Add option to set rate per hour or per session

[predefined]

I've just started using Time Master and one feature I find missing it an option to set a clients billing rate based on time or based on sessions.  On the rate / hour everything works great, so what I'd like to see is the ability to set a rate for a session if the client will be billed per session.  This way when I generate an invoice it uses a set rate per session instead of multiplying it by the time recorded in the session.  If Session rate = $1000 and a session has 4 hours logged in it then the total is still $1000.  Whereas if the rate were set per hour then the total would be $4000.  Likewise, a client may be also be billed for multiple sessions per day depending on the contract.

Adding this feature will enable me to completely migrate over to Time Maser and then I will add on the Invoicing module.

Thanks and I hope you can make this happen.

[Adam]

You initially confused me by using the word "session", because we have something called "Sessions" in the program.  What you are talking about is a "Flat Rate" (or "Fixed Rate") item.  This is coming in version 4.2.  We will have two types of Flat Rate "Projects".  A daily, which is "reusable" and a normal long term Flat Rate Project, which can only be used once and must be "completed" in order to be able to bill it on the Invoice module.  This allows you to bill the client a fixed amount, but be able to see how many hours you spent on the project.

Version 4.2 has been "Waiting for Review" for one week so far.  For v4.1 it took Apple 14 days before the got to it, so it may be 1 day or 1 week before this hits the store.  We don't have any clue until they email us.

[sjj]

Adam,

I'm running 4.2 now and have set a Project's "Kind" as "Daily Fixed Amount" and the "Daily Amount" as (say) $500.   However, if I add two Task entries against this project, one for four hours in the morning, and another for four hours in the afternoon of the same day, the Total Amount for the day is 2 x $500.   (Even though there is a daily rate, I still need to account for the actual hours and various tasks.)  This happened whether the Tasks' Rate was blank (i.e. left as "optional" - so it uses the project rate) or if I  specified some value in it.

Am I missing something?  For a Daily Fixed amount, I should be able to run up any number of hours in that day (up to 24) and still only tally to that fixed amount.

[Adam]

You are misunderstanding what "Fixed Amount" is.  A Daily Fixed Amount will be a fixed amount no matter how much time you put against it.  It doesn't matter if it's one minute or if it 23 hours.  If you need to do twice the amount, you will have to make two separate entries.

For the "regular" fixed amount projects it doesn't matter how many Time Entries you have against them, they will be a fixed amount too.  In that case you would only see the Fixed Amount on the very first entry created and the rest will show zero.  On the invoice you will just see the one entry with the amount and any Reference notes from all the entries.

So in your case if you set the Daily Fixed amount to $500.  It will be $500 no matter how many hours or Sessions you put against it.

[sjj]

Great, thanks.  I tried that and I now see how that works.  Cheers.