Charges

User Manuals | Billing | Charges

Adding new Charges is the way to log the work performed for a Ticket/Account.

There are three types of Charges in CommitCRM:

• Labor Charges for services provided
• Expense Charges for expenses such as travel and delivery
• Product/Parts Charges for parts or products

An Item is selected for each Charge and it may set the price for this Charge.

Selecting Items for Charges speeds-up the process of adding new Charges. When an Item is selected for a charge, its description and price are automatically copied to the charge record fields bypassing the need for manual data entry.

In the following sections you can find more on the different charge fields and how charges can be used in CommitCRM effectively.

Charge Fields

Adding Charges is done via the Charge window:

The following table describes the Charge fields in a CommitCRM charge record.

Field	Description
Account(mandatory)	All Charges must be entered under an Account. The Account field is automatically selected when creating the new Charge from the Account/Ticket/Contract windows.
Contract (mandatory)	Charges may be entered under one of the Account's Contracts or alternatively under the default System contract which is automatically created for each Account (see Contracts). When entered under a user defined Contract, Charges may automatically affect the current state of the Contract when this is relevant to the Contract type. For example a Labor Charge will reduce the duration of time in a Block of Time contract, an Expense Charge will reduce the amount of money in a Block of Money contract, etc. Whenever a Charge exceeds the Contact terms, a warning will be displayed to the user (see Tracking the Contract Status).
Item (mandatory)	An Item should be selected for each Charge from the Items List. Possible types: Labor, Expense and Product/Part. The Items should already be defined in the Items list in order to create a Charge based on them. For example, in order to create a new Labor charge, you need to select a Labor-type Item which will define the price for this work. Or if entering a Parts Charge, you need the Part Item defined defined already. Once you select it, that price will automatically be used as the Charge price. It is possible to create the Item when entering a Charge (using the + button). Learn more about Items and their types in the Items section.
Ticket	You may attach a Ticket to the Charge. Using Tickets for Charging allows you to easily track all the activity performed for a specific project/problem. When using Tickets you can view the Charges from the Ticket's Charges tab and also produce reports based on Tickets. You can also create new Invoices which will be based on the Ticket and will group all the relevant Charges to a single Invoice (see Using Commit-QuickBooks Link)
Quantity/Hours	Quantity refers to the number of items purchased, or amount of time spent on an Item which was selected in the Items field.
Rate/Price	The Rate or Price of the charged item depends on the selected Item. When the Item has a fixed-price, the Unit Price is taken from the Item's Price. The user should then enter the number of units that are to be charged (e.g. two printers, two fixed-price hours, etc.) When the Item is based on the employee-rate, the hourly-rate is taken from the employee-rate and the user should enter the number of hours that are to be charged (e.g. two hours) Note that users need to have privileges in order to see the Price/Rate and other amounts fields.
Date, From-To Time	When entering the date of the Charge (the date is automatically filled with the day of entry), you may also enter the From/To time for this Charge (for hourly-based Charges). You can then click the total time and it will automatically be copied to the Hours field.
Discount/Markup	You can define a discount/markup rate (in percentage or amount) for this Charge; this will be taken into account when calculating the total amount for the Charge.
Total Amount	This field is calculated by the system. It takes into account the Price/Rate, number of units/hours and also any discounts (if defined) for the Charge.
Billable flag	A Charge can be set as Billable or Not Billable. When a Charge is set as 'Billable' it means that you intend to bill the customer with this Charge amount. You can also enter a Charge with a 'Not Billable' flag in case you wish to log activities without charging for their amounts. For example, if you are using a Block of Time type of contract (see Contracts) and you wish to log in a Charge that should not be billed since the Contract already covers it, set the billable flag to 'Not billable'. The default value for this flag is determined by the type of contract under which the Charge is created. See How if a Charge's Billable Flag determined.
Billed	After a customer has been charged for a Billable Charge, the Charge record is set as 'Billed'. This will make the Charge read-only and will prevent it from being billed again or modified. Changing the Charge to 'Billed' can be performed manually by the user once the charge is billed, or automatically by the system once an Invoice was created in QuickBooks based on the billable charges in CommitCRM (see Using-QuickBooks Link)
Employee	This is the employee who performed the service to be charged. Usually this is the same employee who creates the Charge, but you can also create a Charge for a different employee.

