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Features   
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.
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How Often Should You Update Budgeted Hourly Rates for Printing Equipment?

How often should you update budgeted hourly cost rates

One of the most common questions printing companies ask about their estimating is: "How often should I update my budgeted hourly cost rates?"

The industry best practice is to update your estimating cost rates at least every 6-12 months or anytime there are notable changes in your expenses, equipment, staffing, or productivity. After a company closes their financial year or creates their annual expense budget is always a good time to update cost rates. Your rates may increase or decrease, depending on what changes have taken place since the last time you updated them.

Survey Results Based on 85 Printing and Packaging Companies

Update BHRs

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.

The major challenges faced by companies that don’t keep their cost rates updated includes:

- Inability to make accurate pricing, sales, and investment decisions
- Overpricing and losing valuable and profitable work, and potentially customers
- Selling orders below costs, resulting in lost profits and deteriorated productivity
- Being misled by inaccurate estimating and costing figures

Read: How inaccurate Budgeted Hourly Cost Rates almost put Quality Printing out of business.

The Cost Rates Advisor budgeted hourly rates software makes it easy for organizations to keep their rates updated. It gives shops a more accurate picture of their out-of-pocket manufacturing and overhead costs so they can strategically estimate and price jobs. You can import data from spreadsheets, accounting software, and print management MIS software - making setup and updates fast and simple.

Cost Rates Advisor is used and proven by offset, digital, large format, flexographic, screen, and in-plant printing organizations throughout North America. Three tiered pricing makes it affordable for companies of all sizes.

With Cost Rates Advisor, calculating and updating your estimating cost rates no longer needs to be a time consuming and demanding task. So update your 2014 BHRs today and start estimating better, pricing smarter, increasing revenue, and maximizing your profits.

By: Craig L Press
President
Profectus, Inc.


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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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