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Do any of your institutions have rules or guidelines about setting external for-profit rates? Our institution allows the cores to create a percentage mark-up for these rates (ie, beyond break-even), but we are required to take into account businesses in the state who are offering the same type of service, so that we do not undercut them. What do other institutions do in these cases?

Hi Natasha,

I work at Florida State University which is part of the 12 state university system of FL. We have an auxiliary account that has both internal and external rates. Since all of our core facility personnel are salaried employees of the state, our internal rate is set to cover only consumables, repair and service cost of the equipment. Our  internal rates are set to break even (no more than 5% + or - year over year).

However, for external rates we can charge as much as market will bear (typically 3-4 times the internal rate). I checked with our budget staff and they inform me that there is no specific policy against you offering a price that is lower than another private entity in the state (you can always set a higher rate since your services are excellent!). The reasoning behind it is that you are making a good faith effort in setting a rate while operating efficiently and can't be aware of all entities that might offer the same service and may not be aware of the regular and discounted rates of those entities.

As far as the budget person was aware there were no instances where a private entity complained about our rates.

Hope this is helpful. Thanks.

Do any of your institutions have rules or guidelines about setting external for-profit rates? Our institution allows the cores to create a percentage mark-up for these rates (ie, beyond break-even), but we are required to take into account businesses in the state who are offering the same type of service, so that we do not undercut them. What do other institutions do in these cases?

Hi Natasha,

I work at Florida State University which is part of the 12 state university system of FL. We have an auxiliary account that has both internal and external rates. Since all of our core facility personnel are salaried employees of the state, our internal rate is set to cover only consumables, repair and service cost of the equipment. Our  internal rates are set to break even (no more than 5% + or - year over year).

However, for external rates we can charge as much as market will bear (typically 3-4 times the internal rate). I checked with our budget staff and they inform me that there is no specific policy against you offering a price that is lower than another private entity in the state (you can always set a higher rate since your services are excellent!). The reasoning behind it is that you are making a good faith effort in setting a rate while operating efficiently and can't be aware of all entities that might offer the same service and may not be aware of the regular and discounted rates of those entities.

As far as the budget person was aware there were no instances where a private entity complained about our rates.

Hope this is helpful. Thanks.

Do any of your institutions have rules or guidelines about setting external for-profit rates? Our institution allows the cores to create a percentage mark-up for these rates (ie, beyond break-even), but we are required to take into account businesses in the state who are offering the same type of service, so that we do not undercut them. What do other institutions do in these cases?

Do any of your institutions have rules or guidelines about setting external for-profit rates? Our institution allows the cores to create a percentage mark-up for these rates (ie, beyond break-even), but we are required to take into account businesses in the state who are offering the same type of service, so that we do not undercut them. What do other institutions do in these cases?

Do any of your institutions have rules or guidelines about setting external for-profit rates? Our institution allows the cores to create a percentage mark-up for these rates (ie, beyond break-even), but we are required to take into account businesses in the state who are offering the same type of service, so that we do not undercut them. What do other institutions do in these cases?

Do any of your institutions have rules or guidelines about setting external for-profit rates? Our institution allows the cores to create a percentage mark-up for these rates (ie, beyond break-even), but we are required to take into account businesses in the state who are offering the same type of service, so that we do not undercut them. What do other institutions do in these cases?