies across North America to improve all areas of their business - from sales and estimating to production, costing, and accounting. Our deep, hands-on experience across a wide range of operations enables us to quickly identify what’s working, what’s not, and how to fix it.

Our solutions span the entire organization—from the front office to the production floor—including sales, estimating, pricing, customer service, order entry, inventory, production, costing, budgeted, invoicing, accounting, MIS, and technology.

About

For years our consultancy, Profectus Inc has used spreadsheets to calculate BHRs for our clients. Spreadsheets often required a lot of work every time you want to update rates or add another piece of equipment, even with creative Excel formulas and links.

Which is why we decided to develop the Cost Rates Advisor budgeted hourly rates software. It has forms and features that simplify the entry, importing, and updating of financial data needed to calculate BHRs. Cost Rates Advisor comes with built-in "best of breed" formulas, intelligence, and functionality for developing budgeted hourly cost rates.

Cost Rates Advisor gives shops a more accurate picture of their out-of-pocket manufacturing and overhead costs so they can strategically estimate and price jobs. Because Cost Rates Advisor is in the Cloud, you can easily access and update your rates anytime, from anywhere, with any PC, MAC, notebook, or tablet using a compatible web browser and internet.

Craig L. Press,
President & Founder, Profectus Inc.

Craig L. Press is the founder and senior consultant at Profectus Inc., a consulting firm dedicated to helping printing and packaging companies increase profitability through smarter business strategies, stronger cost control, and the effective use of software and technology.

With over 40 years of hands-on experience across nearly every area of the printing and packaging industry - including sales, estimating, pricing, customer service, production, cost accounting, inventory, purchasing, finance, and IT - Craig brings a unique blend of operational and executive insight to every client engagement. His broad perspective allows him to quickly identify challenges and implement strategies that deliver measurable results.

Craig has worked with hundreds of printing and packaging organizations throughout North America, from small shops to enterprises with thousands of employees. His expertise spans all industry segments, including commercial printing, digital/on-demand, in-plant operations, folding carton, labels, packaging converters, flexographic, publication, book, large format, screen, signage, trade services, and MIS providers.

Widely regarded as one of the industry’s foremost authorities on estimating, budgeted hourly rates (BHRs), cost analysis, MIS, business process improvement, financial ratios, and profit strategy, Craig’s work empowers organizations to streamline operations, strengthen financial performance, and make confident, data-driven decisions.

He has served as a consultant for major industry associations including the National Association for Printers and Lithographers (NAPL), Printing Industries of America (PIA), and others. In addition to delivering hundreds of industry seminars and workshops, Craig has also provided expert testimony in legal cases involving operational performance, costing practices, and technology implementation.

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Tested and Proven

CostRatesAdvisor was engineered based on tested and proven best practice formulas, accounting principles, and standards supported by the printing and packaging industries.
It is used by hundreds of printing and packaging organizations throughout North America and the world, small and large, spanning all industry segments including web & sheetfed, large format, digital, flexographic, ink-jet, screen, mailing, packaging, and in-plant operations. more...
CostRatesAdvisor is the most popular cost rates software used and recommended by the printing and packaging industry.

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Join our growing list of satisfied customers.

Key component for continuing to grow and profit
Larry Onsted, CFO

5 / 5 stars

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.

Increases sales and profits within a few months
Kathy, Controller

5 / 5 stars

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.

So easy, we update BHRs every few months.
Martin J., Accounting Manager

5 / 5 stars

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."

Gave more confidence in estimates and cost sheets.
D. Meyers, Owner

5 / 5 stars

Gave our managers, salespeople, and estimators more confidence in estimates, cost sheets, and profitability reports."

more about our customers..

Definition of "Profectus"

Our company name "Profectus" was derived from the Latin word for "Profit". Our organization's mission is to improve the efficiency, cost effectiveness, and profitability of our clients.

Profectus, n. [Latin. advance, progress, profit].

1. The residual value gained from business operations..

2. Acquisition beyond expenditure; excess of value received for producing, keeping, or selling, over cost; hence pecuniary gain in any transaction or occupation; as, a profit on the sale of goods..

3. Accession of good; valuable results; useful consequences; to be of service or advantage; benefit; avail; gain..

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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