Billing Rates: Rate Selection Rules

When a project transaction is billed or an allocation is run, the system finds the applicable rate (that is, the value of the @Rate parameter specified in the billing rule formula) based on the rate type assigned to the currently performed step of a billing rule and within the rate table that is assigned to the project task to which the billed transaction corresponds.

Each combination of rate table, rate type, and rate code includes one rate sequence or multiple rate sequences, each of which defines billing rates based on set of factors. The numeric identifiers of the sequences in the table define the order in which the system will look through these sequences to find the applicable rate during the project billing or allocation process.

Starting with the first sequence defined in the table on the Rate Lookup Rules (PM205000) form, the system matches the corresponding settings specified in the project transaction to the factors defined by the rate sequence. If all the settings match, the system stops the search and uses the rate it has found as the value of the @Rate parameter in the formula. If any of the factors do not match, the system continues searching for the applicable billing rate in the next rate sequence.

If no applicable rate is found in all sequences defined in the system for the combination of rate table, rate type, and rate code, the system performs the action determined by the option selected in the If @Rate is Not Defined box on the Billing Rules (PM207000) or Allocation Rules (PM207500) form for the step being performed. You can define a step so that the system sets the @Rate value to 0, sets the value to 1, skips billing or allocating for the current project transaction, or throws an error and stops the billing or allocation process.

The following diagram shows how the system selects the value of the @Rate parameter, assuming that the account group specified in the project transaction is the same as the account group of the billing rule step and the Line Amount Formula of the billing rule step uses the @Rate parameter for the calculation of the amount to invoice.