Rates & Resource Management is where you define what your resources cost and what you charge for them. By setting up rates and costs for your equipment, crew, and miscellaneous items, Ribbiot can calculate job margins — showing you the difference between what you're billing and what the work actually costs. This is also where you determine the true cost of a piece of equipment: enter an hourly or daily cost, and the system derives weekly, monthly, and yearly figures automatically based on your account's conversion settings.
Key Concepts
Before getting started, here are a few terms you'll see throughout this guide:
- Resource Group: A catalog item you sell or use — for example, "110 ATC" (equipment), "Local 302 Operators" (crew), or "Lift Plan" (misc). Each resource group belongs to one of three types: Equipment, Crew, or Misc.
- Rate Group: A label that groups related rate and cost rows for a resource group. For example, "Base Contract", "Internal", or "Local 12". Equipment and Misc resource groups can have multiple rate groups.
- Rate: The dollar amount you charge your customer (the green number).
- Cost: The dollar amount it costs your company (the red number).
- Unit of Measure: The billing unit for equipment and misc items — Daily, Monthly, Each, etc. Crew rates are defined per occupation instead.
- Standard Cost: Equipment only. The base hourly or daily cost for a piece of equipment. All other time-based costs (weekly, monthly, quarterly, yearly) are auto-calculated from this value using your account's conversion settings.
How It Works
Open Settings → Rates & Resource Management from the sidebar. The page is organized into three tabs: Equipment, Crew, and Misc. Each tab shows your resource groups as expandable cards. Use the toolbar at the top to filter by division, search by name, or import/export via CSV.
Equipment
Equipment resource groups track your fleet — cranes, trucks, excavators — along with their rates, costs, and assigned assets.
[Screenshot: Equipment tab showing resource groups list with an expanded group displaying rate groups and rates]
- Create a resource group — Click + New Resource Group. Enter a name (e.g., "60T Crane") and select the divisions this group applies to. Save to add it to the list.
- Set the standard cost — Each equipment resource group has a standard cost displayed in the header. Enter a cost per hour or per day. The system auto-derives weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly costs using your conversion settings (see below).
- Add a rate group — Click the overflow menu (three dots) on a resource group and select Add Rate Group. Name it (e.g., "Base Contract") and save.
- Define rates and costs — Expand a rate group to see its rate rows. Each row has a unit of measure, a rate (what you charge), a cost (what it costs you), and an optional description. Edit values directly in the row — changes save automatically.
- Assign assets — Click the Total Assets count on a resource group to open the asset assignment panel. Add or remove individual assets from the group.
- Delete a resource group — Click the overflow menu and select Delete Resource Group. Confirm in the dialog. Deletion is blocked if the group has downstream associations.
Conversion Settings
At the top of the Equipment tab, you'll see your account's conversion settings — hours per day, days per week, and days per month. These values control how standard costs are calculated across time periods.
[Screenshot: Equipment tab header showing conversion settings (hours/day, days/week, days/month) with Edit button]
To change them, click Edit next to the conversion values. Update the numbers and save. All equipment standard costs will recalculate based on the new settings.
Example: If your standard cost is $100/hour and your conversion is set to 8 hours/day:
- Per day: $100 × 8 = $800
- Per week: $800 × 7 = $5,600
- Per month: $800 × 30 = $24,000
Crew
Crew resource groups organize your labor by role — "Local 302 Operators", "Foremen", etc. Instead of rate groups, crew groups use occupations to define rate and cost rows.
[Screenshot: Crew tab showing an expanded crew resource group with occupations and rate/cost columns]
- Create a resource group — Click + New Rate Group. Enter a name and select divisions. Save.
- Add an occupation — Click the overflow menu on a resource group and select Add Occupation. Choose from existing occupations (managed in [Occupation Management — article pending]). You can also create a new occupation directly from this dropdown.
- Set rates and costs — Expand the resource group to see occupation rows. Each occupation has rate and cost values. Edit them directly — changes save automatically.
- Assign crew members — Click the crew count on an occupation row to open the crew assignment panel. Add or remove crew members.
- Remove an occupation — Click the overflow menu on an occupation row and select delete. This removes the occupation from the resource group (it doesn't delete the occupation itself).
- Delete a resource group — Same as equipment: overflow menu → Delete Resource Group → confirm.
Misc
Misc resource groups cover everything that isn't equipment or crew — lift plans, permits, fuel surcharges, etc. They work the same as equipment resource groups, but without standard cost or asset assignment.
- Create a resource group — Click + New Resource Group. Enter a name and divisions.
- Add rate groups and rates — Same workflow as equipment: add a rate group from the overflow menu, then define rate/cost rows per unit of measure.
- Delete a resource group — Overflow menu → Delete Resource Group → confirm.
Permissions & Access
Rates & Resource Management requires the Account Settings permission, which gives users access to settings and tools for your Ribbiot account. If you don't see it in the sidebar under Settings, ask your account administrator to enable Account Settings on your profile.
Tips & Best Practices
- Set up conversion settings before adding equipment: Your hours-per-day and days-per-week values affect every equipment cost calculation. Get these right first so all derived costs are accurate from the start.
- Use rate groups to handle different pricing tiers: If you charge different rates for the same equipment depending on the contract type (e.g., "Base Contract" vs. "Internal"), create separate rate groups rather than separate resource groups.
- Use CSV import for bulk setup: If you're migrating from spreadsheets, export a CSV first to see the expected format, then fill it in with your data and import. This avoids formatting issues.
- Name resource groups descriptively: "110 ATC" is more useful than "Crane 1" when dispatchers and billing teams are scanning the list.
Troubleshooting & FAQs
Q: I can't find Rates & Resource Management in the sidebar — where is it? A: It's under Settings and requires the Account Settings permission. If you don't see it, ask your account administrator to enable Account Settings on your profile.
Q: Why can't I delete a resource group? A: Resource groups with downstream associations (linked to quotes, jobs, or other records) are protected from deletion. The confirmation dialog will show an error if associations exist.
Q: I changed the conversion settings but my costs didn't update — what happened? A: Conversion setting changes apply to cost derivations going forward. If existing resource groups aren't reflecting the new values, try editing and re-saving the standard cost on those groups to trigger a recalculation.
Q: What's the difference between a resource group and a rate group? A: A resource group is the item itself (e.g., "60T Crane"). A rate group is a pricing tier within that item (e.g., "Base Contract", "Internal"). One resource group can have multiple rate groups, each with its own set of rates and costs.
Q: Can I use the same rate group across Equipment and Misc? A: Rate groups are shared between Equipment and Misc resource types. When you create a rate group, it's available for both.
Related Articles
- Divisions, Occupations, and Branches — How divisions and occupations are structured in your account
- [Occupation Management — article pending] — Create and manage the occupation list used by crew resource groups
- Asset Admin Page — Create and manage the assets assigned to equipment resource groups
- Managing Users — Manage crew members, including their occupation and division assignments
Visit our Help Center for more guides and tutorials.
Need help? Contact our support team.