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

Find the best option for your business Money Back Guarantee
Cost Rates Advisor
Premium Edition
$698 /year
or
$75 /month
Cancel anytime. Money Back Guarantee.
Sign Up
Designed for small to midsize printing and packaging companies, the Premium edition is loaded with features including:
The Premium Edition is limited to 1 user account and login. * If you require more than 1 user, then you should purchase the Professional Edition.
The Premium Edition is limited to 1 set of budgeted hourly rates. * If you require more than 1 sets of rates, then you should purchase the Professional Edition.
Calculates budgeted hourly rates for any printing or packaging equipment including sheetfed presses, web presses, digital, large format, flexographic,ink-jet, screen, rewinders, folder gluers, die cutters, foil stamping, hand assembly, mailing, kitting, and more...
Benchmark your labor, factory, and overhead costs rates to thousands of costs rates from other companies with similar equipment. Find out if your costs are higher or lower than the competition and industry.
Contains industry studies of costs and budgeted hourly rates for prepress, sheetfed and web offset, digital, inkjet, large format, flexographic, screen, packaging, apparel & embroidery, finishing, binding, mailing, and other equipment and services.
Reconcile your budget by creating financial statements and other reports from your projected budget and sales.
Find the best pricing markup strategy for maximizing your profit margins and revenue.
Save hours of manual entry by importing spreadsheets, statements, employees, expenses, assets, budgets, and other information using our Data Import Wizard.
You can record a history of your budgeted hourly cost rates changes and updates, and track how your rates have changed over time and why.
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?
Detailed comparison of features...
Cost Rates Advisor
Professional Edition
$898 /year
or
$95 /month
Cancel anytime. Money Back Guarantee.
Sign Up
Designed for larger printing and packaging companies, the Professional Edition includes all the features of the Premium Edition plus:
Create multiple user accounts with individual logins, passwords, and access roles.
Create multiple sets of budgeted hourly rates for companies, divisions, locations, or plants. * Starts with up to 5 sets and add more as needed.
Create what-if scenarios for potential equipment purchases, shift changes, costing models, expansions, or any other reason. Each budget can have different equipment, expenses, employees, assets, and rates. * Starts with up to 5 sets and add more as needed.
Password protect individual sets of rates or companies so other people in your organization cannot access or change them.
An Application Programming Interface (API) allows your estimating and costing software to access your rates, so you do not have to enter them. *If available through your software vendor.
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?
Detailed comparison of features...
fastest-roi
Quick Start Service
Too busy?
Let our industry experts do all the work for you. We'll take days or weeks off your to-do list!
Instant Quote
This is the fastest and most affordable solution for establishing your company's budgeted hourly rates. Especially if you're in the process of implementing a new MIS/ERP system or revamping your estimating rates and standards.

Our consultants will analyze and input all your data and prepare your rates using the Professional Edition. Afterwards, you'll be able to easily manage and update your rates anytime. Learn more
Profectus printing industry business consultants will prepare and fine-tune your budgeted costs and rates.
Save days or weeks! Our experts have helped hundreds of printing and packaging organizations prepare budgeted hourly rates, improve costing practices, implement pricing strategies, and grow profits. We’ll get your project completed faster, requiring less of your resources and costs, while providing proven recommendations and advice.
A designated senior consultant and cost specialist will remotely work with your organization to prepare your budgeted hourly rates.
The consultant will analyze and enter all of your data into Cost Rates Advisor including your departments, cost centers, expenses, assets, and employees, and allocate your information to the appropriate classifications based on industry best practices.
The Profectus consultant will provide an analysis of your costs and rates; recommendations for implementing, managing, and updating BHRs; and recommendations for improving tracking costs and financial reporting.
5 Stars
The best software investment & ROI.
"Cost Rates Advisor is the best software investment our company has ever made! It opened our eyes to where we are making and losing money and reinforces our pricing strategy."
- Blake, CFO
5 Stars
Greater confidence in estimates & prices!
"Gave our managers, salespeople, and estimators more confidence in estimates, price markups, and costing reports."
- D. Meyers, Owner
5 Stars
The only software that can benchmark.
"It's the only software that can benchmark our costs and BHRs against other companies, and tell us where we are effective, and where we need to sharpen prices."
- Scott, Accountant
Features Comparisons
best value
Premium Edition
$698/year
or $75/month
No contracts. Cancel anytime.
Professional Edition
$898/year
or $95/month
No contracts. Cancel anytime.
Click on the > feature for more details.

