This article explains how to set up and use the Labor Cost Dashboard, including how dashboard calculations work.
Feature Video Walk-Through
Preview Mode
How to Get Started
Cost Dashboard Calculations
Settings Page
Feature Video Walk-Through
Preview Mode
When you first navigate to the Labor Cost Dashboard, you'll be in preview mode. A flag at the top of the screen will alert you to this.
In the Overview widget, a warning symbol indicates that the data is not fully accurate.
Data is approximate in preview mode because you haven't entered your actual labor costs yet. However, you can still see which clients are more expensive relative to others.
How to Get Started
The first time you access the dashboard, you'll be guided through an onboarding process to enter your labor information.
Why is this required? ShipHero automatically tracks certain jobs (such as picking and packing), but not all warehouse processes. Entering your labor information ensures accurate cost calculations.
The onboarding process can only be completed by users with admin permissions.
The onboarding process varies slightly depending on whether your account has more than one warehouse. The example below is for a multi-warehouse account.
Navigating to the Labor Cost Dashboard
- Log into your ShipHero account.
- At the top of the screen, click New & Updated Features.
- This will redirect you to the Shipping.ShipHero.com interface.
- On the left side of the screen, click Cost Dashboard.
Onboarding Steps
Entering Onboarding Information
In the flag at the top of the screen, click the highlighted Update Labor Information link to begin setting up the Labor Cost Dashboard.
If this is your first time clicking Update Labor Information, you'll be walked through the onboarding screens to ensure all necessary data is entered.
Set Pay Period
Select the pay period you want to analyze and the warehouse(s) to include in calculations.
Set Labor Cost by Warehouse
For each selected warehouse, complete the following labor cost fields:
- Full-Time Payroll: Total actual payroll for full-time employees.
- Temp Payroll for that Specific Week: Total actual payroll for temp employees.
- Billed Labor to be Deducted from the Total Labor Cost: Labor related to special projects that is tracked and billed separately. Deducting this from your total labor cost improves the accuracy of your dashboard calculations.
- Average Hourly Wage: The average cost for all warehouse employees who work shipping or inventory-related jobs.
All costs and rates must be in the same currency.
ShipHero uses this information to calculate your actual costs for specific weekly periods and compare them to jobs tracked in the platform. If no information exists for a given week, ShipHero will use the most recently configured labor cost.
ShipHero will notify you if it detects that your labor cost information hasn't been updated recently and prompt you to update it:
If a warehouse is new or has no labor information entered, its data will not appear on the dashboard until the labor cost information is completed.
Set Bulk Ship Time
Enter how long your team takes to ship a bulk order. You can also set different times per client if you prefer not to use the average.
After setting your labor information, allow up to 15 minutes for costs to update.
The system will display a validation error if the numbers don't match. This step ensures you receive the most accurate data.
Once complete, onboarding is finished and you'll be automatically redirected to the Cost Dashboard.
Cost Dashboard Calculations
The dashboard is made up of several widgets displaying warehouse-specific cost information. By default, data covers the last 7 days across all warehouses. Use the filters to adjust the view.
Filters are saved in the URL, so you can bookmark specific views and share them with others.
Cost Views
You can review costs in three views:
- Shipments
- Line Items
- Units
Switch between views using the selector in the header.
Text throughout the dashboard updates to reflect the selected view (e.g., "per shipment", "per line item", or "per unit").
The Warehouse Performance (Orders Only) and Insights from yesterday widgets are not affected by the Cost View selection.
Overview Widget
- Average Cost per Shipment = Picking Cost + Packing Cost + Inventory Cost + Other Cost (all per shipment)
- Average Time per Shipment = Total tracked job time ÷ total number of regular shipments
- Picking Cost per Shipment = Tracked picking time per shipment × labor costs
- Packing Cost per Shipment = Tracked packing time per shipment × labor costs
- Inventory Cost per Shipment* = Tracked inventory movement time per shipment × labor costs
*Inventory movements include tasks like Replenishment, Putaway, and other inventory movements.
- Other Costs per Shipment: Warehouse activity costs not tracked by ShipHero, grouped into a single value.
For detailed breakdowns of any of these costs, see the tables further down the page: Cost and Time per Job, Cost and Time per Shipment, and Cost and Time per Warehouse.
You can filter this information by warehouse, client, and time using the dashboard filters at the top:
- For all labor cost calculations, ShipHero applies an adjustment to account for breaks, management costs, etc.
- Additional details are shown in the detailed tables by client and warehouse.
Bulk Tab
This tab displays all costs and information related to bulk shipments.
- Bulk Ship Cost per Shipment = Picking/Packing Cost per shipment* + Other Costs per shipment
- Average Time per Shipment = Bulk time per shipment (including picking/packing and inventory movements)
- Picking/Packing Cost per Shipment = Bulk time per shipment × labor costs
-
Inventory Cost per Shipment = (Inventory movement time per shipment* × average hourly labor cost) ÷ proportional to the number of bulk shipments
*Inventory movements include tasks like Putaway, etc.
