FI: Administration of Consulting & Service Rates

­Option 1: Material ­ based pricing

• To each task a "Material"­ can be assigned
• Additional attributes can be added since "Materials" have "Dynamic Field" support
• Prices for Materials are defined in the Customer Price List:
  
  
  

• Pro's:
  
  • Detailed and flexible pricing option 
  • Already implemented in ]po[
­
• Limitations:
  
  • Requires the definition of a material for each task
  • No pricing calculation possible when tasks have multiple owners
  • Invoicing is performed based on current rate definitions only
    
  • No tracking of price changes possible (except AUDIT package is installed)  

Option 2: Simplified Price Management based on Project Type and Employee

• Prices are managed based on project type on an employee level
  
  

•  Prices defined for employee can be overwritten on a project level:
    
• Pro's:
  
  • Allows automatic invoicing for tasks with multiple owners
    
    
• Con's:
• Invoicing is performed based on current rate definitions only
  
• No tracking of price changes  

Option 3: Price Tables

Following the approach of traditional ERP systems, price tables can be used to manage Consulting & Service Rates

• Multiple price lists can be defined:
  
  
  
  
• Price lists are assigned to customers 
• Price lists can have a dynamic number attributes, e.g. (Project Type, Material, Customer Type)
  
    
  
• A "Price Finder Algorithm" evaluates the price that suits best.
  
  

• Pro's:
  
  • Most flexible manage­ment of prices, e.g. defining prices for region, sales channel, customer type, etc.
    
  • Changes of rates are tracked, historic data can be easily accessed
    
  • Price tables can contain additional information items such as notes/attachments
  • Cost calculation can be performed in retrospective by applying an updated price table for a given period 
    ­
    

Feasibility Study:
Extension of material implementation to allow in-depth pricing

Goal: 

• Allow definition of sales prices on "User" and "Project" level
  e.g.: A service provided by an employee towards a customer can be charged depending on a "Project" or "Project Type"
  
  
• Prices for materials can have a limited validity (term -> start date / end date) 
  

Implementation options:

a) Leave materials "as-is" and develop a wrapper application for extended price management

b) Extend existing "material" implementation