In this article we will talk about how to use a customer labor rate in a Maintenance project. For example you may have a typical maintenance rate of $65/ HR, but for something specialized you want to charge a higher rate. This article will walk you through how to do that.
One common reason to reach for a custom labor rate is when you need to apply your current-year rate to a new work area on a project that was already sold under last year's budget. A sold project's labor rate and material prices are both locked to its original snapshot (by design); custom labor rate is the right tool for pulling in the new labor number on just that work area, and you can override material prices per-line directly on the work area. See Why Don't My Labor Rates or Material Prices Update on a Sold Project... for the underlying behavior.
Two situations, two paths. If you're estimating and want to bill a different labor rate, you'll use the custom labor rate on the work area (steps below) — those rates come from your item catalog. If the job is already done and you want to bill a different rate than your default after the fact, you edit the man-hour price in the job's actuals instead (see Charging a different rate after the job is done, at the bottom).
Where these custom labor rates come from
The options in the Custom Labor Rate dropdown come from the labor items in your item catalog. If the rate you want isn't in the dropdown yet, create a labor item in your item catalog at the rate you want first — it'll then be available to pick on the work area using the steps below.
Example: for a specialized irrigation-repair rate, add an irrigation-repair labor item to your catalog at that rate, then select it as the custom labor rate on the work area.
Step by Step:
1. Open a maintenance job.
2. Click "Open Catalog Browser"
3. Select the labor item you wish to use.
4. Add to estimate and adjust quantity.
5. Click save.
6. Go to custom labor rate and click the dropdown.
7. Choose the custom labor rate you would like to use.
Charging a different rate after the job is done
The steps above are for estimating. If the work is already complete and you want to bill a labor rate that's different from your default, don't change the estimate — edit the man-hour price in the job's actuals. You can do this two ways:
On each visit, or
All at once on the Costing & Analysis page.