Mastering Job Costing & Financial Setup

The Job Costing and Pricing engine is split into two distinct sections, each managing a specific side of your business financials:

• The Global Rate Card: Controls the Sale Price (what you charge the customer).
• The Rep Rate Card: Controls the Cost (what you pay your engineers/staff).

This guide focuses on setting up your Global Rate Card to automate your sales pricing.

Phase 1: The Pricing Hierarchy

The system uses a highly intelligent "fallback" hierarchy. It will always look for the most specific price first, but if one doesn't exist, it safely falls back to your base company rates.

To get started, you must build your base foundation. Navigate to the My Company left-hand menu button, and click the yellow Rates button near the top. Ensure you are on the Job Rates tab. Setting this up first guarantees that the system always has a baseline price to calculate against, even if a specific client hasn't been fully configured yet. (you will require specific permissions to edit this dialogue)

Phase 2: System-Wide Toggles

On the top left of the rate card, you will find four master toggles. These determine how the pricing engine physically behaves across the entire system.

• Sync Job Financials: This is the master switch for the auto-costing module. Once active, the system takes over the calculations, and the Job Ticket financials panel will be locked for manual editing (except for users with specific override permissions).
• Allow Time Edits: By default, the system calculates labour based on the exact moment the engineer punches in and out on the mobile app. Turning this on forces the system to ignore the app and calculate the price using the Scheduled Booked Times instead. This is ideal for retrospective job entry or if an engineer's times are incorrect (e.g. job start and end all at the same time on the app.) It must be noted that the app will initially set the booking times, but once the rep has completed the work, the times can be further edited by using the booking times and travel start time options.
• Use Quote Price: When active, the system checks if an 'Accepted' quote exists for the job. If it does, it will automatically override the total job sale price with the quote value, turning the individual labour, travel, and part sale values to zero to prevent double-billing.
• Include Purchase Parts: A dual-function toggle that pulls external Purchase Orders onto the ticket.
  • If the PO supplier is marked as a Subcontractor, the value is securely routed into the Job Cost box.
  • If the supplier is standard, the value is routed to the Parts Sale box and will automatically have your predefined markups applied.

Phase 3: Advanced Setup (The Math Engine)

Click the Advanced Setup button to configure the underlying rules the engine will use to calculate time and materials.

Time & Labour Rules

• Standard Time Start / End: Defines your company's normal operating window (e.g., 08:00 to 17:00). The system uses this window to determine exactly when standard rates stop and overtime begins.
• Overtime (%): The multiplier used for work done outside standard hours (e.g., entering 150 equals Time-and-a-Half).
• Public Hol (%): The multiplier used for work landing on a registered public holiday (e.g., entering 200 equals Double Time).
• Travel (%): How much you bill for travel time relative to the active labour rate. For example, if you enter 50, travel is billed at half-rate.
• Sat / Sun Overtime: Toggling these on tells the system to treat the entire weekend day as overtime, regardless of the Standard Time window.
• Initial Rate Lock: A powerful billing feature. If an engineer starts a job at 16:30 and finishes at 17:30, turning this ON locks the whole job at the standard rate because it started in a standard window. Leaving it OFF allows the system to split the bill dynamically (e.g., 30 mins standard, 30 mins overtime).

Billing Safeguards

• Min Charge: The absolute minimum amount of time billed when a rep attends a site, regardless of how fast they finish.
• Rounding: Forces the final billed time to snap to a specific increment (e.g., entering 15 ensures a 38-minute job rounds up to 45 minutes).

Material Markups

• Labour / Travel Markup: The percentage added to your internal Rep Costs to generate the Sale Price.
• PO Markup High / Low: The percentage added to external Purchase Orders. The system will use the "High" or "Low" value depending on how you categorize the client on their specific profile.

Phase 4: Job Rates (Fixed Pricing & Overages)

For companies that utilize flat-rate servicing or "First Hour + Hourly Rate" models, the Job Rates section allows you to override the standard mathematical engine completely.

Click Add To Schedule and name your rate (e.g., "Standard Boiler Service").

• Job Type & Category Mapping (The Trigger): This tells the engine exactly when to apply this specific rate. The dropdown list contains combinations of your Job Types (e.g., "Service" or "Install") and their associated Job Categories (e.g., "Product A" or "Product B").
  • Why use it? It allows for highly granular fixed pricing. For example, you can create one rate that charges £100 for a "Service" on "Product A", and a completely separate rate that charges £200 for a "Service" on "Product B". The system looks at the Job Ticket, matches the Type and Category, and automatically pulls the correct price.
  • Understanding the Dropdown List: This dropdown automatically generates permutations of your Types and Categories in alphabetical order.
    
    ⚠️ Crucial Setup Tip: When you originally create your Job Categories, you must explicitly link them to specific Job Types. If you leave a category unlinked, the system assumes it is universal and makes it available to every Job Type. This will result in a massive, cluttered, and confusing dropdown list here.
  • Need help organizing this? [Read our guide on Setting Up and Linking Job Categories]
• Agent / Site Price: The base financial value of this specific service.
• Mins: The amount of time included in the base price. Enter 60 to charge the base price for the first hour. Enter 0 to make the base price cover the entire duration of the job, however long it takes.
• Rate (Overage): The hourly rate that kicks in after the "Mins" allowance has expired. If left blank, it will safely fall back to the standard Rep Rate card.
• Lock: Checking this box turns the job into a strict Fixed Price contract. It overrides all time, travel, and overage mathematics, and makes any applied parts free (£0.00 sale price) to ensure the customer is charged exactly what the base price dictates and not a penny more.

Phase 5: Client & Site Granular Control

Once your "My Company" global defaults are configured, you can visit individual Managing Agents or Sites to set up exceptions.

If an Agent has negotiated a cheaper markup, or a specific Site requires a unique callout fee, simply update their specific Rate Card. The system is incredibly intelligent—if you enable Site Specific pricing but accidentally forget to enter a price, the engine will automatically default back up the chain to the Managing Agent, and then to My Company, ensuring a price is always successfully generated.

💡 Note on Fallback Pricing Indicators

If a specific Managing Agent rate has not been set, the system will display your global 'My Company' value as an italicized placeholder. This ensures you always know the exact fallback price. To apply a custom rate, simply overtype the italicized text.