Assigning a Charge rate type or Special rate to an Assignment

Accountants Enterprise with Practice Manager only

In Practice Manager, you can assign either a specific Charge rate type or a Special rate to be used by employees when entering time against an Assignment.

For example, your practice may have set up a "Consulting" Charge rate type to be assigned to particular assignments. When time is entered against the Client:Assignment in an employee's timesheet, the Client:Assignment is charged the Consulting rate, rather than the employee's standard rate.

Alternatively, you can set up a Special rate to be used to charge a specific dollar amount, for example, $300.00. This is the rate that will be charged when any employee enters time against the Client:Assignment.

You can set these rates up for specific employees or if you want these rates to apply to all employee, you can use the - -UNSPEC employee when you set up the rate. This will apply the rate when any employee enters time to the Client:Assignment.

The same applies for the Code field. For example, if you want the rate to apply to any Code Type entered on the timesheet, then you use the Code Type of ?Unspecified time; otherwise, you can select a specific Code Type/Task Code.

To assign a Special charge rate for an Assignment

From within the client record, click on the Assignments tab then click on the assignment name (hyperlink) you wish to set a special rate for. The Assignment Details tab opens.
Click the Rates tab then click in the Employee field in the top blank row to begin creating a new record.
Click the ellipses button in the Employee field to search and select an Employee to assign the charge rate to. Alternatively, leave this field blank to use the - -Unspec employee.
Enter a Start Date and if applicable, an End Date.
In the Charge Rate Type field, choose -UNSPEC to allow for all employees allocating time to the assignment, to use the special rate.
Enter a rate in the Special Rate field, then press the ENTER key on the keyboard to save.
Click OK to save and close the Assignment Details tab.

Example

If you have 2 employees that need to charge a special rate, ranging from $345 to $590/hour. You would enter the following information into the Rates tab:

Employee	Code Type	Start Date	End Date	Charge Rate Type	Special Rate
Kermit Frog	?Unspecified Time	01/10/2011		UNSPEC	$345.00
Floyd Pepper	?Unspecified Time	19/10/2011		UNSPEC	$590.00

To assign a Charge rate type to an Assignment

From within the client record, click on the Assignments tab then click on the assignment name (hyperlink) you wish to set a special rate for. The Assignment Details tab opens.
Click the Rates tab then click in the Code Type field, leaving the Employee field blank.
Select ? Unspecified Time from the Code Type drop-down menu.
Enter a Start Date and if applicable, an End Date.
Select the Charge Rate Type you wish to apply to the assignment, then press the ENTER key on the keyboard to save. -UNSPEC- appears in the Employee field.

The Charge Rate Type selected must already be listed on the Employee's Charge Rate tab to be able to add it to the assignment. In the example below, the employee/employee's must have a Consulting rate setup on their Charge Rates tab.
Click OK to save and close the Assignment Details tab.

Example

Where you want to use a Consulting Rate instead of the Standard rate, you would set the following:

Employee	Code Type	Start Date	End Date	Charge Rate Type	Special Rate
	?Unspecified Time	01/10/2011		Consulting