This report is only available to users on the Enterprise billing plan for Solicitors.
The Staff Costing feature in SILQ allows you to calculate an accurate internal hourly cost per staff member by factoring in not just salary, but also overheads and other employment-related expenses. This information helps you better understand profitability, set billing targets, and generate more accurate margin reports.
The hourly rate is used in the Partner Distribution report.
Why use staff costings?
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To calculate profit margins by comparing staff cost/hour vs fees billed/hour.
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To inform pricing and fee structuring decisions.
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To set billable rates for fee earners.
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To generate accurate partner distribution and profitability reports.
To fill in the information:
- In the top right hand corner, click on the settings cog.
- Navigate down to the users section from the menu on the left.
- Find the user you would like to calculate the staff cost for.
- Click on edit.
- Scroll to the Staff Costings tab and expand it.
- Click Add.
- Fill in the following fields:
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Effective Date - The date from which the cost details will apply. Useful for tracking cost changes over time, the most common of which being a salary increase. Please note, you will need to add a new staff costing each time any one of the amounts change. SILQ will use the effective date to know which hourly rate to apply based on the time period requested in a report.
For example, let's say you are running the Partner Distribution report for Employee A. They had their first staff costing recorded effective the 1st of January, but then had a second costing recorded on the 1st of March due to an increase in their salary. The period you have run the report for is 1 January to 31 March.
The report (assuming you click on show details) will give you a list of all time entries for particular matters. Where Employee A is either the Matter Owner or Fee Earner on that matter, you will notice that the entries from 1 March to 31 March for the Employee Cost will be higher than the entries recorded between 1 January to end of Feb. -
Annual Salary - The employee's base salary for the year (excluding superannuation).
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Superannuation - Enter the total annual superannuation contribution (entered as a number, not a percentage).
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Rent - The employee’s proportional share of office rent or premises cost.
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Computer - The annual cost of the employee’s computer or hardware usage. Be sure to factor in how many years they get out of a laptop/computer and divide it by the relevant number to get to an annual cost.
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Software - Annual cost of software licenses allocated to the employee (e.g. Microsoft 365, SILQ, legal practice tools etc).
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Internet - Pro-rated cost of internet services attributed to the employee.
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Insurance - Any relevant insurance costs (e.g. professional indemnity, workers comp) allocated per person.
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Training & Development - Annual budget or average spend on professional development per employee.
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Other - Use this for any other indirect costs not listed above (e.g. admin overhead, team events, parking, catering etc).
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Total Annual Cost - This is the sum of all the fields above — representing the total cost of employing that individual for one year. SILQ will calculate this for you and the field is not editable.
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Annual Billing Hours - Enter the total number of hours the employee is paid to work per year. While each firm may calculate this differently, we recommend using the total contracted hours (not just billable hours) to ensure the hourly cost accurately reflects the true cost of employment. This figure is then used to calculate the employee’s hourly cost rate.
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Cost Per Billing Hour - Automatically calculated as: Total Annual Cost ÷ Annual Billing Hours. SILQ will calculate this for you and the field is not editable.
You now have an internal hourly employee cost you can use for margin tracking and KPI reporting.