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Set up cost rates, commissions & ad-hoc reports

The three adjustments outside the Controlling module: the internal cost rate in the HR portal, commission rates per category and automatic ad-hoc dispatch.

Prerequisites

Many Controlling analyses only compute correctly once three things are maintained outside the Controlling module: the internal cost rate per employee, the commission rates per category and – if desired – automatic ad-hoc dispatch. This article bundles these three adjustments.

1. Internal cost rate (HR portal, per period)

The internal cost rate is the most important basis of every contribution-margin calculation. It is used to calculate an employee’s labour costs and to distribute their share of the positive contribution margin – proportional to their labour costs on the project. Without a maintained cost rate, Project analysis, Employee analysis and Customer analysis remain incomplete.

You maintain it per period in the HR portal:

  1. Open the HR portal and choose the employee.
  2. Store the internal (and, if applicable, external) cost rate – with a validity period, because rates change over time.
  3. Save; older periods are retained for historical analyses.

Important: Because the rate is period-based, analyses for past months use the rate that was valid at the time. When a salary/rate changes, create a new period rather than overwriting the old one.

An employee's HR portal (Volker Vorstand) with the open Hourly rate and salaries dialog: Period section (valid from/to), hourly rates and supplements as well as monthly salary composition.
HR portal: the "Hourly rate and salaries" dialog with an employee's internal cost rate and its validity period.

2. Commission rates (Configuration → Projects → Categories)

For each category you can store a commission rate that is applied when time is booked. If an employee records a project time under a category with a stored rate, the commission is calculated based on the order item – the commission report then shows how much commission can be paid.

This is how you set it up:

  1. Open the Configuration.
  2. Navigate to Projects → Project time categories.
  3. Open the category (the Category detail manager) and store the commission rate in the General section.
  4. Save – from the next time booking under this category, the rate applies.
Configuration → Projects → the Project time categories tab with the open Category detail manager (the Billable category): in the General section the Commission rate field as well as Name, Active, Sorting and the Billable toggle.
The "Projects → Project time categories" configuration: storing the "Commission rate" on a category in the Category detail manager.

3. Ad-hoc dispatch (Personal data – Notifications)

The ad-hoc report informs a person automatically by email about important events (assignment of tasks, warnings, new follow-ups, new tickets). The dispatch frequency is set by each user themselves – not by the admin in the Controlling module:

  1. Open the avatar menu (personal settings).
  2. Go to Personal data – Notifications.
  3. Set how often you receive ad-hoc reports.

The analysis of the dispatched reports (the filters User account, Period, additional filters) is described in Other reports.

Common questions & needs

You want to …How to
Have contribution margins calculated correctlyMaintain internal cost rates per employee with a validity period in the HR portal.
Map a rate change cleanly over historyCreate a new period, don’t overwrite the old one.
Make commission payable for an activityStore the commission rate on the relevant category under Configuration → Projects → Categories.
Be informed automatically about new ticketsEnable ad-hoc dispatch under Personal data – Notifications.
Change the dispatch frequencyAvatar menu → Personal data – Notifications.