Maintained for compatibility with older versions, Company/Customer rates has been replaced with the following hierarchy
Hierarchy of Rates in a Project Modules/Databases
The system determines what rate applies according to three keys, in the following order:
- Level
- Period
- Activity type
The algorithm below works for both resource costs and billing rates. It defines what rate the system uses when computing a labor cost.
Selecting the Rates "level"
Levels encompass Project rates, Customer Rates and Resource Rates.
When the system looks for what rate applies, e.g. when computing the planned cost of an assignment, the system follows these steps:
- Are there rates specific to the project? If yes, the system uses them.
- If not, are there rates specific to the customer (assuming there's a customer selected in the project and the "Use customer rates" options are selected)? If yes, the system uses them.
- If not, the system defaults to the resource rate in the project database.
Note: A resource rate defined in the Resources module and available in all Project modules where the resource is published, may be "desynchronized" from the main resource module, making them specific to a project module.
Selecting the Period
Once the level is defined, the system checks what period applies.
Planned cost / billing amount: The system uses the "planned start date" as a reference to determine the applicable rate for that period; e.g., if an assignment is scheduled from 1/1/24 to 2/28/24, the system searches for a rate per period using 1/1/24 as a key.
Actual cost / billing amount: The system uses the actual date as a reference to determine the applicable rate for that period; e.g. if a resource records the time spent on 1/25/24, the system searches for a rate per period using 1/25/24 as a key.
Selecting the Activity Type
This step applies if multi rate management is enabled.
The system checks what rate is defined for the activity type. If none is defined, the rate defaults to 0 (zero), even if other default rates exist.
Cerri Project supports multi-rate and multi-level rate management across companies (customers), projects, periods, and individuals listed in the [Resources] module. Cerri Project offers the flexibility to assign default rates to companies and resources while allowing specific rate changes at the project or task level.
In this document, “Rate” includes two elements, the internal cost of the resource, and the resource’s billable cost.
The “Standard rates” document lets you capture default rates and rates by activity type, provided that “Multi-rate management” has been enabled in the “General” setup document.
Updating Rates
Changes to a company’s list of standard (default) rates can be applied to all companies by using the “Actions \ Update resources rates” action in the “Standard rates” setup view.
When creating a new resource, they inherit the standard rates from their associated company and location.
If company rates are updated, the changes can be applied to all company resources by navigating to the [General] tab of the [Resources] module setup and selecting “Update the resource rates” from the [Actions] menu.
Note: The updates will only be applied as long as the option “Import the rates” has been enabled in the “Resource” forms.
Resources can be published or updated across different [Projects] modules, by accessing the "Resource list” view within the Resources tab in the navigation menu and selecting either of the Publish options from the Destinations dropdown menu.
The "Resources rates" are updated at the same time if “Import the rates” is enabled in the “Resource” documents in the Projects module(s), or if the resource was not previously published in the Projects module(s).