System Administrator Guide: The Automated Pricing & Costing Engine
System Overview: This module is a comprehensive, enterprise-grade pricing engine designed to completely automate your billing and profit tracking. Its primary function is to strictly separate your Internal True Cost (what you pay your engineers, subcontractors, and suppliers) from your Customer Sale Price (what you bill the client). By reading engineer time entries, accepted quotes, live purchase orders, and global company matrices, the system instantly calculates accurate invoices. It handles everything from standard Time & Materials (T&M) to complex hybrid Callouts, Subcontractor routing, and Quote overrides, ensuring you never leak revenue while perfectly preserving your internal profit margin reports.
1. The Core Philosophy: Two Separate Pipelines
To understand how the system makes decisions, you must understand that it calculates every single job twice, simultaneously:
- Pipeline A (Internal Cost): This is strict and pure. It looks only at what things cost the business: the specific engineer assigned, their exact hourly wage, supplier purchase orders, and exact minutes on site. This ensures your Profit & Loss reporting is 100% accurate.
- Pipeline B (Customer Sale): This is dynamic. It looks at the commercial rules applied to the job (Markups, Accepted Quotes, Fixed Callout Fees, Minimum Charges) to figure out what the customer should actually pay.
2. Settings & Rules Glossary
Here is exactly what every pricing setting in the system does:
| Setting |
Location |
What it does |
| Standard / Premium Rates |
User Profile |
The individual cost to the business for employing this specific engineer per hour. |
| Global Hourly Rate |
Company Rules |
A flat company-wide billing rate (e.g., £85/hr). If set, the system ignores the individual engineer's wage/markup and bills the customer this flat rate. |
| PO Markup vs. Standard Markup |
Company Rules |
Allows granular profit control. Standard van stock can carry a high markup, while bespoke Purchase Orders (e.g., expensive boilers) can carry a separate, lower percentage markup. |
| Dual Rate Lock |
Company & Rep Profiles |
Locks the hourly rate to the "Standard Rate" if the job started during normal working hours, preventing overtime bleed if a job runs late. This applies independently to both Cost (Rep Profile) and Sale (Global Profile). |
| Minimum Charge & Rounding |
Global Settings |
Sets the lowest billable time (e.g., 60 mins) and rounds billable time up to the nearest block (e.g., 15 mins). |
| Default to Quote |
Global & Ticket Level |
If an accepted quote exists, this overrides all dynamic time and material math, billing the customer the exact quoted value while preserving true internal costs. |
| Fixed Price Job vs. Base Callout |
Job/Client Rules |
A Base Callout charges a flat fee but still charges for extra parts. Ticking Fixed Price Job means the fee is all-inclusive, automatically wiping part sales to £0.00. |
3. Billing Scenarios (The Override Hierarchy)
The system automatically places every job into one of five distinct calculation "Tiers". It processes them in a strict hierarchy, where higher tiers override lower ones.
Tier 1: Standard Time & Materials (Cost-Plus)
When it applies: No fixed prices, quotes, or global rates are set.
How it works: The system looks at what the specific engineer and parts cost, adds your percentage markups, and applies minimum/rounding rules.
Tier 2: Global Flat-Rate T&M
When it applies: A Global Hourly Rate is defined for the company.
How it works: The system calculates internal cost based on the engineer, but bills the customer based on your published company price list, automatically handling standard vs. premium hours.
Tier 3: Hybrid / Callout Billing (Fixed Price + Overage)
When it applies: A Base Callout Fee is set, AND a "Max Minutes" allowance is provided.
How it works: The customer pays the Callout Fee. If the engineer goes over the allowed time, the engine calculates only the overage minutes. Note: Parts are still billed normally here.
Tier 4: The Accepted Quote Override
When it applies: A formal Quote has been accepted, and the "Default to Quote" setting is enabled.
How it works: A massive safety net. The system completely ignores the dynamic math. It sets the final Job Sale to the exact Quote Value, and instantly forces all Parts, Travel, and Labour sales to £0.00 so the customer is never double-billed. Internal Cost pipeline is preserved.
Tier 5: Strict Fixed Price Override
When it applies: The "Fixed Price Job" checkbox is explicitly ticked on the ticket.
How it works: The ultimate all-inclusive override. Regardless of how long the engineer is on site, what parts they used, or what POs were raised, the system forces all extra Labour, Travel, and Part sales to £0.00.
4. Purchase Orders, Parts & Subcontractors
Managing physical van stock alongside office-raised Purchase Orders is complex. This engine automates the entire reconciliation process.
- Opt-Out Consumables: By default, all parts used from Van Stock are billed to the customer. To make an item free (like screws or silicone), check the "IsConsumable" flag in your Parts List. The system logs the internal cost, but bills the client £0.00.
- Automated Subcontractor Splitting: If the office raises a Purchase Order, the engine checks the Supplier's profile. If it detects the supplier is a Subcontractor, it routes that cost directly to Job Cost. If it is a standard supplier, it routes it to Part Cost and applies your custom PO Markup.
- Smart Deduplication Warning: The "Double-Dip" failsafe. If the engine detects that a Purchase Order exists for a job, AND the engineer has also picked parts from their mobile app, it triggers a Part Deduplication Flag. This warns the office that the customer might be getting double-billed for the same item before the invoice goes out.
5. Manual Overrides & Failsafes
The "Human is King" Rule (Costing Override)
If an administrator manually types a price into the Labour, Travel, or Parts boxes and locks the ticket, the engine steps back. It will preserve the exact values the human entered, overriding all global rules, quotes, and math.
The "Make It Free" Master Switch
If a job is a warranty recall, uncheck the master Chargeable flag. The system instantly forces the Sale values to £0.00, ignoring all other overrides (except manual locks). It perfectly preserves your internal Cost data for warranty tracking.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Q: Why are all my Part Sale Prices showing as £0.00?
A: Check three things:
- Is the item marked as a "Consumable" in the parts list?
- Does the job have an Accepted Quote attached? (Quotes automatically make extra parts free to prevent double-billing).
- Is the "Fixed Price Job" checkbox ticked? (This makes the job all-inclusive).
Q: What is the difference between a Base Callout and a Fixed Price Job?
A: A Base Callout (e.g. £80) charges the flat fee, but will still charge the customer for any parts used. Ticking "Fixed Price Job" makes the fee completely all-inclusive, and parts become free.
Q: I raised a PO for an Electrician. Why isn't it showing up in my Part Costs?
A: The system automatically recognized the supplier as a Subcontractor and intelligently routed the money into your Job Cost pipeline instead of your Parts pipeline, keeping your inventory reports clean.
Q: We charge a £150 Callout with 60 minutes included. What happens if I send TWO engineers?
A: The system grants the grace period per engineer. The £150 fee covers the deployment of the team for that first hour. If both engineers stay for 90 minutes, they will both generate 30 minutes of overage.
Q: Why is the Internal Cost showing as £0.00?
A: Check the Engineer's user profile. If their Base Rate is completely blank, and you have no Global Company Rates set up as a fallback, the system cannot calculate a financial value for their time.