Shop Rate and Bill Rate let you set default labor pricing for invoicing. Shop Rate represents your internal cost of doing business, and Bill Rate is what you charge (and what will populate on bills by default).
Understand Shop Rate, Bill Rate, and Cost Markup
Shop Rate
Your internal hourly cost for labor.
This is the fully loaded hourly cost used to understand what it costs your business to operate a maintenance technician, including wages, benefits, overhead, and support costs.
Shop Rate is used internally to help calculate the cost of fulfilling work and should not represent a technician’s hourly pay.
Bill Rate
Your default hourly labor rate charged to an owner or resident when bills are created.
This is the rate that will appear on bills by default and is used as the starting rate for invoicing.
Cost Markup
The default percentage added to line item costs on both Estimates and Bills.
Cost Markup helps account for additional margin, overhead, or administrative costs when passing line item costs through to an owner or resident.
Note: Shop Rate and Bill Rate help calculate labor profitability, while Cost Markup applies to line item costs on Estimates and Bills. If a margin or profit view is enabled in your account, it may use these values to help estimate profitability.
Set your default Shop Rate, Bill Rate, and Coist Markup
Go to Settings.
Select Account Settings.
Open Invoicing.
Enter your Default Work Log Shop Rate.
Enter your Default Work Log Billing Rate.
Enter your Default Cost Markup.
Select Save.
Tip: In most cases, your Bill Rate should be higher than your Shop Rate, since Bill Rate is what you charge and Shop Rate reflects your internal labor cost. If Bill Rate is set lower than Shop Rate, the system will display a warning, but it will still allow you to save.
Cost Markup is applied to line item costs on Estimates and Bills. For example, if your default Costs Markup is set to 10%, that markup will be used as the default when adding applicable costs to Estimates and Bills.
Tip: If you do not want to use these yet, you can leave the defaults at $0.
Recommended: Add work logs in the technician mobile app
The preferred way to add work logs is through the technician mobile app while work is being performed in the field. This helps capture labor in real time and supports more accurate billing.
Open the assigned Meld in the technician mobile app.
Check in when work begins.
Add the work log with the time worked and any relevant notes.
Check out when work is complete.
Save the work log.
Once the Meld is complete and work log hours have been entered, you can create the bill in Meld.
Note: The Bill Rate will apply to labor by default during billing. Bill Rate will apply when the bill is later created from those work logs.
Create Your Bill
Go to Create Bill.
Select Continue.
If you add a new line item and set the type to Labor, your default Bill Rate will also be applied automatically. You can still edit the rate per line item as needed (for example, cleaning at a reduced rate, specialty work at a higher rate).
Hide Shop Rate from technicians (optional)
If you do not want technicians to see the Shop Rate (since it can be higher than a technician’s wage), you can control access with role permissions.
Go to Settings.
Select Account Settings.
Open Roles and select the role used by technicians (for example, Maintenance).
Under Payments, disable View expenditures.
Save the role.
Tip: Most technicians do not need this permission since they log labor in Work Logs and add parts or receipts in Costs.