Edit Rate Definition Dialog |
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When you select New, Insert, or Edit from Rates Setup, the Edit Rate Definition dialog will appear. This is where you define all of the details of the rate.
Make sure that the desired Rate Type is selected (this can be changed any time), and enter a Rate Code and Description. The Description is shown in the rate selection list, so you should make it simple but also descriptive enough for easy recognition. If this rate is for a discount, for instance, you should indicate that in the description so the correct rate is chosen.
There is also a Rate Code field that's usually disabled by default. This can be used to select rates quickly with the keyboard if you have simple codes for common rates, but has no use in most situations.
Rate Setup Examples
Be sure to go through the Rate Setup Examples for help with basic rates setup. We don't recommend attempting to set up your rates without working through some of the examples first!
Rate Type
There are a fixed set of Rate Types to choose from, and it's important that you select the appropriate type.
The different types are detailed in the Rate Types section.
Rate Transactions
Next is the Transaction Template section. This operates just like the New Transactions dialog, but instead of transaction entry dialogs opening you will use the grid-entry method to enter the data. Add each transaction that you want to appear for this rate, and enter an Each amount (how much for each day, or week, or item, etc.). The Each amount will later be multiplied appropriately.
Typically you will simply enter a Charge transaction here, with the appropriate category, description, quantity (optional) and amount. Note that in some cases the description will be modified later. For instance if the charge is for multiple sites, it may add "(5 days x 2 sites)" to the description. Electric, gas and water meter charges also have their descriptions altered (see the Rate Types explanation above).
If you don't see a Category you want to use for the charge, you can make your own through Maintenance / Pick Lists / Transaction Categories. See that section for details.
You can also add appropriate discounts here. For instance, it's recommended that for a Good Sam rate of $18, you add a Charge for the standard rate of $20, and then add a Discount of $2. This will be more descriptive on the receipt and also allow you to generate reports about the discounts.
Notes on Quantity -- This field should almost always be left blank (which assumes a quantity of 1, multiplied by whatever is necessary like # of days, weeks, etc. as described below). The primary purpose of this field is to have an item that is sold as a bundle, where you want a total quantity to show on the receipts. For instance if it's for a box of 25 candy bars for $10 instead of single candy bar (perhaps sold at a discount), then you could put 25 in the quantity and the unit price (e.g. $0.40) in the Each field. The other use for the quantity field is for manually adding specific tax amounts (see below).
Using Calculated Expressions for Transaction Values
NOTE: This is an advanced feature! Using calculated expressions not recommended except in very extremely complex situations -- normally the transaction "Each" values will be fixed amounts, where you have multiple rate definitions so the amount charged is determined by which rate definition applies. However if you absolutely need to calculate a value (e.g. for cases where the normal "Applies if..." conditions for rates cannot handle your rate structure), it's possible to use the Advanced Customization functionality of Expressions to calculate the rate. Keep in mind that technical support is not included for using calculated values, as this is a customization/programming function.
Expression for "Each"
To enter a calculated expression for the "Each" value of a transaction, enter an equal sign ("=") in the "Each" column and press the Tab key. This will open the Expression Creator dialog where you can enter the expression. The expression should of course result in a numeric value, which will be used as the Each amount for the rate when it's used for a reservation.
Once an expression is entered, the Each column for the transaction will show "<EXPR>", indicating that a fixed value is not known. To view or edit the expression, click on "<EXPR>" in the Each column to highlight it, and click again to open the Expression Creator (or press the "=" key). If you decide that you don't want it to be an expression, you need to completely clear out the expression in the Expression Creator dialog and click Save. It will change back to blank, so you can enter a fixed amount.
Note that whenever this rate is shown in the Rates Setup list or Select Rates, it will also show <EXPR> as the amount. It can only calculate the expression to determine the actual amount after it's Added in select rates, or when it's automatically added to a reservation.
