Rates

Every timer carries two rates. The client rate is what an hour is billed at. The user rate is what an hour costs you, which is what the person who worked it is paid. Both are worked out for you, and an admin can override either. Only admins see client rates; a person who is not an admin sees their own pay rate and nobody else's.

How the two rates turn hours into an invoice and a payment, with a worked example, is in Time tracking.

Where does the client rate come from?#

When a timer is saved without a contract picked by hand, Projectous finds the contract that applies and links the timer to it. It looks, in order, at:

1. the contract pinned on the timer's task;
2. the project's default contract;
3. the client's default contract, unless the project excludes it;
4. the default contract of the client who is billed, when that is a different client, as happens when you work for another company.

Only active hourly and at cost contracts are used as defaults. When a contract's rate has changed over time, the version covering the timer's date is used.

• An hourly contract supplies its rate.
• An at cost contract supplies the person's own pay rate, with the contract's markup added as a percentage or a flat amount.
• Fixed price and milestone contracts are billed as an amount rather than by the hour, so they supply no hourly rate.

When no contract applies, the client's Default Client Rate is used. Each contract type is explained in Contracts.

Where does the user rate come from?#

The most specific rate set for the person wins:

1. their rate on that project, under Project User Rates in the project's settings;
2. their rate for that client, in the client's Rates and access table, which only admins see;
3. their own Default User Rate, set when editing them under Users.

A rate of zero counts as not set and falls through to the next one. Leave a project rate blank to use the person's default.

How do I override the rate on one timer?#

An admin types a rate into Client Rate or User Rate in Edit Timer. A rate typed by hand stays put: later changes to contracts or default rates do not overwrite it, although the timer still counts against its contract. To go back to the automatic rate, empty the field and save; the rate is worked out again on that save.

To change many timers at once, tick them and use Adjust Invoice Rate on Invoiceable for the client rate, or Adjust User Rate on Payable for the pay rate. Both count as rates set by hand.

What happens to past hours when a rate changes?#

A contract's rate. A timer keeps the client rate it was saved with, so changing a contract's rate does not quietly reprice old work. When you change a contract's rate with an effective date in the past, Projectous counts the timers in that range that are not yet reviewed or invoiced, and offers to move them to the new rate. Timers whose rate was typed by hand are listed separately and left alone. You can apply the new rate or leave everything as it was.

A person's pay rate. Unless a rate was typed on the timer, pay is worked out from the person's current rates, so changing their default, client or project rate changes what their unpaid time earns, past entries included. When time is marked paid, the rate is written onto each paid timer, so later changes do not alter it. Marking time unpaid again puts it back on the automatic rate unless the rate was typed by hand.

How do multipliers change what a client is billed?#

A multiplier turns the time someone worked into the time a client is billed for. There are two, and neither changes what the person is paid: pay is always worked time times their pay rate.

• Each person has a Billing Multiplier, which an admin sets when editing them under Users. It starts at 1. A person at 1.5 bills 1.5 hours for every hour they work, for example a senior specialist whose hours are worth more to the client than the clock shows.
• The company has an AI multiplier, set in Settings, Company, under AI-assisted time billing. It applies only to AI-assisted time and starts at 1.

For AI-assisted time the two multiply together. Either way the multiplier is applied once, to a timer's billed time, and only when nobody has set that billed time by hand. A billed time you typed is billed exactly as you typed it.

An example. Priya's Billing Multiplier is 1.5 and her pay rate is $50; the client's rate is $100 an hour; the company's AI multiplier is 0.5.

1. Priya works 4 hours herself. Billed time is 4 × 1.5 = 6 hours, so the client is billed 6 × $100 = $600, and Priya earns 4 × $50 = $200.
2. An agent works 4 hours for her, as AI-assisted time. Billed time is 4 × 1.5 × 0.5 = 3 hours, so the client is billed $300. The pay side is unchanged: 4 × $50 = $200.

Reports show both figures. Invoiceable and Review Timers show the billed time and amount the multiplier produces, Payable shows pay on the worked time, and the Daily Report marks in red any entry whose billed time differs from the time worked.

Common questions#

Why does this timer have a different rate from the contract?#

Somebody typed the rate by hand, or the timer was saved before the contract's rate changed. Empty Client Rate and save to go back to the contract's rate.