Cost rates & margin
Internal cost rates show what tracked time costs you — regardless of whether customers are billed. Together with billable rates they yield the margin: fees minus costs, per customer, project or member.
Step by step
- 01
Its own toggle, independent
The workspace settings carry a dedicated “Internal cost rates” group with the “Enable cost rates” toggle and the default cost rate. It is independent of billability — pure cost accounting works without customer billing.
- 02
Cost rate per member
On the Team page you maintain each member’s “Cost rate” (⋯ menu → “Edit rates”). Empty means the workspace’s default cost rate applies.
- 03
Costs accrue on all time
The cost rate applies to all tracked time — including non-billable time. It is frozen on the entry when saved; later changes affect only new entries. Internal work shows up as pure cost — exactly what makes the difference between utilization and profitability visible.
- 04
Margin in reports
Overview and Detailed show cost and margin as KPIs and columns — the margin in currency and percent, per group and per entry. The exports (CSV, Excel, PDF) include the columns too.
- 05
Strictly guarded
Cost rates can reveal salaries. That is why cost and margin are visible only to Owners and Admins by default — other members need a dedicated view permission. The permission for billing amounts explicitly does not include costs.
The “Internal cost rates” settings group
The group sits in the workspace settings next to billability: the “Enable cost rates” toggle and the default cost rate. Switching it off keeps all cost rates — they are only hidden.
Cost rate on the Team page
The member list carries the “Cost rate” column next to the billable rate. You edit both values in the same dialog — maintenance stays in one place.
Do I need billable rates for this?
No. Cost rates are fully independent — you can use them without billability, e.g. for pure cost accounting. The margin of course only appears once billable rates are active too.
Do costs count on non-billable time as well?
Yes, deliberately: every tracked hour costs something, billable or not. That shows how much internal time a customer or project really consumes.
Who sees cost rates and margin?
Owners and Admins only, by default. Other members need a dedicated permission — the amounts permission is not enough. Without it, the server omits all cost and margin fields entirely, including in exports.
What happens when I switch cost rates off?
Same as with billable rates: switching off only hides — all cost rates and frozen values are kept.