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Updating Standard Billable Rate by Role for new financial year

SamG
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We have the following roles, which all have a Standard Billable Rate and this is the rate that is used for time entries and budget estimates.

  • Accountant
  • Bookkeeper
  • Manager
  • Partner
  • Senior Accountant
  • Senior Bookkeeper
  • Supervisor

From 1 Jul 2023, these rates will change (increase).

If we increase these existing roles in Settings, my understanding is that this will apply across all time entries and budget estimates, for all time.

This is not what we desire.

My workaround (in my head), is to change the names of the above e.g. Accountant - 2023 FY etc and create new roles e.g. Accountant - 2024 FY with the new rate.

Is there any better way than this?

We’re going to end up with lots and lots of roles that are no longer relevant (I don’t believe we could delete these at any stage in the future, without impacting prior years’ budgets/time entries/billing realisation), so not ideal…

Anything I’ve missed or better workarounds? 🙂

16 replies

SamG
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@Dave George @Hannah Faesenkloet any thoughts on this? 🙂

Megan Roberts
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Super glad you brought this to a spotlight Sam! We are just getting started with Karbon and Billing so I am interested to see the guidance provided about this. 

Dave George
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@SamG we’re looking into this one.

Product Manager at Karbon
SamG
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Thanks Dave!

Hannah Faesenkloet
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@SamG I would love to hear your thoughts around budgets on a work item that is in progress, would you expect the budget to update with the new rate? or keep the old rate? 

Thanks, 
~H

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SamG
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Thanks Hannah 🙂 keep the old rate (total $ don’t change) - reasons:

  1. $ are always more important than time. Time = money, money = money. If I have a budget of 5 hrs @ $100 ph for a junior and I end up doing it myself even at 3 hrs @ $300 ph, I’ve lost. If it happens the other way around, I’ve won. If I change the rate, it flips the results but is a misrepresentation.
  2. If you quote a client $5,000 and then work out a budget for a colleague on X hrs @ $Y ph rate, that total $ budget doesn’t change just because the colleague completes some of it in a new financial year. In theory, the rate for their role goes up because of a mixture of inflation and their increased experience (and efficiency) - experienced over 12 months, but adjusted once per year. If the quote and therefore budget is set at $5,000, I want it completed on that budget (if the colleague’s rate has increased, they need to work faster to meet it).
  3. In our case, we have charged our client an amount through Ignition and input the budget estimates according to that amount. If the rate changes, it’s going to change the total $ budget and again we’re going to miss out if the colleague spends the same time as was originally budgeted.

Does that help?

Hannah Faesenkloet
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Totally Thanks @SamG 

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SamG
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Hi @Hannah Faesenkloet @Dave George @Anna Andreeva,

A solution to this issue will be critical come Monday morning…

Thank you

Hannah Faesenkloet
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Hi @SamG, I have a question for you around what would you expect to happen if you changed an existing rate, to all time entries on in-progress work, or time entries that have not been billed or approved on a timesheet as of yet? 

 

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SamG
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Hi @SamG, I have a question for you around what would you expect to happen if you changed an existing rate, to all time entries on in-progress work, or time entries that have not been billed or approved on a timesheet as of yet? 

Hi Hannah 🙂

Ideally, you could set a from date (e.g. 1 Jul 2023) and all time entries with a Date (Reporting Date) on or after that date (e.g. 1 Jul 2023 or 26 Jul 2023) would use that rate.

Short of that, changing only time entries that haven’t been approved on a timesheet yet (or billed) would be best I think.

Hannah Faesenkloet
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@SamG Totally feel you re a date option! Looking into this now :) Will keep you updated 

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SamG
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@SamG Totally feel you re a date option! Looking into this now :) Will keep you updated 

Thanks Hannah 🙂

Another challenge, which I’ve not doubt you’ve thought of, is re budget estimate.

If we’re using a date option, the budget needs a date entry. Or maybe we can rely on the start date of the Work item to decide the rate the budget estimate should use 🤔

Hannah Faesenkloet
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We are thinking that the budget estimate will update, but are looking into a setting which allows the firm to choose what specifically in the budget estimate is updated, is the amount updated to the new rate OR is the time of the estimate changed to ensure the original amount stays. 

This setting will be a firm setting and apply to all rate updates, or with the introduction of colleague rates (we are building this soon as well) if a colleague rate if different when the budget is assigned/reassigned  

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SamG
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Thanks Hannah, sounds great! 🙂

Dave George
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@SamG we still have an opportunity to do this better. Could you please submit a feature idea for this “updating billable rates for a new financial year”?

Product Manager at Karbon
SamG
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