Staff Rates and Billing
How cost rates and billing rates work in Monument, including rate types, inheritance, and versioning.
Overview
Rates are central to Monument's financial model. Every resource can have cost rates (what you pay them) and billing rates (what you charge clients). These rates flow through allocations and time entries to calculate project costs, revenue, and profit.
Rate Types
Monument supports two rate types per resource:
| Rate Type | Purpose | Used For |
|---|---|---|
| Cost Rate | What you pay the team member | Staff cost calculations, profitability |
| Billing Rate | What you charge clients | Revenue from time-based billing, invoicing |
Both are expressed as hourly amounts in your organisation's currency.
The Rate Inheritance Chain
Rates are resolved through a hierarchy — Monument checks each level until it finds a rate:
- Project-level override — a rate set specifically for this resource on this project
- Resource rate — the rate set on the resource's profile
- Pool rate — the rate set on the resource pool
- Organisation default — the fallback rate defined in organisation settings
This means you can set a default billing rate for the whole team, override it for senior staff, and further override it for specific projects — all without duplicating configuration.
Most firms set rates at the resource level and only use project overrides when a specific client has a negotiated rate.
Rate Periods
Rates have effective dates — a start date (and optional end date) that defines when the rate applies. This lets you:
- Record rate increases over time without losing history
- Plan future rate changes in advance
- See what rate was in effect for any past period
When calculating financials, Monument uses the rate that was effective at the time of the allocation or time entry.
Rate Versioning
Every rate change creates a new version. You can view the full history of rate changes for any resource, including:
- The old and new amounts
- When the change took effect
- Who made the change
See Rate Version History for more on viewing and managing rate history.
Impact on Financials
Rates affect financial calculations throughout Monument:
- Allocations — planned cost and revenue based on allocated hours × rate
- Time entries — actual cost and billable amount based on logged hours × rate
- Invoices — time-based line items use the billing rate
- Reports — utilisation and profitability metrics use cost and billing rates
Changing a rate retroactively (with a past effective date) will update historical financial calculations. Monument recalculates affected allocations and projections.
What's Next
- Setting Up Staff Rates — step-by-step rate configuration
- Project Rate Overrides — custom rates per project
- Financial Model Overview — how rates feed into the financial engine