Cost against time
Set the rates and standard minutes that turn workshop time into cost, and read the reports.
Updated 23 September 2026
On this page
- Why
- A price with no cost behind it cannot tell you whether the job made money.
- What
- Rates say what an hour, a tooth or a box costs you; standard minutes say how long a step should take.
- How
- At
/app/servicing?view=costingan administrator sets the rates and an engineer or above the standard minutes.
Rates
Choose Add a rate. Each rate applies to The whole organisation, one centre or one station, from a date. Replace starts a new figure without rewriting last month's costs.
| Rate | What it is |
|---|---|
| Labour an hour | What an hour at the bench costs you, fully loaded. |
| Machine an hour | What an hour on this machine costs, set per station where they differ. |
| Driver an hour | What an hour of a driver's time costs on a collection or a delivery. |
| Overhead | The share added to every job for the cost of being open. |
| Packaging a package | What a box, a sleeve or a crate costs you. |
| Van a kilometre | What a kilometre on your own van costs, shared over what it carried. |
| Grinding wheel a tooth | Wheel wear per tooth ground. |
| Diamond tip a tooth | What one diamond tip costs you. |
| Braze a tooth | Brazing material per tooth replaced. |
| Wire a metre | Erosion wire by the metre. |
| Material a kilogram | Bulk material by weight, for a batch process. |
| Coverage a square metre | What covering a square metre costs, for coating and finishing. |
| Subcontract a job | What sending the work out costs, per job. |
Kabaido assumes no rate. A cost that needs a rate you have not set stays empty and says which one is missing.
Standard minutes
Add a figure sets setup minutes plus run minutes for each count of its driver, for a station group and optionally for one service. The driver is Per tooth, Per knife, Per piece or Once per item. Figures from a preset are marked Illustrative until you replace them.
How an item is costed
item cost = steps (minutes x labour rate + minutes x machine rate + consumables)
+ packaging + run share
+ overhead per cent x everything above
margin = line price - item costStandard cost is the same arithmetic on the standard minutes, so variance shows at every level. Money is worked in minor units and rounded half up once, at the end.
Reports
| Report | What it answers |
|---|---|
| Cost and margin | Standard against actual, by step, station, service, family, centre, customer or month. |
| Lead time | Door to door hours from the scans, as a median and the slowest tenth. |
| Identification | How many items arrived with your id, a brand reference or nothing. |
| Tool life | Services each item has had, what is left and when it is next due. |
| Quality | Rework by reason, station group, centre or month, with what it cost. |
| Customers | Items, quotes, decisions and revenue by customer, rep, route or quarter. |
Pick a period, Run and Export CSV. Costs and margins are engineer and above; other roles see minutes, lead times and identification.
Actual minutes and cost are recorded step by step at the servicing station screen. Items do not carry written steps today, so an item's Cost tab reads Nothing has been costed on this item yet and Cost and margin and Quality come back empty. Lead time, Identification, Tool life and Customers read the registry and the scans.