Adding new Charges

You can add new Charges from the Tickets, Account or Contracts windows:

1. Open the New Charge Window from one of the following optional places (creating Charges from Ticket is recommended):
   • The Tickets window, Charges Tab > New button.
   • Ticket Window, More Actions > New Charge.
   • From within the Timer window, click the Add a New Charge icon.
   • On CommitCRM's Main menu go to File > New > Charge.
   • On the Charges main window go to the New button.
   • The the Account window go to the Charges Tab > New button.
   • On the Contract Window go to the Charges Tab > New button.
     You can also add new Charges through the Commit Web Interface.
2. Fill in the Account (this will be automatically filled when creating the Charge through the Ticket or Account window)
3. Optionally, fill in the relevant Ticket (this will be automatically filled when creating the Charge through the Ticket)
4. Fill in the Contract if you are using a Contract for this Ticket/Account. Using Contracts is optional, since you may choose to use the system's default Contract instead.
5. Select the Item to be charged.
   • If the Item does not exist yet – Click the + button and add a new Item
   • If the Contract has a default Item defined, then this is selected automatically (see Contract Fields)
6. Fill in the Quantity and Rate/Price (the rate may already be filled in when selecting an Item with a pre-defined rate). Note that the rate may be fixed, or set by the employee-rate.

Quickly Setting up new Charges

Creating new charges for a Ticket is the fastest way to create Charges. A Ticket is already linked to an Account and sometimes also to a Contract. When Creating a Charge for a Ticket (from the Ticket window), the Account and Contract are automatically copied into the Charge Details Window from the Ticket details, which will speed-up he process of creating a new Charge.

1. Open the New Charge Window (from the Ticket window)
2. Select the Item to bill and the quantity.
3. Save

This process can be simplified even further when default Items are selected for the Contract, eliminating the need to select an Item for the Charge.

Note that if you create a new Charge from within the Timer window, and use the Timer from within a Ticket window (using the Tickets > Tools > New timer), the new Charge will already be linked to all the Ticket details (Account and contract) as well.

Using the Timer to Add Charges

You can use the CommitCRM Timer in order to record activity for a certain Ticket and then convert it into a Charge. This is usually useful for activities like phone support.

You can activate the Timer from various places. First display the Ticket details and then:

• Click the Timer Icon.
• Or go to the Ticket Menu > Tools > New Timer option
• Or use the Ctrl+T keyboard shortcut, but make sure to have the correct Ticket/Account selected when performing this action.

How to activate the Timer

You can start and stop the Timer as many times as you need, and all time spent will be added to the total time (clicking on the magnifying glass will display all the time logged and you can right-click each line and delete it if needed).

Timer Window

Once you are finished timing and have completed the service, click the Add Charge button, and a new Charge window will open with the relevant Ticket and Account already selected. The total time from the Timer will be copied to the Charge Hours field.

Timer Base Charging Unit

You can define the minimal interval for the Timer from Tools > Options > Timer > Base Charging Unit. This will determine the minimal unit in minutes for charging. For example, if you set it to 0.25, this means 15 minutes.

Note that you may need to restart your Commit session for this change to take effect.

Finance Privileges and Charges

In some cases, users need to be able to enter Charges with the work duration or quantity of units without seeing financial figures (e.g. rate per hour, prices for parts, total amount for the Charge), or without seeing Charges entered by other users.

The way CommitCRM handles this is by using the Privileges system. You can assign your users to a privilege groups that do now display Charges and Finance.

Read more about setting up privileges on our FAQ section.

How is the 'Billable flag' determined

A Charge can be set as 'Billable' or 'Not Billable'. When a Charge is set as Billable it means that you intend to bill the customer for this Charge. The default value for Charges is determined by the type of contract under which the Charges are created.

The following table shows which value is given to the Billable flag by default according to the Contract type and the Charge Type:

Contract type-> Charge type	Labor	Expense	Product/Parts
Global	Billable	Billable	Billable
Block of Time	Not Billable	Billable	Billable
Block of Tickets	Not Billable	Not Billable	Not Billable
Block of Money	Not Billable	Not Billable	Not Billable

In the "Block of…" contracts, most of the Charges are not Billable, assuming the Charge is covered by the service agreement for this type of Contract. The Charge will reduce the relevant units (hours, money) from the Contract according to the units defined in the Charge. Read more on how this works in Tracking the Contract Status.

Note that these are the default values for the Billable flag. It is possible to modify the value of the Billable flag for specific Charges at any time. You should only bill customers for Billable Charges (though you can print Charge reports that include both Billable and Not Billable charges, or include not-billable charges in QuickBooks invoices, and show these to your customers).

Using CommitCRM Charge Reports

You can use CommitCRM to send Billable Charges to your customers.

The best way to do this is to print a Charge report in CommitCRM which contains the billing information, and send it to your customers.

Charge reports can be printed at the Account, Contract and Ticket levels. Each report displays all the relevant Charges for Labor, Expenses and Parts that were logged during the date range you entered for the report. You can also filter the Charges in the report according to the Billable flag.

Note that these reports are available from the Charge Reports list and require the relevant user privileges.