Product summary
Designed for small to midsize printing and packaging companies, the Premium edition is loaded with features including:
Designed for larger printing and packaging companies, the Professional Edition includes all the features of the Premium Edition plus:
Create multiple sets of budgeted hourly rates for what-if scenarios, cost budget models, companies, divisions, accounting periods, expansions, locations, potential equipment, or for any reason. Each sets of rates can have different equipment, expenses, employees, assets, and rates. * Starts with up to 5 sets and add more as needed.
1 * Unlimited
Multi-User. Create individual user login accounts and access roles for improved collaboration with your coworkers.
1 Unlimited
Calculates budgeted hourly rates for any equipment including sheetfed presses, web presses, digital, large format, flexographic,ink-jet, screen, rewinders, folder gluers, die cutters, foil stamping, hand assembly, mailing, kitting, and more...
Included Included
Calculates the "TRUE" out-of-pocket costs and budgeted hourly rates of your equipment and services, needed by your estimating, costing, pricing, and MIS software including the manufacturing rate, labor rate, SG&A overhead rate, and AIC rates.
Included Included
A real live industry expert consultant can help you maximize the features and benefits of Cost Rates Advisor by providing FREE training, help with set up and updating, review and critique your rates, or whatever you need to successfully implement your rates.
Included Included
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?
Included Included
Engineered by industry experts based on industry best practices and formulas. Expenses can be allocated numerous ways including to SG&A overhead, factory overhead, departments, cost centers, and other methods.
Included Included
Compare your labor, factory, and overhead costs rates to thousands of costs rates from other companies with similar equipment. Find out if your costs are higher or lower than the competition and industry.
Included Included
Contains hundreds of industry studies of costs and budgeted hourly rates for prepress, sheetfed and web offset, digital, inkjet, large format, flexographic, screen, packaging, apparel & embroidery, finishing, binding, mailing, and other equipment and services.
Included Included
Create income statements, profit projections, and graphs from your budget.
Included Included
Find the best pricing markup strategy for maximizing your profit margins and revenue.
Included Included
Save hours of manual entry by importing spreadsheets, statements, employees, expenses, assets, budgets, and other information using our Data Import Wizard.
Included Included
You can record a history of your budgeted hourly cost rates changes and updates, and track how your rates have changed over time and why.
Included Included
Over 30 detail and summary reports and graphs with drill-down directly to the detailed source data help you reconcile and manage your cost rates.
Included Included
A comprehensive online help guide with easy to understand instructions, industry best practices, examples, and tips for setting up, updating, and implementing your rates. A searchable knowledge base of information to help you to find answers about using Cost Rates Advisor and industry best practices.
Included Included
Your information is protected using strict security practices including cryptographic protocols, data encryption, and complex password strength requirements.
Included Included
No contracts. If you are not satisfied for any reason, you may cancel anytime. Easily upgrade anytime as your business grows without losing your information.
Included Included
PC, MAC, iPad, tablet compatible Cloud, Anywhere, Anytime Access. There's no software to install and you automatically receive the latest enhancements.
Included Included
Create multiple sets of budgeted hourly rates for companies, divisions, locations, or plants. Starts with up to 5 sets and add more as needed.
Included
Create copies of your BHRs and what-if scenarios for potential equipment purchases, shift changes, costing models, expansions, or any other reason. Each budget can have different equipment, expenses, employees, assets, and rates.
Included
Create individual password protected user login accounts with access roles for improved collaboration with your coworkers.
Included
Password protect individual sets of rates or companies so other people in your organization cannot access or change them.
Included
An Application Programming Interface (API) allows your estimating and costing software to access your rates, so you do not have to enter them. *If available through your software vendor.
Included

* The Professional Edition includes 5 sets of budgeted hourly rates and may be upgraded as needed.

Want a Profectus consultant to prepare your budgeted hourly rates for you? With our optional Quick Start Service, our consultants will enter your data, build out your equipment budgeted hourly rates, and provide a comprehensive analysis of your budget, costs, rates, and financials. Learn more about our Quick Start Service


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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