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To begin setting up your Interpreter Intelligence system to automatically calculate Invoice and Payment line items, the first thing you need to do is setup Rate Zones.
Rate Zones are used to categorize different hours of the day or the week into different chargeable and payable zones. For example, you may have one zone for your normal office hours such as Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm, another for out of hours Monday to Friday and Saturdays and another for Sundays and Holidays. II has 3 separate rate zones to help you define these chargeable times; Standard, Premium & Platinum. When we move to setting up Rate Plans you will see how you can then apply different rates to the different Rate Zones.
Creating Rate Zones
To setup a Rate Zone:
- Navigate to the ‘Admin’ menu and select ‘Rate Zones’
- Click the button New Rate Zone
- Enter a Name for the rate zone
- Check the box Default Group (see below for further information)
- Provide a Description for the rate zone which will remind you, the agency, what this particular zone applies to
- You can then see that the Rate Zone has 3 main sections as outlined above - Standard, Premium and Platinum and you can use each of these sections to categorise your chargeable and payable hours
- Starting with the Standard Section:
- Click Add Segment
- Simply select the Day of the week, e.g. Monday, and the Start Time and End Time e.g. 09:00 to 17:00. Alternatively you can select All Day if you do not have any distinction between weekday hours
- Click Add Segment again and repeat this process to select all appropriate days of the week and hours for your Standard hours
- Let’s move onto the Premium Section - note that by default, all hours outside of Standard hours will be charged at Premium rates, however, you do need to add at least one segment to activate this section
- Click Add Segment
- Simply select the Day of the week, e.g. Saturday, and in this case you would likely select All Day
- Repeat this process for any other days/hours that fall into the Premium section. Note that you do not need to define out-of-hours from Monday to Friday as these will automatically be charged at Premium rates
- Finally, you may wish to define the Platinum section for any other hours, e.g. Sundays or Holidays:
- If this section covers holidays simply check the box Include Holidays (see below for more information on setting up holiday dates)
- If this section covers any other days of the week simply click Add Segment as per above
- When you have completed all sections, click Save Rate Zones
- If you wish to setup additional rate zones for specific Customers or Contacts, click the New Rate Zones button or Duplicate Rate Zones if the rate zone will be similar with some modifications. Any additional rate zones should not be marked Default.
- All saved Rate Zones will then appear in a list on the left hand side and can be modified at any time
- On the Audit History tab of a Rate Zone you can see a timeline of changes made
- Note that a Default Rate Zone will appear with a ✔ check mark beside it
Default Rate Zones
If a Customer or Contact does not have a Rate Zone Association they will automatically pick up the Rate Zone that has been marked as Default as per the instructions above in Creating a Rate Zone.
Unlike Rate Plans (which will be covered in another topic), Rate Zones are not defined at the Customer or Interpreter level but can be associated with Customers and Interpreters as required, see the section Associating Rate Zones with Customers/Interpreters.
Associating Rate Zones with Customers/Interpreters
As per above, If a Customer or Contact does not have a Rate Zone Association they will automatically pick up the Rate Zone that has been marked as Default, therefore your Default Rate Zone should cover the hours/zones that are common to the majority of your Customers and Interpreters and you will then only need to associate a small number of outliers to specific Rate Zones.
To Associate a Customer with a Rate Zone:
- Navigate to the ‘Admin’ menu hover over ‘Rate Zones’ and select the sidebar menu item Customer (Zones)
- On the right hand side you will see a list of Customers and on the left hand side a list of Rate Zones; if you have an exhaustive list on either side you can type to search for the appropriate value
- Clicking on either a Customer or a Rate Zone will display the details and the relevant associations in the middle of the page; if you click on a Customer for example this will show you the association including if this is the Default, if you click on a Rate Zone this will display the details of the Rate Zone but if it is a Default Rate Zone the Customers will not be shown
- To make/change an association simply select a Rate Zone on the left and drag a Customer from the right over to the middle on top of the Rate Zone or
- Select a Customer on the right and drag a Rate Zone from the left over to the middle on top of the Customer
To Associate an Interpreter with a Rate Zone:
- Navigate to the ‘Admin’ menu hover over ‘Rate Zones’ and select the sidebar menu item Interpreter (Zones)
- On the right hand side you will see a list of Interpreters and on the left hand side a list of Rate Zones; if you have an exhaustive list on either side you can type to search for the appropriate value
- Clicking on either a Interpreter or a Rate Zone will display the details and the relevant associations in the middle of the page; if you click on a Interpreter for example this will show you the association including if this is the Default, if you click on a Rate Zone this will display the details of the Rate Zone but if it is a Default Rate Zone the Interpreters will not be shown
- To make/change an association simply select a Rate Zone on the left and drag an Interpreter from the right over to the middle on top of the Rate Zone or
- Select an Interpreter on the right and drag a Rate Zone from the left over to the middle on top of the Interpreter
Setting up Holidays for ‘Include Holidays’
If you use the setting ‘Include Holidays’ in any of your Rate Zones you will need to setup these holiday dates in the system. To do this:
- Navigate to the ‘Admin’ menu, select ‘Company’ and select the Holidays tab
- Click Add Holiday
- Enter a Name, Date and Description for the Holiday
- Click the Save link
- Click Add Holiday again and repeat this process for any additional Holidays
- Finally, click the Blue Save button to save all settings
Using Overnight/Night settings on a Rate Zone
A more advanced option on Rate Zones is to enable the ‘Overnight/Night Enabled’. By doing this, and by also enabling this setting on a Rate Plan, you can then define separate rates for Night and Overnight hours which are defined as follows:
- Night - these are the hours after the End time defined on the days within the applicable Zone (Standard, Premium or Platinum) up until Midnight
- Overnight - these are the hours from midnight up to the Start Time defined on the days within the applicable Zone (Standard, Premium or Platinum) up until Midnight
For example, the day hours within a Zone are defined as 8am to 5pm.
Night hours will be 5.01pm until midnight
Overnight hours will be 12.01am until 7.59am
These settings are not customizable, in other words, Night rates will always be defined as end of day zone to midnight and Overnight will always be midnight to start of day zone.
Overnight/Night can be defined on each zone within a Rate Zone, i.e. Standard, Premium or Platinum, providing that each Zone has a day(s) defined and that those days are different to other Zones and that the ‘All Day’ setting has not been used.
More information on enabling and defining the Rates for Overnight/Night can be found under the Rate Plan user guides with additional examples here Rate Zones - Overnight and Night Settings
- 4a - Rate Zones.pdf500 KB