What is a Rate?

Set up license billing rates and penalty rates.

You can use rates to set up the billing and penalty rates for businesses in Business License. A rate is an amount or percent that you want to charge for a specific quantity of items. Rates are helpful because they help you to calculate easily how much you need to bill depending on the quantity of items. You can set up different levels for a rate. A level includes the amount or percent that will be billed for a specific quantity of items. You can set up as many as twenty levels for one rate. Also, the levels can be set up to bill a rate or an amount.

 

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What is a Rate?

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Examples

Adding a rate

Adding a penalty rate

Changing a rate

Deleting a rate

Options

Base amount

Bill maximum amount

Bill minimum amount

Description

General Ledger account override

Penalty days

Penalty rate

Rate number

Rates

Rates subject to penalty

Why won't a penalty calculate?

Watch a video

Learn how rates work, how to set up a rate, and how to set up a penalty rate  (6m27s)

For more information, see the 2018 Business License Refresher Training (1h41m) at 18m37s.

Updated 20Jun2018

Examples

The following examples of Joe and Barbara demonstrate the difference between when you would want to set up levels to bill by rate verses by amount.

Joe runs an ice skating rink and he offers group rates for large groups that come to use in the rink. For groups up to 20 people, he charges $125 for the whole group. For groups up to 40 people, he charges $215. For groups up to 60 people, he charges $300, and for groups up to 100 he charges $400.

Joe sets up the following levels:

 

In this case, Joe would want to set up the Type of levels by Rate because when he enters a quantity (in this case, the number of people) the rate will charge the one rate that corresponds to the level the number people falls into. The quantity will not multiplied by the rate, but instead the rate will calculate the appropriate charge depending on the quantity of people entered. So if Joe used this rate to create a billing and entered a quantity of 55, he would bill $300.00 (Level 3).

Barbara runs a business that sells bulk T-shirts and she wants to offer discounts for customers who buy larger quantities of T-shirts at one time. She wants to set up levels her business that will charge $8.00 for each T-shirt when you buy up to 10 shirts, $6.00 when you buy 11-50 shirts, and $5.00 when you buy 51+ shirts.  

In this case, Barbara would want to set up levels to be billed by amount. Barbara would set up the following levels:

 

In this case, Barbara would want to set up the Type of levels by Amount because she wants to charge the amount for EACH quantity so that when a customer buys 6 T-shirts, which would fall in Level 1, the rate would bill the customer at 6 x 8.00 = $48.00. When levels are set up by Amount, they bill the amount multiplied by the quantity, whereas when you when you choose to bill by Rate you simply use the quantity to determine what the appropriate level is that you wish to bill at.

 

Adding a rate

Create a new record for a rate.

Do this...

1. Open Connect Business License > Organization > Rates.

2. Click New (CTRL+N).

3. Fill in the options on the form.

Rate number

Description

Bill minimum amount

Bill maximum amount

Base amount

Penalty rate

Penalty days

Rates

Rates subject to penalty

General Ledger account override

 

4. Click Save (CTRL+S).

The rate is saved.

Updated 2018Dec11

Adding a penalty rate

The key to setting up a penalty rate is to select the rates that are subject to the penalty.

Important! If you do not select the rates that are subject to the penalty, the penalty will not calculate.

For example, Jane has a commercial license and she issues a license to a specific business but the business never pays for the commercial license. If Jane has not added "commercial license" to the rates that are subject to penalty, then the penalty will not calculate for that business.

Do this...

1. Open Connect Business License > Organization > Rates.

2. Enter a Rate Number.

3. Enter a Description.

4. Set up the following fields (optional).

Bill minimum amount

Bill maximum amount

Base amount

 

5. Select the Penalty Rate checkbox.

Penalty Rate checkbox

6. Set up the section titled Penalty Days.

 

Penalty Days

7. Set up the section titled Rates.

Rates

8. Set up the Rates Subject to Penalty tab.

Important! If you do not select the rates that are subject to the penalty, the penalty will not calculate.

 

Rates Subject to Penalty tab

9. Set up the General Ledger Account Override tab (optional).

You can override the GL account that is set up on the license type. When you set up a license type, you can also select the where the license type will post to the general ledger. For example, City XYZ uses a specific account for a commercial license type and Joe is setting up penalty rate for a special type of commercial license. Joe wants the penalty rate to post to a different revenue account in the general ledger, so Joe uses the General Ledger Account Override on the penalty rate to enter the revenue account that he wants to use to post transactions.

10. Click Save (CTRL+S).

The penalty rate is saved.

Updated 20Jun2018

Changing a rate

Edit the rate properties.

Do this...

1. Open Connect Business License > Organization > Rates.

2. Use the Lookup bar to enter a rate number. Press Enter.

3. Now, edit the rate properties.

4. Click Save (CTRL+S).

The rate is updated.

 

Deleting a rate

Remove a rate from the database. You cannot remove a rate if related transactions exist.

Do this...

1. Open Connect Business License > Organization > Rates.

2. Use the Lookup bar to enter a rate number. Press Enter.

3. Click Delete (CTRL+D).

The rate is deleted.

 

Options

Base amount

A base amount is an amount charged in addition to the calculated amount.

Total Calculated Amount = Base Amount + Calculated Amount

Do you want to charge a base amount?

Bill maximum amount

Use bill maximum amount to bill x dollars when the account balance is greater than the billed maximum amount. For example, Jane adds a rate that bills a maximum of $100. She uses this rate to calculate an amount. The billed amount is $125.00. Because the rate is set up to bill a maximum amount and the calculated amount is greater than the billed maximum amount, the account is billed $100.00.

Do you want to bill maximum amount?

Bill minimum amount

Use bill minimum amount to bill at least x dollars even when the billed amount is less than the billed minimum amount. For example, Jane bills a minimum amount of $10. When she uses this rate to calculate an amount, the billed amount is $7.00. Since the rate is set up to bill minimum amount and the calculated billed amount is less than the bill minimum amount, the account is billed $10.00.

Do you want to bill minimum amount?

Description

A description is a word or phrase that describes the character or features of the record.

Do you want to use the default description?

General Ledger account override

The system will use a General Ledger Account Override instead of the General Ledger account that is designated for the service. You can set up a General Ledger account override for the following accounts: Cash, Accounts Receivable, Write-offs, and Revenue.

Do you want to use GL account override?

Penalty days

Use the options in Penalty Days to define the period past the due date the application will use to calculate a penalty.

Penalty rate

A penalty is the sum to be forfeited based on the specified conditions and terms.  A penalty rate is a charge, payment, or price fixed according to a ratio, scale, or standard.

What do you want to do?

Rate number

The rate number is a unique number that is assigned to a rate.

Rates

The rate calculates based on quantity, current charges, delinquent balance, or days. Use the options on the Rate tab > Rates grid to set up a rate for each calculation level, or tier. Then, you can link the rate to a billing or penalty.

Rates subject to penalty

A penalty is the sum to be forfeited based on the specified conditions and terms. When a rate is subject to penalty, a penalty will be billed when the  balance is delinquent for the specified number of periods.

Why won't a penalty calculate?

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Updated 21Sep2018