Articles for Improving Printing and Packaging Organizations

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.

Demo

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

Sign Up

Articles from our experts at Profectus for improving your printing organization's cost effectiveness and profits.

bhrs update cycle

WhatTheyThink Product Spotlight

Know Your True Costs And Boost Profits With Cost Rates Advisor. Running a successful printing and packaging business is a complex puzzle that must be solved daily. Costs are constantly fluctuating due to changes in expenses, staffing, workloads, equipment, materials costs, product demands, and other contributing factors. Cost Rates Advisor software allows businesses to quickly analyze costs, create budgeted hourly rates, and benchmark their results to industry. Read More

quality-printing

How inaccurate cost rates almost put Quality Printing out of business. Inaccurate budgeted hourly rates (BHRs) can put a printing company out of business as one company found out the hard way. Quality Printing* is a sheetfed, digital, and large format printing company with 75 employees located in the Midwest United States. Read More

Proven Pricing Strategies Used By Printing Industry

Proven Pricing Strategies Used By Printing Industry Leaders. Devising an effective pricing strategy is one of the most critical elements for sustaining a successful printing business. After all, you cannot make a sale without first setting a price. Read More

The Estimator with Rose Colored Glasses

The Estimator with Rose Colored Glasses. Devising an effective pricing strategy is one of the most critical elements for sustaining a successful printing business. After all, you cannot make a sale without first setting a price. Read More

How Often Should You Update Budgeted Hourly Rates

How Often Should You Update Budgeted Hourly Rates. Considering the industry�s competitive environment, rates that are off just a few dollars can have a substantial impact on whether or not you win orders or make a profit. As a matter of policy, an organization should continually update their rates to maintain a competitive edge and sustain profits Read More

10 Good Indicators It�s Time To Update Your Budgeted Hourly Rates

10 Good Indicators It's Time To Update Your Budgeted Hourly Rates. If you haven't updated your Budgeted Hourly Rates in the last 12 months, you need to read this! Read More

Implementing An Effective Cost-Plus Pricing Strategy

Implementing An Effective Cost-Plus Pricing Strategy. Cost-Plus pricing is indisputably the most common pricing technique used by printing organizations. A cost-plus pricing strategy is pretty much what the name implies. You set a price by estimating your costs and add a markup to get the sell price. Read More

Direct Manufacturing Hourly Cost Rates for Printing Equipment

Direct Manufacturing Hourly Cost Rates for Printing Equipment. Direct Manufacturing Costs are expenses that are necessary to specifically produce or manufacture a product. These expenses can consist of supplies needed to operate equipment, equipment maintenance and repairs, asset depreciation, leases, and other costs. Read More

Profectus, Inc. · Sarasota, Florida · United States · Phone: 1-888-868-8662
Business management consultants specializing in the printing & packaging industry since 1993.

© 2013-2025 Profectus Inc. All Rights Reserved. CostRatesAdvisor.com and FinancialRatiosAdvisor.com are trademarks of Profectus, Inc.

Schedule a demo