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