How to setup StraightForward pricing

AirTime500 introduced the concept of StraightForward Pricing to their members with a good amount of positive feedback. It is designed to allow contractors to group all of the tasks they bill for into a small number separate pricing levels (generally 5). This article will give you some ideas on how you can set this up in ESC.

Setup:

While StraightForward Pricing is a flat rate system, it is radically different from the way flat rate items are setup in ESC. There is no price book to import or hours assigned to a task. Tasks are simply broken up into one of the five pricing categories.

To accommodate this all StraightForward Pricing invoicing will be taken care of by one billing code for each price level. So if you have 5 price levels you will need 5 different billing codes. In keeping with the simplicity of the StraightForward Pricing model, make all the billing codes material billing codes with the desired rate and NO cost accounts.

Assemblies can be created for the actual tasks that need to be done normally in inventory. Parts can also be created normally. Be sure to set the A Price of all these parts and assemblies to zero. The B & C prices can be set to anything you want for the instances where StraightForward Pricing is not used. You may wish to create a Markup Code that has the A Price markup set to 0% and assign it to all parts or specific categories to help you keep these prices at zero.

Use:

When you create an invoice, use the billing code to set the price of the invoice. Then add any parts or assemblies you need to pull the necessary parts from inventory, update the customer's equipment, etc. If you are using the A price code, all these items should show up with a zero price.

To use these same parts on a non StraightForward Pricing invoice, simply change the Price Code on the invoice to B.