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Rate Cards and Capacity

Rate cards answer one question for every hour booked: for this person, doing this kind of work, on this project, on this date, what do we charge and what does it cost us? The answer is stored on the time entry when it is booked, so a later rate change never restates the margin on work already done.

Where to find it

Architect Panel → ERP - Projects & Time:

  • Projects & Time — the console: Rate cards on the Rates & settings tab, and Rates on this project on each project's Billing section
  • Rate Cards — the cards themselves
  • Resource Capacity — optional capacity rows per period

Admin Panel → Projects & Time:

  • Projects & Time — the same console for project managers

How a rate is chosen

The most specific card that is valid on the date wins. Specificity is scored, so you never have to order the cards by hand:

  • Person named on the card counts most.
  • Project named on the card counts next.
  • Activity counts next.
  • Grade counts least.

A card naming this person on this project beats a card for their grade, which beats a house card with nothing named. Priority only breaks a tie between equally specific cards, and after that the newest Valid from wins.

The bill rate and the cost rate are resolved separately. A card that leaves one of them at zero has no opinion on it, and the next most specific card that has one decides. So a client's agreed price on a project can be a card with a bill rate only: the hour is priced at the client's rate and still costed at the person's own or grade cost rate.

Setting up rate cards

  1. Open Projects & Time, choose the company and go to Rates & settings.
  2. Click Add a rate card.
  3. Give it a Name. Leave Person as Anyone and Project as Any project for a general card; set a Grade for a grade card, or an Activity for a kind of work.
  4. Enter Bill rate / hour, Cost rate / hour or both, and the Currency (blank uses the company's).
  5. Set Valid from and, if the rate ends, Valid to.
  6. Click Add rate card.

Start with a house card (nothing named) and one card per grade. The list shows each card's Applies to, bill and cost per hour, Margin, Valid dates and Priority, with Current rate cards, Average bill rate and People without a rate above it. Tick Include expired and future cards to see the full history.

For a rate agreed with one client, open the project, go to Billing and use Add a rate for this project in Rates on this project. On an internal project the same card sets the cost rates its budget is measured with.

Changing a rate

Add a new card valid from the change date and give the old one a Valid to of the day before. Entries already booked keep the rate they captured, so editing a card in place leaves you with a card that no longer explains the entries. Dated cards also let you enter a rate rise in advance.

Capacity and targets

Capacity is what utilisation divides by. It comes from rows on the Resource Capacity datastore where you have them (a row either gives the minutes or names a business-hours calendar), otherwise the Hours per week in the resource register, and failing all of those an assumed 7.5 hours a day, which the Resourcing tab labels as assumed. Each person's Target utilisation % is set in the register. Both are covered in Resource Planning.

What goes wrong

  • "Give the card a bill rate, a cost rate or both.": a card with neither does nothing.
  • "The card ends before it starts.": check Valid from and Valid to.
  • People without a rate is above zero: those people's hours are booked at zero. Without any card, every hour is.
  • A margin of 100% on a project: no card supplies a cost rate for those people. Add cost rates to the grade or house cards.

Worked example

An agency has a house card at 95 bill and 40 cost, a Senior grade card at 120 bill and 55 cost, and for its largest client a project card with a bill rate of 110 and no cost rate. A senior consultant's hour on that client's project resolves its bill rate from the project card (110) and its cost rate from the Senior grade card (55), so the margin is real. When the grade rates rise on 1 April, the old Senior card is given Valid to 31 March and a new one starts on 1 April; March's entries still read 120.

Recommendations

  • Always fill in cost rates on grade or house cards, using real employment cost.
  • End and replace cards; never edit a rate that has been used.
  • Use project cards for client prices with a bill rate only.
  • Check People without a rate whenever someone joins.