Using formulae to calculate rates for products and services
When creating a new product or service, you have the option to use a custom formula to calculate how rates are applied. This is useful if you have a more complex way of charging for products/services, or if you want your products/services to interact in some way with funding.
To create a formula:
- Go to
> System Settings.
- Click on the Products and Services tab on the left.
- Click on the
button in the top right to create a new product/service.
- Fill out the details of this product/service.
- Under Rate Type, select Automated Rates.
- Check As Per Formula.
Under Frequency, you can choose how often products/services are charged on invoices.
Weekly can be used for both actual and equally spread invoices. This will be charged each week for actuals and will use the sample week for equally spread to then calculate through the calculation factor.
Monthly can only be used for equally spread invoices. This will be charged once on the invoice and will not be calculated through the calculation factor.
If you choose Weekly, you'll have an additional option called Calculation Factor Per Formula. This is only relevant for equally spread invoices, where the calculation factor is used to determine the monthly cost of the product/service for the invoice. Which factor you should use depends on whether you want the product/service to be applicable to all the child's scheduled hours or only the funded hours.
The Invoice Calculation Factor is Weeks the Nursery is Open Per Year/Months the Nursery is Open Per Year.
The Funding Calculation Factor is nearly the same, except it uses funded weeks and months. Funded Weeks the Nursery is Open Per Year/Funded Months the Nursery is Open Per Year based on invoice settings.
[[Values]]
Type the formula into the text box. Entering [[ will bring up a list of values that have been drawn from the system, which you can use in the formula. These are:
Weekly
Average Weekly Hourly Session Rate: The average hourly session rate per week.
Local Authority Term/Funding Rate: Local authority funding rates according to funding term settings.
Weekly Funded Hours: The child's funded hours per week.
Weekly Scheduled Hours: For actuals invoices, this takes the child's scheduled hours for the week the product/service is applied. Equally spread invoices will use the scheduled hours from the sample week.
Monthly
Local Authority Term/Funding Rate: Local authority funding rates according to funding term settings.
Monthly Funded Hours: The child's funded hours per month.
Monthly Scheduled Hours: The child's scheduled hours per month.
Here's a basic of example of how you might incorporate these values into a formula if you wanted to charge £10 per funded hour every week: 10 * [[Weekly Funded Hours]]
Functions
You can use the functions MAX, MIN, FLOOR, CEIL, ABS to alter the formula in different ways.
MAX/MIN
These functions will return the highest or lowest number value, respectively, from a group of numbers. As a very basic example, if you type in MAX(1, 2, 3, 4), it will return the number 4, and that is the number that will be used for the rest of the formula. If you use the same example, but replace MAX with MIN, it will return 1.
FLOOR/CEIL
These functions are used to round fractional numbers to the nearest whole integer. FLOOR rounds down, while CEIL rounds up. For example, if you type FLOOR(4.78), it will return 4. Meanwhile, typing in CEIL(4.78) will return 5.
ABS
ABS returns the absolute value of a number. In practical terms, this means that any negative numbers will return positive, and any positive numbers will also return positive. ABS(-1) = 1, and ABS(1) = 1. This can be used to show the distance between two numbers, in which case its sign doesn't matter.
Combining [[values]] and functions
Now let's take a look at an example that implements both [[values in double square brackets]] and functions. Here is a formula you might use if you want to charge different amounts for general extras depending on the child's funded hours:
(MAX(1, [[Average Weekly Hourly Session Rate]] - [[Local Authority Term/Funding Rate]])) * [[Weekly Funded Hours]]
Let's break this down:
[[Average Weekly Hourly Session Rate]] - [[Local Authority Term/Funding Rate]] simply means that the local authority funding rate will be subtracted from the child's average hourly session rate per week. For example, if the average session rate is 7, and the local authority rate is 5, then 7 - 5 = 2.
MAX(1, [[Average Weekly Hourly Sessions Rate]] - [[Local Authority Term/Funding Rate]]) uses the function MAX to return the higher number out of 1 and the value of the above calculation. Using the example above where the value is 2, then MAX(1, 2) would return 2.
This value is then multiplied by the child's [[Weekly Funded Hours]]. If the child gets 15 hours of funding, then 2 * 15 = 30. That means that, for this child, the parent pays £30 for general extras per week.
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