Charges

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

There are three types of Charges in Commit:

• 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

The following table describes the Charge fields in a Commit 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 Commit (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 Commit'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.

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 Commit 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 Frequently Asked Questions 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).