Rates - Pay & Charge Rate Lookup Process

Created by Martin Parkinson, Modified on Wed, 22 Nov 2023 at 11:13 AM by Graeme Orchard

When using the Influence system to book Temporary workers it is possible to store pay and charge rates in the system. When a booking is made, the system will attempt to look-up the correct pay/charge rate applicable to the booking.

This lookup process runs though a hierarchy which is described below.

(Example screenshot showing some of the rates which are considered)

When looking for a rate the system checks in the order shown below, i.e.

*Booking Match =>> Candidate ==> Requirement ==> Site ==> Client ==> *Named Global ==> Global

* These additional items may not be on all systems; if they do not exist on your system you will require an update to get these new features.

PLEASE NOTE: When looking up rates, if using parents/subsidiaries for clients, then parent company is not considered during the rate lookup process. In those instances you may wish to use 'Global Rates' instead, and point the subsidiary firms at a centrally created set of 'Global' rates instead.

As well as the above, the system will also look for AGE and AWR (Equivalent) rates.
AWR is taken in precedence to AGE.

As soon as a number is found for a rate, that number is used. If there is no number (i.e. the rate is £0.00) the system keeps looking to find a rate.
When looking for rates the system looks for the most applicable rate, i.e. If the candidates was Over-25, then the system might go past rates held at the requirement and site level to find a specific "Over 25" rate card at a lower level.

NOTE: When looking for the most applicable rate AWR is taken in preference to Age.
From Version 1.00.18.100 it is possible to modify the lookup process slightly.

Parameters affecting Rates Lookup

BOOKREQ, Flag(27) Stop rate checking if ANY rate found on Req.
This parameter will amend the lookup process so that if any rate (i.e. non-zero number) is found at the Requirement level, the system will stop looking and will not try to find a more 'applicable' rate.

PayrollB, Flag(37) Uses rates form 1st card found (Bar Cand).
If set this parameter will modify the lookup to work in the following way. Firstly the system will look at the candidate to pick up any applicable rates. Any rates which have a Zero (e.g Charge Rate) will continue searching.
After the candidate card, as soon as an applicable rate card is found at any level in the hierarchy (REQUIREMENT > SITE > CLIENT > GLOBAL), the system will STOP looking any further, even if some of the rates on the card contain a zero value.

In the example above, you can see that the rate for O/T 2 is the same for the requirement and Client. In this case the rate used is that from the Requirement because it is found first.

NOTE: Not all systems use 'Requirements' - if you do not, then this lookup will be skipped and it will go from Candidates directly to Site/Client rates.

Tip: If you are unsure where the rates came from you can easily check by looking at the booking entry screen and clicking the [Rate Source] button.

e.g.

Clicking [Rate Source] gives

In this example you can see that the PAY rates for Basic/Overtime come from the Candidate, but the Charge Rates come from the Client.

Worked Example:

Candidate: Percy Thrower, age 68
Site: Big Gardens (Leatherhead), Client = Big Gardens
Requirement: Garden maintenance - no68

Where	Role	Age	Rate	Pay	Charge
Candidate	Gardener	any	Basic	£14.50	£0.00
			Overtime	£0.00	£0.00
Requirement	Gardener	any	Basic	£13.00	£17.00
			Overtime	£14.00	£0.00
Site	Gardener	any	Basic	£12.12	£15.22
			Overtime	£13.12	£16.22
Client	Gardener	any	Basic	£12.45	£15.45
			Overtime	£13.45	£16.45
	Gardener	Ovr25	Basic	£12.99	£15.99
			Overtime	£13.99	£16.99

A) In the 'normal' Setting the system will get:
Basic Pay Rate: £14.50 (taken from Candidate)
O/Time Pay Rate: £12.99 (Taken from client, ovr25 rate)

Basic Charge Rate: £15.99 (Taken from client, ovr25 rate)
O/Time Charge rate: £16.99 (taken from client, ovr25 rate)

In this case most rates come from the Client, since the system keeps looking for the 'Most' applicable rate, which the over25 rate found at client level.

B) With parameter BOOKREQ, flag(27) set. (i.e. STOP at Requirement)
Basic Pay Rate: £14.50 (taken from Candidate)
O/Time Pay Rate: £14.00 (Taken from Requirement)

Basic Charge Rate: £17.00(Taken from Requirement)
O/Time Charge rate: £16.99 (taken from client, ovr25 rate)

In this case rates generally come from the Requirement, except for the O/T charge rate which was zero, so the system keep looking for a number.

C) With parameter PayrollB, flag(37) set. (i.e. STOP at as soon as any rate card is found)

Basic Pay Rate: £14.50 (taken from Candidate)
O/Time Pay Rate: £14.00 (Taken from Requirement)

Basic Charge Rate: £17.00(Taken from Requirement)
O/Time Charge rate: £0.00 (taken from Requirement)

In this case, ALL rates, except the Basic Pay Rate come from the requirement, because it has found a Rate Card, and stopped.

AGE RATES / RATE BANDS

When setting up Rates is is possible to specify an Age Range which will apply to the specific Rate Card (See below)

How the Age Bands Work

The Not Specified age description covers all ages IF age has not been specified within the rate table. Not Specified currently covers ALL ages below:

Continued....

If you specify 25 or Over in the rate table then Not Specified will apply to ages under 25, but those over 25 will get the 25 or Over rate.

Continued...

If you then specify Under 21 age in the rate table then the Not Specified age will cover ages 21, 22, 23 and 24.

Continued...

As per the examples above, Not Specified age description covers two functions:
1) Covers ALL ages - where the age has not been specified within the rate table.

2) Covers ages 21, 22, 23 and 24 (where Under 21 + 25 or Over ages have been specified within the rate table).

EXPORT PAY & CHARGE RATES

From version 1.00.20.120 (or later) it is possible to export details of Client or Candidate Rate Cards into MS Excel. The details will be exported to a *.csv file, which is in the same format as used for importing rates, and can be opened/edited using MS Excel.

An example of the layout in the export file is shown below:

Non-Hours Rates

When setting up Rate codes to add to a rate card, certain rates might be setup as Non-Hours rates. This is sometimes useful to add items such as 'mileage' or 'piecework'.

In this case there is a choice as to whether you want these non-hours rates to default into the Booking Entry screen as either "1" or "0" - See below