While the typical use of calculated expressions would be for rental rates or add-on rates, it can also be used for metered rates -- for instance to use a complex formula for electric meter charges. In addition to ThisResv() and ThisCust() context when calculating the rate, these special context functions are available for rates:
ThisRate -- The Rate record itself
ThisRateSites -- The number of sites the rate is being calculated for (if applicable)
ThisRatePeriods -- The number of days, weeks, etc. the period is being calculated for
ThisRateQtyExtra -- The "Qty" value, if an extra quantity value is applicable (e.g. for add-ons)
ThisRateQtyTotal -- The total quantity being calculated for (e.g. sites x periods x extra qty)
ThisRateQtyMeter -- For meter readings, the number of units being calculated for
Important -- If the rate is being calculated for multiple synchronized sites, ThisResv() could be any one of the synchronized reservations. If you need separate information from each linked reservation (e.g. Site Types), it would be up to you to traverse the linked reservations in the expression.
Expression for "Qty"
You can also enter an expression for Qty, by entering an "=" as described above. Note that an expression here will completely override the normal rate multiplier of sites, periods, and other quantity (e.g. for add-ons or meters). Thus the context functions need to be used if the qty should take those into account.
Expression for "Item Description"
You can enter the description as an expression also, for instance to include information from the customer or reservation in the description. As with the Each and Qty, starting the description with an "=" will denote it as an expression -- however the expression builder is not opened in this case. You can enter the expression manually in the line, or build it elsewhere and paste it here (using normal copy/paste). Just be sure it still has the "=" at the beginning, with no space after the "=". For example, to show the reservation type as the description, it would be shown as:
=Resv:Resv_Type
Taxes
Important -- Although you can add Tax transactions manually, it's recommended that you use the Auto-add tax check boxes instead. Otherwise you will have to edit every rate definition any time the tax rates change.
Assuming you don't add the tax manually (see below), simply check the appropriate Auto-add tax boxes. There is one box for each of the 5 possible Tax Rate definitions, but only those that are active according to Taxes Setup will be enabled (and they will show the selected category name for the tax). When you check these boxes, the With Tax amount is automatically calculated.
One exception to using the auto-add option would be for special cases where the tax does not apply to the total charges less discounts. For instance, if you add a Discount to the rate as mentioned above, the Discount transaction would be taken into account for taxes. Therefore you would have to add the tax as a separate transaction and not use the Auto-add tax feature if the Discount should not reduce the tax (though this would be unusual).
Another exception would be if you want your rates to be "rounded" after tax, such that exact calculations are difficult without rounding problems. For instance, if your daily rate is $23.00 but that already includes a 10% tax (roughly. $20.9091 + $2.09091 tax), then it may be easiest to enter Charge and Tax transactions separately so it always comes out exactly $23.00 per day.
When adding Tax transactions manually, it's a good idea to use the Quantity field -- which for taxes is actually the amount to be taxed. This results in more accurate tax reporting, as well as a meaningful note on receipts. So for the example above, the Charge for the rate would have an Each value of $20.9091. Then you would enter a Tax transaction with a Qty of 20.9091 (the amount taxed) and an Each of $0.10 (which means 10%). This rounds out to an even $23.00 no matter how many days are added, and the amount taxed will also be accurate.
Multipliers and Filtering
This is the most important part of the setup, especially for auto-rates, but also affects Select Rates.
The rest of the dialog entries are used to "qualify" a rate. This determines whether the rate definition applies to any given reservation, so it's important to get this set up properly. Otherwise, the rate may not appear in the Select Rates list, or too many rates will show up that don't all really apply to the reservation. Likewise, it's essential that the correct filtering is used for auto-rates, so the program can automatically figure out which rate to apply to each reservation.
The filtering is most important to Rental Rate and Add-On rate types, but it is used for other types as well (for example, you can filter a Merchandise rate so it only shows up for a particular Reservation Type).
If the rate is for any kind of merchandise or other item that may have more than one quantity other than periods or sites, make sure that Ask for other quantity is checked. That way a Qty entry field will appear when you select this rate. But you should not check this option for Rental Rates in most cases.
