Costings
We have different rates for each service. To start of a comparing exercise, have a look at your last balance sheet and see how much profit you made out of every R100.00 you earned and express that as a percent. So if you turned over R100 000.00 and you made a profit of R40 000.00 then the profit percentage is 40%. The higher the profit percent, the more efficient you are.
We charge 3 cents per word for purely secretarial work. You send us your dictation or other instructions, we type it out and send it back to you. A page typed with double spacing has about 250 words so a page will cost about R5.00. The Magistrate's Court allows 11 cents per word, so that is about R27.50 per page. You will make R22.50 per page. The High Court Tariff allows R50.00 per page so you will make R45.00 per page
So to type the documents the table looks like this:
| Tariff | Income Per page | Cost per page | Profit per page | Your Profit percent |
| Mag Court | R27.50 | R5.00 | R22.50 | 81% |
| High Court | R50.00 | R5.00 | R45.00 | 90% |
To actually draft and draw the document, we charge 7.5 cents per word. You send us your notes about a lease agreement. We draft the agreement, type it out and send it to you. You are not bound by any prescribed tariff and so can charge a fair and reasonable fee. The High Court regards R50 00 per page as fair and reasonable and so that can be used as a yardstick for you to increase or decrease depending on various factors.
| Tariff per page | Income Per page | Cost per page | Profit per page | Your Profit percent |
| R30.00 | R30.00 | R18.75 | R8.75 | 31% |
| R40.00 | R40.00 | R18.75 | R21.25 | 53% |
| R50.00 | R50.00 | R18.75 | R31.25 | 62.5% |
| R60.00 | R60.00 | R18.75 | R41.25 | 69% |
What does a person just to type really cost you?
It's not just her salary plus a bit! A creative enquiry can come up with many hidden costs that you might never have dreamed of. When your staff member is nattering away, she is also keeping the two natterees out of their work as well and so a ten minute natter can be said to be a thirty minute natter. If she starts work 5 minutes after the scheduled start and shuts down 5 minutes early every time, that is 20 minutes per day with the lunch break. That is 100 minutes a 5 day week and 7.3 hours a 22 day month - nearly a day a month! And nobody can work at 100% work rate. There are idle times when staff doesn't have work and are caught up elsewhere.
Here are some headings and figures as a guideline.
| Days per annum | 365 | ||
| Less | |||
| Weekends (52 x 2) | 104 | ||
| Annual leave | 15 | ||
| Sick leave (say) | 4 | ||
| Family responsibility leave (say) | 2 | ||
| Public holidays | 13 | ||
| Total working days per annum | 227 | ||
| Total working hours per annum @ 7.5 hours per day | 1702.50 | ||
| Time not typing but copying, faxing, filing, on phone, consulting, preparing (227 days x 1 hr per day) | 227 | ||
| Time late, tea time, chatting, powder room (227 days x 45 min per day) | 170.25 | ||
| Hours typing at 100% work rate | 1305.25 | ||
| Hours worked at 90% work rate | 1174.72 | ||
| Hours worked at 80% work rate | 1044.2 | ||
| Hours worked at 70% work rate | 913.67 | ||
| Salary per month | R2500.00 | R3000.00 | R4000.00 |
| Per annum | R30 000.00 | R36 000.00 | R48 000.00 |
| Bonus | R2 500.00 | R3 000.00 | R4 000.00 |
| Lease on computer (R200.00 per month) | R2400.00 | R2400.00 | R2400.00 |
| Lease on printer (R50.00 per month) | R600.00 | R600.00 | R600.00 |
| Office rental (2.5mx2.5mxR25.00 per sq m x 12) | R1875.00 | R1875.00 | R1875.00 |
| Office furniture | R600.00 | R600.00 | R600.00 |
| Teas, private calls and misc (R50.00) | R600.00 | R600.00 | R600.00 |
| Annual | R37575.00 | R45075.00 | R58075.00 |
| Cost per hour at 100% work rate | R28.80 | R34.50 | R44.50 |
| Cost per hour at 90% work rate | R32.00 | R38.40 | R49.40 |
| Cost per hour at 80% work rate | R36.00 | R43.00 | R55.60 |
| Cost per hour at 70% work rate | R41.10 | R49.30 | R63.55 |
Here is a table giving you cents per word at various typing speeds and hourly rates
| Typing speed in words per minute | ||||
| 40 w/m | 50 w/m | 60 w/m | 70 w/m | |
| R25.00/hr | 1.04 cents/word | 0.8 | 0.69 | 0.59 |
| R30.00/hr | 1.25 cents | 1.00 cents | .83 | 0.714 |
| R35.00/hr | 1.458 cents | 1.167 cents | .97 | 0.833 |
| R40.00/hr | 1.667 cents | 1.33 cents | 1.1 cents | 0.952 |
| R45.00/hr | 1.875 cents | 1.5 cents | 1.25 cents | 1.071 cents |
| R50.00/hr | 2.083 | 1.667 cents | 1.388 cents | 1.19 cents |
| R55.00/hr | 2.229 | 1.833 cents | 1.527 cents | 1.309 cents |
So if you are paying someone R4000.00 per month and she works at 80% capacity she is costing you R55.60 per hour. If she types 60 words per minute, your cost is 1.527 cents per word. That is before you consider the hassles and demands on management. And there are so many variables.
Outsourcing at 2 cents per word has got to be a wise decision.