1. Go to Reports > Charges and generate any of the following reports in order to view the Charge information:
   • Charges Report by Ticket
   • Detailed Account Charges
   • Detailed Account Charges by Contracts
   • Detailed Account Charges by Contracts and Tickets
   • Detailed Account Charges by Tickets
   • Detailed Charges Report by Account
   • Employee Charges Report
   • Employee Charges Summary
   • Itemized Account Charges Summary
2. These reports list Charges according to the filter criteria you select prior to generating the reports. For example, you can create the "Detailed Account Charges by Tickets" report and filter it to include unbilled billable charges from July.
3. Some of the reports are based on the ticket level, while others are based on the Account or Contract level

>> Click to read more about generating and customizing reports.

Contract-Price Charges

Contract-price Charges are a special kind of charges which are used to charge for an amount agreed upon in a contract. A Contract-price Charge only represents an amount listed for a contract—it does not represent a fee for specific work performed under a contract.

Contract-price Charges work much like other charges in CommitCRM: they are included in reports; they can be defined as Billable; and they are included in invoices. However, since Contract-price Charges do not represent specific work, they do not affect the balance of a contract block. For further explanation, see Contract-Price Charges.

Using Commit-QuickBooks Link

You can use the Commit-QuickBooks Link module to create QuickBooks Invoices based on Charges in CommitCRM that haven't been billed yet. QuickBooks invoices can be created for Account, Contract, or Ticket records using the QuickBooks Icon on the window toolbar:

• Account - Invoices created at the Account level may include any Charges linked to this account, its contracts and tickets
• Contract - Invoice created at the Contract level may include only Charges which are linked to this specific contract
• Ticket - Invoices created at the Ticket level may only include Charges which are linked to this specific ticket

In order to view the list of Accounts, Tickets or Contracts which have billable charges and have not yet been billed, go to the Main menu, New > QuickBooks invoice option. The Invoice Creation Wizard will open, and you will be able to create Invoices for the selected Charges. Both billable and not-billable charges can be included in the invoice, where only the billable charge actually effect the invoice total amount.

Each Charge that was included in a QuickBooks Invoice is automatically marked as 'Billed' and is now read-only so the users cannot change the Charge details once it was transferred to QuickBooks. It also shows the QuickBooks invoice reference number in the charge window.

You can list all charges included in a specific QuickBooks invoice by opening the main Charges window and selecting from the menu QuickBooks > Filter by Invoice Reference. In the window that opens, type the QuickBooks invoice reference/number and confirm. All the charges that were included in this invoice will be displayed.

You can follow the Invoice Creation Wizard steps in the CommitCRM Getting Started Guide, under Billing > Using Commit-QuickBooks Link. You can also see more information about the CommitCRM QuickBooks Link in the Commit-QuickBooks Link user manual.

Closing Charges

After billing the Charge, you should mark it as 'Billed' to avoid billing the same charge more than once (this is done automatically for Charges that are included in QuickBooks Invoices).

Right click on the Charge > Mark as Billed, or enter the charge details and click on the Mark as Billed button on the toolbar (if you don’t see the Mark as Billed option, this is because the charge’s status is Not Billable).

Charging Using Taxes

Using taxes in CommitCRM is optional. By default, the tax option is not activated. To begin using taxes, you first need to set the taxable Accounts and taxable Items.

In order for a tax to apply to a Charge, the following should be set:

• Define taxes for the Item (Tax1, Tax2, Tax3 in the Item details window)
• Define taxes for the Account (Tax1, Tax2 in the Account Details tab)

Taxes will be calculated when there is a match between the tax type of the Item and the Account which were selected for the Charge record

For example, if you wish to add VAT for a certain Account, and then charge this Account for a product purchased + VAT, the following steps should be taken:

1. In the Account window, go to the Details tab.
2. Select the VAT tax in the Tax1 field (if this tax code does not exist yet, you can add it using the + options).
3. In the relevant Product/Part Item window, select the same VAT tax code in the Tax1 field.
4. Create a Charge for this Account, using the relevant Item.
5. View the Charges + taxes and see the Total amount + Tax (see below)

Note that you can define an Item as taxable, and it will not be taxed when used in non-taxable Accounts. Only if you define both the Item and the Account with the same Tax code will the tax be charged on the Item.

Viewing Taxes for Charges
You can view the tax calculation for a Charge in CommitCRM's reports:

• Go to the Charges reports section and print any report – the total amount will include tax when all terms (as defined above) are met.
• From the Web interface when printing the Ticket Service Form - Including Taxes report.

Setting Default Taxes
You can set a default tax for all new Accounts and Items:

• For Accounts go to Tools > Options > Accounts > Default Tax Codes.
• For Items go to Tools > Options > Charges & Contracts > Default Tax Codes.

Batch Updating Taxes
You can update the tax codes for a list of Accounts from Accounts > Tools > Batch Update Tax Settings.
See more details in Batch Update Account Tax Settings.

See Also

• Billing
• Items
• Contracts
• Charges FAQ
• Taxes FAQ