DEFINE RATE SEQUENCE

Use this screen to define the order in which the system selects labor rates for revenue and billing and for the selection of source projects. The Load Labor Rates screen (Projects » Cost and Revenue Processing » Revenue Processing or Projects » Billing » Prepare Billings) uses this screen to determine the order in which rates are loaded into the Open Billing Detail and Labor History tables. You should set up this screen at each level of the project where labor is charged for all projects that use loaded labor formulas for revenue or billing. You can sequence up to four billing rate tables starting with the least detailed (C) up to the most detailed (PVC or PEC). The order in which these rates are found is determined by this application at the project charging level and is dependent upon the sequence numbers entered here. You can set up labor rates in the following screens:

• Set Up Project Labor Categories (PLC) screen (Projects » Project Setup » Project Labor) - Use this screen for company-wide PLC billing rates.

• Project PLC Rates screen (Projects » Project Setup » Project Labor) - Use this screen for project-specific PLC billing rates.

• Project PLC Rates by Employee/Vendor screen (Projects » Project Setup » Project Labor) – Use this screen for rates for vendors and vendor employees as well as employees. Employee billing rates contain billing rates that are project and employee specific (PEC). Vendor billing rates contain billing rates that are project and vendor/vendor employee specific (PVC).

Within this screen, you must define a source project unless you are using a Rate Table of C, in which case no source project is allowed since there is only one company-wide rate table. The Project PLC Rates and Project PLC Rates by Employee/Vendor screens (if used) must be established at the source level project indicated so that billing rates can be loaded.  

If you selected the Use Top Level Work Force check box in the Maintain Project Master screen (Projects » Project Setup » Project Master) or the Basic Info screen (Projects » Project Setup » Project Master), you may opt to select your source project as your top level project. This is not necessary but may save some setup time since your workforce and PLC defaults were previously established at this level.

To provide flexibility and ease of setup, the source project specified in the Rate Sequence table can be that of another project. This means the billing rate tables could be established for a generic project and, if subsequent projects or other tasks within the same project use the same billing rates, the generic project could be referenced as the source project, with no need to re-enter the same data.

Use this screen whenever the billing and/or revenue formula you are using is a T&M formula and PLCs have been established. It should be maintained for billing rate changes or changes to the order in which billing rates are used by the Load Labor Rates process and must exist at each level of the project where labor is charged.

Project

Use Find or Query to select a valid project. The selected project should be at charging level of the project. This is a required field.

The non-editable field to the right displays the name of the project selected.

Rate Sequence

Seq No

Enter a sequence number from one to four to signify the order in which the rate tables should be searched by the Load Labor Rates screen in Costpoint Cost and Revenue Processing. The table with a sequence number of "1" will be the first table searched for by the system, followed by number "2," and so on. This is a required field.

Rate Table

Enter, or use to select, a valid system-defined billing rate table name. Select one of the following rate tables:

• PEC - Bills by project, by employee, and by labor category

• PVC - Bills by project, by vendor, and by labor category

• PC - Bills by project and labor category

• C - Bills by labor category

Description

This column contains the system-defined description of each of the four billing rate tables.

Source Project

Enter, or use to select, a valid project that will serve as the source for the billing rate table. The source project is required for rate tables PC, PEC, and PVC.  This field will often be the same as the project entered in the heading of this screen, but it can be another project that contains the correct billing rates.

Be careful when selecting a source project that is different than the project you are billing. If the source project has billing discounts on the PLCs and the project you are billing doesn't use billing discounts, the PLC billing rates are discounted when you load the labor rates. 

Or, if you select a source project that does not have billing discounts on the PLCs for a project that does use billing discounts, you will get incorrect billing rates when you load the labor rates.

The Load Labor Rates program (Projects » Cost and Revenue Processing » Revenue Processing or Projects » Billing » Prepare Billings) does not check the Project Billing Info screen (Projects » Billing » Billing Master or Projects » Project Setup » Revenue Setup) or the Basic Revenue Info screen (Projects » Project Setup » Revenue Setup) to see whether you have selected a discount method. If a discount percentage is loaded in the PLC Rate tables, the load labor rates program automatically loads the original billing rate and the discounted billing rate into open billing detail and labor history. If that occurs, you will get incorrect billing rates when you calculate a bill or compute revenue. 

Table Information

Changes to this screen update the TM_RT_ORDER and PROJ_SRCE_PROJ tables.