Rate is per... and Multiply-by options
To have a rate multiplied by the number of days, weeks, etc. in the reservation, fill in the Rate is per field and select a period from the (# of) drop-down list (Days, Weeks, Months, or Years). Also be sure to check the Multiply by # of periods check box for any per-period type of rate.
For rates that are multiplied by the # of periods, you can also specify that the rate Applies for a maximum # periods. Enter a number in that box to limit the # of periods (e.g. # of days) that this rate should apply for. For instance if you accept Passport America discounts for only 2 days, set up the P.A. discount rate to apply for a maximum of 2 days. The rest of their stay will then be charged at the normal rate (using the next applicable rate in the list).
Note that if you've set up any "schedules" for intra-day reservations, for instance hourly reservations, those schedule names will be added to the Rate is per list. If the rate is for one of those scheduled sites, select the appropriate schedule name instead of Day, etc. When a schedule is selected, an additional Periods button and field will be shown where you can select specific periods that the rate will apply to.
For most rental rates you will also want to check the box for Multiply by the # of sites. This is important when using linked reservations (e.g. if they reserve more than one site for the same time period).
Resv Types
You will need to select one or more Reservation Types for which the rate applies. Click the Resv Types button to open a list of reservation types, and select any that are applicable. For instance, you may have different rates for Monthly reservations than your Normal reservations. Typically you may not have any rates that apply to Free Stay types, except perhaps utility (meter) rates. Guest reservations might have rates defined that are essentially an extra vehicle charge, and Day Pass reservations may have a day-use rate defined.
Site Types, Site Classes, or Sites
If this rate only applies to certain Site Types, click the Site Types button and select the applicable types from the list that appears. If no site type is selected, the rate will show up for reservations of any site type (assuming other filters don't exclude it). If you select one or more site types here, then that rate will only show up when a reservation is for one of those site types (or has a synchronized reservation of that type).
Likewise, you can have a rate apply to specific Site Classes, using the Site Classes button, or even one or more specific sites using the Sites button. However you don't need to set all three (types, classes, and sites) -- usually only one of these selections is enough to sufficiently qualify the rate. For instance if you select "Normal RV" for the Site Type, there's no need to select "RV's" for the site class because it's redundant -- all "Normal RV" sites will have an "RV's" class anyway, so there's no need to make the rate check this too.
Discounts
If you offer discounts, such as Senior discounts or Good Sam membership discounts, then you will need to set up multiple rate definitions -- one "normal" rate that applies to no discounts, and a separate rate definition for each discount category (or at least one for each different discount amount). Filter each rate definition for the appropriate discount by either selecting one or more discounts from the Discounts list, or by checking the Only applies if no discount used check box. As with Site Type, this will determine whether the rate will appear in the rate selection list for a given reservation.
Note that if a rate applies to more than one discount, you may need to set it up so that the appropriate discount shows in the charges after the rates is applied. To do this, blank out the Item Description for any Discount transaction entries. It will then be filled in with the current discount selected on the Transactions dialog.
Ask for other quantity
The Ask for other quantity check box can be checked for any rate, which will allow a separate quantity entry field to appear when the rate is selected. Generally this is not used for rental rates, but it can be used for Add-On rates like extra people or vehicles, and for any other kind of rate.
Exclude from auto-rates
If you're using the auto-rates functionality, all Rental Rates and Add-On rates will be used in the auto-calculations unless individually excluded (other Rate Types are never used for auto-calculation, so this field wouldn't affect them). To exclude a rate from auto-rates calculations (e.g. for a manually added charge), check the Exclude from auto-rates calculations option.
Meter Reading Rates
The Ask for meter reading check box should be selected for any meter-reading rates where it will be multiplied by the metered amount (e.g. kwh for electric meters.) This is used as a flag for the special meter-entry dialog. If this option is selected, a Meter Allowance field will also appear. If your rental rates include a certain amount of electricity, water, or gas and then you charge for excess, then enter the allowance here. This will adjust meter charges accordingly -- the actual meter readings will show on the receipt, but the charge will only include units above the allowance.
For any of the Meter rate types, you can also enter values for Applies if >= units and Applies if <= units. This allows different meter rates to be used for different amounts of usage, such as for tiered meter rates.
