The Fixed price budget type in the Simple Budget Editor offers three billable rates similar to those in the Time and Materials budget type.
However, it's important to note that Fixed budget types are structured for fixed invoicing amounts. This means you won't invoice based on logged time but rather a pre-set fixed amount.
Billable rates
In the Fixed price budget type, you can choose from the following billable rates: Person hourly rate, Service hourly rate, and Fixed hourly rate.
For more information on each, check out the paragraphs below.
Person hourly rate
This option allows the hourly rate to be tailored to the individual working on the service within the budget.
If you select the "Person" option, the hourly rate will be applied to the person you've chosen for that service, with a set tracking restriction. This means that only the person selected will be able to log hours for the said service.
Consider this scenario for illustration and check out how the setup looks in the editor:
"I am selling Alex's services as a developer for 50$/hour, where the total budget and invoicing amount for the said service will be $2000."
Service hourly rate
This option allows the hourly rate to be tailored to the service within the budget.
When you select the "Service" option, the hourly rate will be applied to the service you have specified in the budget, regardless of who is working on it.
"I am selling developer work (service) for $50/hour, where the total budget and invoicing amount for the said service will be $2000".
Fixed hourly rate
This option allows for the same hourly rate to be applied to all services within the specified budget. When you select the "Fixed rate" option, the fixed hourly rate applies to all services within the budget, regardless of the specific person or service.
"I am selling all my services in this budget at $50/hour, where the total budget and invoicing amount will be $2000".
In this scenario, you have three options in the "Budget" dropdown to choose from. "Budget per service" lets you set the budget or invoicing amount for each service, "Budget per person" sets it for the person working on the service, and "Total price per budget" sets the overall invoicing or budget sum. We'll cover these in the following section of this article.
Tracking Budget Progress
After selecting your preferred billable rate for the budget, choose how to track the budget usage.
"Total price per Budget"
Opting for the "Total price per budget" setting will create a "Budget" service line item in your budget. This line item acts as a cumulative, lump sum, budget, with deducted amounts representing the logged time or expenses as you use your budget.
It's important to note that you cannot track time against the lump sum service line ("Budget"), only against the individual services you've added!
"Budget per service"
Select this option to define the budget for individual services within the budget. By defining these budgets, you are effectively defining the total amount you plan on invoicing your client.
Selecting "Budget per service" adds a dedicated "Budget" field next to each service in the Services editor found below, automatically adding up the budgets you add in the "Budget fees" field to show you the total budget amount.
"Budget per person"
Select this option to define the budget for individual people assigned to the services within the budget. By defining these budgets, you are effectively defining the total amount you plan on invoicing your client.
Selecting "Budget per person" adds a dedicated "Budget" field next to each service in the Services editor found below, automatically adding up the budgets you add in the "Budget fees" field to show you the total budget amount.
Budget fees
You can manually enter the total budget amount in the "Budget fees" field if you chose the "Total price per budget" option in the previous step.
Otherwise, if you previously selected the "Budget per service" or "Budget per person", the budget total will be calculated as the sum of the budgets you allocated for the service or person.