- Other Costs per Shipment: Warehouse activity costs not tracked by ShipHero, grouped into a single value.
For detailed breakdowns, see: Cost and Time per Job, Cost and Time per Shipment, and Cost and Time per Warehouse.
- For all labor cost calculations, ShipHero applies an adjustment to account for breaks, management costs, etc.
- Additional details are shown in the detailed tables.
Calculating Orders & Cost Per Client
This graph compares total shipments and cost per shipment across clients.
By default, the graph shows the top 30 clients by highest total shipments. You can also sort by: Lowest Total Shipments, Highest Total Cost, Lowest Total Cost, Highest Cost per Shipment, and Lowest Cost per Shipment.
Warehouse Performance
This graph displays Total Orders, Average Cost per Order, and Average Time per Order across all warehouses.
- Total Orders: The number of unique orders picked and/or packed within the selected time interval. If the same order has events in two different intervals (e.g., picking in one hour, packing in another), it is counted twice.
- Average Time Per Order: The sum of all event durations (picking, packing, replenishment, and other activities) within the time interval, divided by total orders. Events are grouped by hour (for intervals under a week) or by day (for intervals over a week).
- Average Cost Per Order: Average time per order × worker rate. Includes other activity costs in the calculation.
- The X-axis shows time intervals: hourly for data spanning less than a week, daily for data spanning more than a week. The Y-axis unit can be changed using the dropdown at the top right of the widget.
Insights
This widget displays insights from the previous day across all warehouses. Navigate between pages using the arrows at the bottom of the widget. Insights include:
- Top Shipping Client
- Highest Cost per Shipment
- Lowest Cost per Shipment
- Highest Picking Cost
- Lowest Picking Cost
- Highest Packing Cost
- Lowest Packing Cost
- Most Productive Time
- Least Productive Time
- Total Shipments
Arrows indicate whether a value is higher (up arrow) or lower (down arrow) than average. Green arrows indicate a positive trend; red arrows indicate a negative trend. Clients with no shipments are excluded from Insights.
While other widgets respect your filter selection, the Insights widget always shows data from yesterday across all warehouses.
Cost & Time per Job
This table shows costs and times per job or event.
- Total Cost & Time: Sum of all costs and recorded times for all clients.
- Picking & Packing: Costs and times tracked by ShipHero for picking and packing jobs. Columns are listed by SIB, MIB, and total picking and packing costs.
- Inventory: Costs and times tracked by ShipHero for inventory movements.
- Other Costs: Other warehouse-related costs.
- Bulk Ship: Costs and times for bulk ship jobs, calculated using the manual Bulk Ship Time per Order and Average Hourly Labor Cost entries.
Each row displays client information. By default, all clients are shown, but you can filter by client. Click the arrow next to a client name to expand the row and view data broken down by warehouse.
Cost & Time per Shipment
This table shows costs and times per shipment.
- Total Cost & Time: Sum of all costs and tracked times for a specific client.
- Shipment Average: Average cost across all shipments (regular and bulk).
- Packing Average: Average packing cost per shipment.
- Picking Average: Average picking cost per shipment.
- Bulk Ship Average: Average cost for picking/packing a bulk shipment.
- Inventory Average: Average cost of inventory movements per shipment.
- Other Costs Average: Average cost of other warehouse costs per shipment.
- Regular Shipments: Total number of regular shipments.
- Bulk Shipments: Total number of bulk shipments.
- Total Shipments: Total number of shipments.
Each row displays client information. By default, all clients are shown, but you can filter by client. Click the arrow next to a client name to expand the row and view data broken down by warehouse.
Cost & Time per Warehouse
This table shows costs and times per warehouse. All columns are the same as Cost and Time per Shipment, but organized by warehouse.
Exporting Table Data
You can export any table as a .CSV file. Use the Columns button to select which columns to include before exporting.
- On the right side of the table, locate the Columns and Export dropdown menus.
- Click Columns and select the columns you want to view or export.
- Click the Export dropdown and select Export CSV.
The Settings Page
From the Settings page, admin users can update bulk ship time per order, hourly wage, and labor costs — the same fields covered during onboarding.
Updating the bulk ship cost per order or hourly labor cost will affect all historical data calculations. Updating only the labor costs applies only to the selected time period (start to end date) and does not affect past data.
Updates can take up to 15 minutes to be reflected in calculations.
How to Delete Labor Costs
- Navigate to the Settings screen.
- Scroll down to the labor costs table and highlight the entry you want to delete.
- Click the trash can icon that appears, then click Delete to confirm. Note that this action cannot be undone.
To edit a labor cost entry, you must delete it and re-enter the correct information.