People who manage billing settings set the default shop rate, billing rate and cost markup that Property Meld uses to price Technician labor and fill in bills and estimates. Accurate rates make labor count at its real cost and let each bill recover your labor and overhead instead of absorbing them. The billing rate is sometimes called the bill rate.
Availability: Rolling out to AppFolio customers first, with other integrations to follow.
Before You Start
Setting labor rates and cost markup needs the right access, so check these details first.
- Who this is for: People who manage billing settings.
- Applies to: Companies that run in-house Technicians, bill Owners or their own entities for maintenance, or both.
- Access needed: Agent (the platform role for property management company staff who coordinate Melds), with admin access to edit application settings.
How Labor Rates and Cost Markup Work
Labor rates and cost markup decide what a Meld costs your company and what a bill charges for it, so they set the margin on every bill. They feed TrueCost, which counts the full cost of a Meld: Vendor invoices, plus Technician labor, plus Costs.
The three defaults work as follows:
- Shop rate: the fully loaded hourly cost of a Technician, including wages, benefits, overhead and support costs. The shop rate isn't a Technician's hourly pay. When a Technician checks in and out of a Meld, the work log hours count as labor cost at the shop rate.
- Billing rate: the default hourly labor rate on bills. When a Coordinator creates a bill, Technician labor fills in at the billing rate.
- Cost markup: the default markup on Costs and Vendor invoices on bills. The markup is a percentage or a flat dollar amount, and bills apply only a percentage.
Labor margin is the gap between the billing rate and the shop rate. For example, a $50 shop rate and a $70 billing rate give a labor margin of $20 an hour, 40% above the shop rate. Labor never gets a separate markup, because the billing rate already sets its margin.
Every account starts with a $45 shop rate and a $90 billing rate. Coordinators can change the labor rate and markup on each bill, and the bill the Owner receives shows each line's total, not the markup. See Bill a Verified Meld.
Choose What to Set for How You Work
Setting the defaults your company actually uses keeps labor cost and bills accurate. The table below matches how your company works to the defaults that matter.
| If Your Company... | Set | What the Defaults Do |
|---|---|---|
| Runs in-house Technicians and bills for maintenance | All three | Labor counts at its real cost, bills charge labor at the billing rate, and Costs and Vendor invoices get your markup. |
| Runs in-house Technicians but doesn't bill | Default Work Log Shop Rate | Labor counts at its real cost. The billing rate is required but not used on bills. Keep it at or above the shop rate so the warning doesn't appear. |
| Bills for maintenance but has no in-house Technicians | Default Costs Markup | Costs and Vendor invoices get your markup. Both rates are required but are used only when Technicians log work, so you can keep the starting values. |
Set Your Rates and Markup
Entering your rates and markup once means every work log and every new bill starts from the right numbers, so Coordinators don't price each line by hand. To set them:
- Go to Account Settings > Billing Settings, then select the Rates & Pricing tab.
- In Default Work Log Shop Rate, enter the fully loaded hourly cost of a Technician.
- In Default Work Log Billing Rate, enter the hourly rate you charge for Technician labor. If the billing rate is lower than the shop rate, a warning reads Your configured billing rate is less than your shop rate. Check that the shop rate is your true operating cost and that you mean to bill labor below cost.
Decision Point: A Percentage or a Flat Markup
- Percentage (%): adds markup in proportion to each line. For example, 50% on a $50 receipt makes a $75 line. Fits most companies, because the markup grows with the cost, and it's the only markup bills apply.
- Flat amount ($): adds the same dollar amount once to each line on estimates. For example, $5 on a $50 line makes a $55 line. Bills don't apply a flat markup.
- Considerations: if you create bills, choose a percentage. A flat amount fits only a fixed handling fee on estimates, and it adds as much to a $5 part as to a $500 Vendor invoice.
- In Default Costs Markup, enter the amount, then choose % or $.
- Select Save Changes.
If Your Situation Is Different
Your situation decides which defaults reach a bill, so check whether one of these applies.
- If one bill needs a different rate or markup: the Coordinator changes it on that bill, and your defaults stay the same. See Bill a Verified Meld.
- If your company forwards Vendor invoices to Owners to pay: no bill is created in Property Meld, so the cost markup isn't applied to those Melds. The shop rate still counts Technician labor at its real cost. See Set Up No Bill Needed Rules.
What Happens Next
After you save, your defaults price Technician labor and fill in bills, so check that they took effect.
- What you see: Settings updated successfully appears, and the fields show your saved values.
- What Coordinators see: when they create a bill, Technician labor fills in at your billing rate, and Costs and Vendor invoices carry your cost markup.
- If the message doesn't appear: check that both rates have a value, because they're required, then select Save Changes again.
- If a new bill doesn't show your markup: check that Default Costs Markup on the Rates & Pricing tab is set as a percentage.
Limitations and Things to Know
Labor rates and cost markup have these limits, each with what to do instead.
- You can't add a separate markup to Technician labor. To raise your labor margin, raise the billing rate.
- Bills don't apply a flat markup. If you create bills, set Default Costs Markup as a percentage.
- You can't set rates per Technician or per property. The shop rate and billing rate apply to every Technician and property. To charge a different rate for one job, the Coordinator changes it on that bill.
Related Articles
These articles cover what to do next and where to get help.