If you've never created an invoice for a particular project/client before, you will need to set up that project's billing rates before you invoice. To do so, you must open up the project's dashboard from the MY COMPANY...PROJECT LIST page. Once you open up the BILLING RATES tab from your project's dashboard, you will see a screen that looks similar to the one shown here:
To customize the name of your billing rates (IE: “Standard”), adjust your company's lexicon.
Base Rates
Think of a base rate as the "standard" (firm-wide) rate-card that you are using for a project. Custom rates then are exceptions to the rate-card. In the example above, we are using the "standard" staff rate on this project, but we have created two exceptions to that rule.
Using Staff Base Rates
When your billing rate is based on the person doing the work, you are using a "staff rate". Every staff member in your system can have up to five base rates defined for them. On the page show above, you can then choose one of those five rates as your "base" rate for this project.
To learn about how staff billing rates work, check out this video.
Using Activity Base Rates
If the rate you bill at is based on the labor code you select when you log the work (no matter who is actually doing the work), then your base rate would be one of the activity rates. Just like staff members, each labor code in your system can have up to five billing rates attached to it. Then, on the page featured above, you can choose one of those five rates for this project's base rate.
To learn more about billing rates at an activity level, check out this video.
Using a Flat Base Rate
If you charge a flat rate per hour, you can also select that option from the base rate picklist. If you select this option, you will be asked to specify which flat rate you would like to use. In the example below, a flat-rate of $225/hour has been selected for this project.
Note: Learn how to update a bill rate, without affecting all of your prior rates.
Custom Rates
In addition to the base rate, you can also set up an unlimited set of custom rates for each project in the system. Think of custom rates as over-ride rates that can be set up by labor code, staffer, task, etc.
In this example, we've set up exception rates for two circumstances:
- We created a custom staff rate. Any time that Johnny Appleseed bills us, we will be billed at $325/hour.
- We created a custom staff/labor-code rate. Any time that Charlie Brown bills to "architectural design", we will be billed at $75/hour. Note that whenever Charlie bills to ANY other labor code, we will be billed at his "normal" rate.
Using Custom Rates As Your Default Rate
Some firms prefer to set up all of their rates as custom rates, since it's easy to copy those custom rates from project to project. In the example shown here, we've set up a custom rate for each of the five staff members on our project team.
Then, if you would like to copy these custom rates from one project to another, you can do so using "copy rates from another project" link (above the custom rates table on this page).
Keep in mind that you will need to adjust that custom rate if your "base" rate for any of these employees changes. You'll also have to update the custom rate table if you add a new staff member to the project.
If you want to learn how to apply flat or custom rates to staffers, jobs, or tasks, check out this video.
Using a Base Rate Instead
Using a base rate is much easier. Instead of creating custom rates for a project, you can create base rates in the staff area, thereby accomplishing the same goal and maintaining these rates in one location. Imagine a scenario where the following five staff members have their rates set up as follows:
| Staff Member | Standard | Current | 2015 |
|---|---|---|---|
| James Bond | $395.00 | $300.00 | $275.00 |
| George Lopez | $195.00 | $150.00 | $150.00 |
| Megan Bernard | $125.00 | $125.00 | $100.00 |
| Thomas Edison | $175.00 | $125.00 | $95.00 |
| Roger Rodriguez | $195.00 | $175.00 |
$165.00 |
In this scenario, since we've listed each of our staff members and given them a rate, we can set our "base rate" on the project to the "standard" rate.
Note that you can still set up custom "over-ride" rates, but those custom rates would be exceptions; everyone else would simply bill at their "current" rate.
By setting up rates in this way, you can manage rates in the staff list, and you don't have to edit/maintain them in every project unless you create exceptions in a project.
Billing Rates: Basic FAQs
- Can I set up all of my projects to use the same base rate? There isn't a "default" base rate in BigTime, but the system is smart about selecting a base rate when you create a new project. It will use the base rate from other projects for the same client (or from the last project you entered) to set the base rate when a new project is created.
- When are billing rates applied to time? Typically, a billing rate is applied to each entry as it's entered, then that rate is updated when you submit your timesheet. BigTime ensures that billing rates are updated to the current rate before each invoice is created.
- If I adjust a project's rates, will invoiced time be adjusted? No, once time is linked to an invoice, the billing rate is frozen. You would need to click the "update rates" link on a specific invoice in order to update the billing rates on time attached to that invoice.
- Can I update rates manually? Yes. There is an update rates button on theINVOICING...OVERVIEW page which will update the billing rate on ALL unbilled time in the system.
- Are billing rates required if we don't bill in BigTime? No, billing rates aren't required, but they are extremely useful for reporting- even if all of your projects are fixed-fee or if you create invoices in your accounting system.