Applies if ... days
You can set up the rate to apply only if the reservation is longer or shorter than a given number of days, by setting the Applies if >= days and Applies if <= days fields. For instance, there's no reason to show monthly rates if the reservation is less than 20 days or so. In this case, you would want to base the days on how many days it would take for the monthly rate to be more economical than the weekly rate, for instance. This could also be used for "3-day special" rates, etc., to show the rate only if they are staying more than 3 days.
Be careful about setting the maximum days, however. It may seem appropriate to set the daily rate to only show if they're staying less than 7 days, but then if they stay 10 days you would not be able to apply the daily rate to the remaining days. This should only be done in special circumstances, for instance if you have 2 different daily rates -- one for short-term stays and another for pro-rating long-term residents.
Applies if reservation field...
The Applies if reservation field... selection permits a great deal of control over when a rate is used. This specifies that the rate applies to a particular "preference" setting in the reservation or one of the "# of" or value fields such as number of adults, extra vehicles, or rig length. This option is most often used for add-on rates, such as for adding $1.00 per extra person, but can also be used to indicate a special rate if they need 50A service, for instance.
To use this option, select a reservation field from the list. Some numeric fields are also available in additive combinations also, primarily to allow "# Adults + # Children" to be selected if you charge per person regardless of age.
If the field is an attirbute/preference field, such as "50A", then you can specify whether the rate will apply only if that preference is "true" (set to "Must Have") for the reservation, or whether it's "False" (not set or set to "Must Not Have" are both considered false in this case). Therefore you can set up two separate rates that are mutually exclusive, one for the True case and one for the False case of the preference field.
If the field is a numeric value, additional settings will appear that need to be entered. You will first enter a value for "is >=" to indicate when the rate applies. For instance, if you charge for any adults above 2, then set this value to 3. Next you can specify that the rate is "Per each more than", which means that it will be multiplied by the value minus some number. For instance, set this value to 2 in the previous example to charge for every adult above 2 adults. Another example would be a charge for all extra vehicles -- set "is >=" to 1, and "Per each more than" to 0.
Adding new fields -- If you need add your own fields for use in rates like this, then note that they must be tagged as "Attrib" fields in order to be selectable from this list. See the special note about Attribute Fields under the Adding New Fields section of the Data Field Definitions topic.
Advanced Condition Expression...
If the rate can't be properly qualified using the other Applies-if conditions, date selections, etc, then you can use Expressions to create a condition as complex as needed. Note that this involves the Advanced Customizations functionality and is only recommended for very technical users, so refer to that section for more detailed information.
If a Condition Expression is entered here, it must be satisfied (result in True) in addition to all other conditions in the rate definition in order for the rate to be used. Thus you can use the other Applies-if conditions to handle the simple stuff, and use the expression to only do the filtering that can't be otherwise handled by the rate definition.
While it's possible to use a condition for any type of rate whether it's for a reservation or not, e.g. for merchandise, it will not have any context to work with unless it's for a reservation. When the rate is for a reservation, it will have ThisResv( ) context which will the specific reservation being calculated (e.g. if there are 5 synchronize reservations being calculated, this expression will be executed for each reservation individually). In addition, ThisFromDate( ) and ThisToDate( ) will indicate the date range being qualified (as well as ThisFromPeriod( ) and ThisToPeriod( ) if it's an hourly/scheduled reservation). Note that this will be the entire date/period range of the reservation when qualifying the rate for Select Rates, but when actually auto-calculating rates it will be a single day (or period), as the rate is checked for applying to each day or period individually.
Rate Dates
You can define the dates for which any rate is applicable. This will be used whenever selecting a rate for a reservation, and will only show the rates that are applicable on at least one day of the reservation. For instance, if a reservation includes a holiday, you will see both the normal rate and the holiday rate in the selection list. Likewise, when you select the holiday rate, the quantity that appears for the number of days will be just the number of days that the reservation date occurs on the rate's applicable dates.
