Resource Hourly Rate

    Last Modified On: June 23, 2025

     

    Inspire Planner allows you to define a default hourly rate for each resource (user or contact). You can set the hourly rate on the user or contact record, in the resource’s profile, or directly on the project team record. Setting the rate at the project team level is recommended when the rate is specific to a particular project. 

     

    You can also attach a rate card to a project team record. A rate card refers to a set of predefined rates associated with different types of work, roles, or resources.

     

    When “Use Effort to Calculate Cost” is enabled in Inspire Planner, task costs are automatically calculated based on the effort and the assigned resource’s hourly rates. By default, this setting is turned off, meaning you will need to enter task costs manually unless you choose to enable it. For more details on Rate Cards and the "Use Effort to Calculate Cost" setting, please see Use Effort to Calculate Cost.

     

     

    Understanding How Rates are Applied

     

    How Project Team Billable Rate and Cost Rates are Populated:

    When you create Project Team records for a project and enter values for the Billable Rate and Cost Rate, Inspire Planner will use those rates for the resource’s Salesforce tasks and time entries. If you’ve attached a Rate Card, Inspire Planner will prioritize and use the rates from the Rate Card instead.

     

    If you manually edit the Project Team Billable Rate or Cost Rate after applying a Rate Card, Inspire Planner will respect your manual entries. However, if you later attach a different Rate Card to that Project Team record, the new Rate Card’s rates will overwrite the values you previously entered.

     

    This gives you flexibility to adjust rates manually, while ensuring consistency if you apply a new Rate Card.

     

    When you create Project Team records for a project and leave the Billable Rate and Cost Rate fields blank, Inspire Planner follows a specific order to find the rates:

    • Inspire Planner first checks if a Rate Card is linked to the Project Team. If a Rate Card is attached, the Billable Rate and Cost Rate on the Project Team are automatically populated with the values from the Rate Card.

    • If there’s no Rate Card, it looks for a Resource Profile and uses the Default Billable Rate and Default Cost Rate from there to populate the Project Team Billable Rate and Cost Rate.

    • If the Resource Profile does not have rates defined, Inspire Planner will then reference the Hourly Rate from the User or Contact record as the Default Billable Rate. Note that there is no Default Cost Rate on the User or Contact record—Default Cost Rate is only available in the Resource Profile.

     

    How Salesforce Task Billable Rate is populated:

    When a Project Task is assigned to a resource, Inspire Planner automatically fills in the Billable Rate on the Salesforce Task from the resource's Project Team.

    • Salesforce Task Hourly Rate = Project Team Billable Rate

     

    How Time Entry Rates are populated:

    When a resource logs time, Inspire Planner automatically fills in the Billable Rate and Cost Rate on the time entry based on the following:

    • Time Entry Billable Rate:

      Pulled from the Billable Rate on the Project Team record if:

      • The resource (Time Entry owner) has a matching Project Team record and

      • The Task Role matches the Project Team Role.
         

    • Time Entry Cost Rate:

      Pulled from the Cost Rate on the Project Team record if there’s a matching record (same conditions as above).

      • If there’s no matching Project Team record or if the Cost Rate on the Project Team is blank, Inspire Planner uses the Default Cost Rate from the resource’s Resource Profile instead.

     

    Please Note: 

    • If the Integrated Resource Profile feature is enabled in Inspire Planner, we recommend defining each resource’s default billable rate and cost rate within their resource profile. For more information about the integrated resource profile, refer to Resource LWC - BETA - Integrated Resource Profile.
       
    • If the Integrated Resource Profile feature is disabled in Inspire Planner, you can set each resource’s hourly rate directly on their user or contact record. This hourly rate will be used as the resource’s billable rate. Please note that a Default Cost Rate is only available when using the Resource Profile—it does not exist on the user or contact record.

     

    Set a Default Hourly Rate for a Resource

    In Inspire Planner, a Resource is the person you assign a task to. A Resource can either be a Salesforce User or a Salesforce Contact. You can populate Hourly Rate either on the User record or on the Contact record. Simply navigate to the user or contact record and populate the Hourly Rate.

     

    A quick and easy way to also populate the Hourly Rate for a Resource is to go to Resource Management.

     


     

    Click on the Resources subtab.



     

    Click on the user or contact from the list on the left. This will open the resource's user or contact record on the right side. Click on Edit.

     

     

    Enter the Hourly Rate for the Resource. When finished, click on Update.

     

     

    Set a Default Billable Rate and Cost Rate for a Resource

    If the Integrated Resource Profile feature is enabled in Inspire Planner, you are able to define each resource's default billable rate and default cost rate in their resource profile.

     

    For more information, refer to Resource LWC - BETA - Integrated Resource Profile.

     

    Create Rate Cards

    In project and resource management, a rate card typically refers to a set of predefined rates associated with different types of work, roles, or resources.

     

    rate card helps define:

    • Billing rates based on factors like resource type, location, skill level, or customer agreements.

    • Cost rates for internal tracking (what it costs your company to employ the resource) vs. billable rates (what you charge the client).

     

    Why it’s useful:

    • Ensures consistent pricing for services across projects.

    • Makes it easier to generate accurate project budgets, quotes, and invoices.

    • Supports more advanced reporting and profitability analysis.

     

    For more information on how to create and use Rate Cards, refer to Use Effort to Calculate Cost.

     

    Please note the following:

    • When you create Project Team records for a project and enter values for the Billable Rate and Cost Rate, Inspire Planner will use those rates for the resource’s Salesforce tasks and time entries. If you’ve attached a Rate Card, Inspire Planner will prioritize and use the rates from the Rate Card instead.

      If you manually edit the Project Team Billable Rate or Cost Rate after applying a Rate Card, Inspire Planner will respect your manual entries. However, if you later attach a different Rate Card to that Project Team record, the new Rate Card’s rates will overwrite the values you previously entered.
       

    • Updating the billable and cost rates on a rate card does not retroactively update any project team records where the rate card has already been applied. Existing project team records will continue to use the rates that were in place when the rate card was originally selected.
       

    • Updating the Default Billable Rate or Default Cost Rate on the resource profile or updating the Hourly Rate on the user/contact record will not update any of the resource's existing project team records. 
       

    • When you update the Billable Rate on a Project Team record, Inspire Planner will automatically update the Billable Rate on the related Salesforce tasks assigned to that resource. This update is handled by the Inspire Planner Beacon, which runs every 2 minutes. You may need to wait briefly for the Beacon to process the changes. Once the Salesforce Task Billable Rate is updated, the Budgeted Cost will also be recalculated based on the new rate.
       
    • When you change the assigned resource on a project team record, and there’s a rate card linked to the previous resource, you’ll need to remove that rate card and select the appropriate one for the new resource. If no rate card is selected, Inspire Planner will use the rates from the new resource’s resource profile. If the resource profile doesn’t have rates, it will then default to the rates on the user or contact record.
       
    • If the Resource Profile does not have rates defined, Inspire Planner will then reference the Hourly Rate from the User or Contact record as the Default Billable Rate. Note that there is no Default Cost Rate on the User or Contact record—Default Cost Rate is only available in the Resource Profile.
       
    • Actual Cost (Time Spent x Billable Rate) and Labor Cost (Time Spent x Cost Rate) are calculated based on time entries. The Billable Rate and Cost Rate on each time entry are pulled from the Project Team at the time the entry is created. If the Project Team rates change later, existing time entries remain unchanged to reflect the rates that were in effect when the time was logged. Only new time entries created after the rate change will use the updated rates.

    Tags

    Resource ManagementProject Task Assignment

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