How to Set a Work Center Cost Rate in EDGEBIC

To set a work center's cost rate in EDGEBIC by User Solutions, enter the machine's Cost per Hour on its configuration. That figure is the canonical hourly cost the quote simulator and the cost rollup charge for every hour a job spends on the machine, and new routing steps inherit it automatically.

Cost per hour is a small field with an outsized effect: it drives every labor-cost number in your quotes. This page covers setting it correctly and the one inheritance rule that trips people up. For how the machine itself is defined, start with work centers explained.

Before You Start

• The work center already exists (how to add a work center).
• You have the real hourly cost for the machine, in your local currency, including whatever your costing convention loads into it (labor, machine burden, overhead allocation).
• You know that routings inherit the rate at creation, so the order of operations matters.

Step 1: Open the Work Center for Editing

Open the Workcenter tab. On the Work Center Management grid, click ✏️ Edit on the target work center's row. The Work Center Configuration dialog opens on the Basic Information tab.

Step 2: Enter Cost per Hour

In the Cost per Hour field, enter the machine's hourly cost. This is the value the quote simulator and cost rollup read for labor cost per hour on this machine. Enter it as a plain number in your currency.

A note on fields: this canonical rate is the one the cost math reads. A separate legacy hourly-rate field exists but is not used by the cost calculation, so always put the number in Cost per Hour.

Step 3: Save

Click Save. The rate is stored on the work center and is available for cost calculations immediately.

What Changes When You Save

The inheritance rule is the important one. When a routing step is created on a work center, it copies the cost per hour so cost math can run per step without a lookup. Because it is a copy, a later rate change does not rewrite steps that already inherited the old value.

A Worked Example

A mill carries a Cost per Hour of 85. A routing step on it schedules a 50-hour milling operation. The labor cost the rollup charges for that operation is 50 times 85, or 4,250, before any material cost is added. Quote that job and the cost breakdown shows the 4,250 labor line for the mill.

Now the shop raises the mill rate to 95. New quotes for products routed through the mill charge 50 times 95, or 4,750, for the same operation, a 500 increase that flows straight into the quoted price and the margin. But a routing step that was built before the change still carries the copied 85, so a quote using that older step keeps charging 4,250 until the step is updated. This is why a rate change can look like it did nothing: the machine rate moved, but the routing did not. Update the affected steps, or rebuild the routing, and the new rate propagates.

How to Check It Worked

1. Run a quote simulation for a product whose routing uses this work center and open the cost breakdown. See how to see the cost breakdown of a quote.
2. Confirm the labor cost for the machine's hours reflects the new rate: hours on the machine times cost per hour.
3. If the rate looks wrong, check whether the affected routing steps inherited an older value, and update them.

Common Mistakes

Leaving the rate at zero. A work center with a zero cost per hour charges no labor cost, so every job through it looks artificially cheap and margins read high. Set the real rate before you quote against the machine.

Putting the number in the legacy field. The cost math reads Cost per Hour. A value entered in the older hourly-rate field is ignored and produces zero labor cost with no obvious error.

Expecting a rate change to reach existing routings. Steps that inherited the old rate keep it. After a shop-wide rate change, update the affected routing steps or rebuild the routing, then rerun the quote so the rollup uses the new number.

Assuming quotes update themselves. A firmed quote keeps its original numbers. Recalculate quotes that need the new rate.

Next

The cost rate is the bridge between your schedule and your margins: get it right on the work center and set the routings before you quote. Pair it with a realistic time estimate through work center efficiency, and see the product side in how to set a product cost. More single-task recipes are in the EDGEBIC how-to hub, and the platform overview is at /edgebic.