For example, if the reservation is for 5 days and includes 3 holiday days (e.g. for a holiday weekend rate), then the holiday rate will be multiplied by 3 days and the normal rate will be multiplied by 2 days (assuming the rate's dates are defined to me mutually exclusive). Although you will have to select both rates, the numbers will be handled for you automatically.
Defining dates for a Rate definition is just like defining dates that a Site is available.
Season Dates Applicable
This field is used to specify the dates for which the rate is applicable. Dates in this field and the other two Special Dates fields can be entered as single dates or as date ranges. You can also enter dates without the year if you want to specify dates that apply the same to every year, but this only applies to the Season Dates, not the Special Dates. If you leave this field blank, it means that the site is available all year long (so there's no need to enter 1/1 to 12/31).
Note that the dates in these fields will be entered in the "regional" format according to your computer's settings -- for instance, month/day for U.S., and day/month for Canadian, etc. U.S. format is used in the examples.
There is no limit to the number of dates or date ranges you can enter, and the field will scroll as needed. Separate each date range with a comma. A space after the comma is optional (it will be inserted automatically when displayed). The format of a date is fairly flexible as long as if follows the month/day/year convention. Each range should include two dates separated by the word "to". Here are some examples of valid range entries:
1/1 to 9/30, 11/1 to 12/31 (note there are no years, so it applies to every year)
1/2/2002 to 4/3/02 (years can be 2 or 4 digits)
10-5-01, 10-7-01 to 12-31-01 (single dates can be entered, and you can use the dash in a date)
Regardless of the date format you use, it will be changed to a common format (like mm/dd/yyyy) after you save the information. If you make a mistake in an entry, it will warn you when you click Save and ask you to fix it.
You can clear out old date ranges once that year has passed (and add new ones for upcoming years). Unlike the dates for Sites, there is no need to keep old dates in the lists since you probably won't be adding transactions to old reservations.
Wrap-around seasons -- If the range you want to enter "wraps around" the end of the year, such as December to February, it must be entered in two segments if you don't include the year in the dates. So instead for a season of 12/1 to 2/28, enter it as 12/1 to 12/31, 1/1 to 2/28.
Important -- When defining rates for different seasons, make sure that there are no gaps or else there may be times when no rates appear (or they don't multiply by the correct number of dates). Likewise it's a good idea to avoid overlapping. Therefore if you have a special holiday rate with a Season Date of 7/4, then your normal rate definition should have 7/4 in its Special Dates Not Applicable Field to exclude that date from the normal rate.
Special Dates Applicable
Special Dates Applicable take precedence over season dates in determining if a site is available. Even if you have specific seasons, there may be times when you want to make some rates available out of season. You could just adjust the Season Dates if you enter the dates for each year separately, but if you use the same Season Dates every year (entered without years, like 3/1 to 9/30) then you need to enter any exceptions in this field.
The Special Dates Available field follows the same formatting as Season Dates, with the exception that they should always have a year in them. (Otherwise you would be better off adjusting the Season Dates.) It's OK to have dates here that are considered applicable by the season dates anyway, but it would add work for the software so it's best to avoid overlapping dates.
Note -- Since this is an exception list, you can't just put the normally applicable dates here -- use the Season Dates field for the normal range. The Special Dates Available list simply overrides "out of season" dates to be applicable.
Special Dates Not Applicable
This is the highest priority of the date fields. If a date is included here, the rate will be considered not applicable on this date even if the same date is in both of the Dates Applicable lists above. Dates in this list should always have years in them.
Days of the Week Applicable
These checkboxes allow you to indicate which days of the week the rate is applicable on, which is handy for specifying weekday / weekend rates. Note that the days of the week selected can be overridden by Special Dates Applicable or Special Dates Not Applicable, so take care in specifying special dates in these cases.
If you don't have any sites that are available based on the day of the week, then you should disable these fields (see Define Data Fields). This will improve the speed of the program.
Notes
The Notes field is just for your own notes, perhaps an explanation of why a rate is set up the way it is. The Notes are never seen by the customer or by an operator selecting a rate. The notes can be any length.
Further Topics: