SPACE MANAGER

Help/FAQ Document Number: 070902

How do I increase my Contract Prices?

 

A Short introduction.

Contract price updating or price changes (depending on how you refer to them) can be accomplish within Space Manager in a number of different ways. The method to choose depends on the type of increase you wish to accomplish and the scope of units it should be applied to.

I should make clear at this point that changing the price of a CONTRACT will have no effect on the standard rate of the unit the contract is for. To change the standard prices for Units and Size Codes, you should use the UNIT PRICE UPDATE system, which is detailed in another help document.

Please note that a contract price update, once it comes into effect, WILL effect the variants displayed on a number of reports which compare a unit's contract rate with the unit's standard rate.

So, for Contract Price Updates, there are three basic methods that can be used;

  1. Using the PROBLEM FUNCTIONS MENU, option number 1 (Edit Customer Contract) you could select the individual contract and manually edit the rate for any of the items on the contract (Rentals, Hire or Insurance). This new rate would then be in force immediately you confirm that the changes are correct.
  2. Using the PROBLEM FUNCTIONS MENU, option number 1 (Edit Customer Contract) you could select the individual contract and manually enter a price update for any of the items on it. Just press 'U' (Update) to enter the New Single Period Rate and the date it should come into effect (leave the 'Conditions' field empty). As part of the start-up routines, Space Manager checks for contract price increases and if due, will update the contract rate.
  3. Using the CONFIGURATION SETTINGS MENU, option number 9 (FILE MANAGEMENT) and then option number 2 (CONTRACT PRICE UPDATE). This option is detailed below, but in summary can be used to set the price update information for each contract item as in 2. above, but on a global basis. By entering various parameters for price an increase and the scope the user can automatically set future price increases for all or just selected contract items.

 

Important Notes!
  1. When the start-up procedure determines that a contract is due to be invoiced for the next period, this automatic invoice production will check to see if there is a new contract rate waiting which comes into force on or before the period covered by the invoice. If one is found, then the new rates will be used to calculate the invoice charges even though the price increase hasn't come into force when the invoice is actually created.
  2. Please note that changing a contract rate part way through an invoiced period can have very adverse effects on the validity of a vacation calculation if the contract is terminated within the same period. Simply the vacation procedure calculates the charges (and credits) on the basis of the contract rates in force at the time of the vacation. If a credit is due and part or whole of the credit period was actually invoiced to the customer at the old rate, then the calculated credit will be greater than the original charge. Not an ideal situation. The solution is to only update contract prices on the first day of the next period to be invoiced ( the Charged-to-Date + 1 day ). Space Manager has a method of automating this 'date selection' that is described later in this document.
  3. The earliest any price increase can come into effect, using this method (or option 2 above), is tomorrow. This is because the prices are actually increased by the Start-up Routine and this only runs on a new day.

 

So, how does the Contract Price Update System work?

 The process works like this; 

  1. You select the contract items you want to update (The ledger code - Rental, Insurance or hire. If it is a rental ledger code, you then select the size codes you want to update, that belong to the selected ledger codes).
  2. You enter a price increase (or decrease) either as a percentage, a fixed amount or to a fix amount.
  3. You can then look at the effect this would have on your contract rates. If you are not happy with these rates you can simply enter a new price increase and try again.
  4. Once you are happy, you must activate the price increase by providing the date or date conditions on which the new prices should come into effect.
  5. COMPLETE!

 

In more detail;

  1. Using the CONFIGURATION SETTINGS MENU, option number 9 (FILE MANAGEMENT), select option number 2 (CONTRACT PRICE UPDATE).
  2. Select option 1 (Enter Contract Rate Increase) and use the left and right cursor keys to choose whether you are updating the prices for Rental, Hire items or Insurance.
  3. If you selected to update RENTAL Prices, you are then presented with a list of Rental Ledger Codes. Select the Rental Ledger Code you are entering a price update for, or press 'A' for all. Remember that if you are updating different contract items with different changes, you are going to do them each separately by repeating this procedure for each.

    4. Next you have a list of all the Size Codes that are associated with the Rental Ledger codes you selected in 3 above. This allows you to select the specific Size Codes that you want to update this time (again, you can complete the logging of this update and then do it all again with different figures and select different Ledger Codes/Size Codes to be updated).

    Move the highlighted bar to the Size Codes you want to update and press <Enter> to mark them. Press <PgDn> or <PgUp> to move up and down the list one page at a time. Pressing 'M' reverses the marks, changing all the size codes which have been mark to unmarked and vice versa.

    Therefore a quick method of selecting all the Size Code is not to mark any individually, but just simply press the 'M' key. They should now all be marked. Now you could 'Unmark' the odd ones that you did not want to update. The possibilities are endless!

    Once you are happy with the Size Code list, press <Esc> to move on.

  4. If you selected INSURANCE or HIRE, you are then presented with a list of Insurance or Hire items. Select the item you are entering a price update for, or press 'A' for all. Remember that if you are updating different contract items with different changes, you are going to do them each separately by repeating this procedure for each.
  5. Now select the method for the update;
    1. A Percentage - enter a percentage increase or a negative amount for a reduction. Then indicate if you would like the resultant increases (or reduction) to be rounded to whole pounds etc.)
    2. A Fixed Amount - enter the amount that the size code rates should be increased by.
    3. To a Fixed Amount - enter the actual new rate for your size codes.
  6. Now you can select to print a report showing the effect your new price would have on the selected contract items if you activated it. If you do not want a report, just press <Esc> to exit the menu.

    7. Please note that at the moment it is just theoretical, no price increase has actually be put through.

  7. Once you are happy with the price change you must activate it for it to come into effect. Select option number 3 (Activate Price Update System) and enter the date you want it to be effective from. The date cannot be today or an historic date. If you want the prices to come into effect as soon as possible, the earliest date you can enter is tomorrow. IMPORTANT: as you read in the important section above, you should be careful only to update prices so the update comes into effect on the first day of the next chargeable period.

    8. To do this, simply leave the 'Date New Prices Come into Effect' field blank. The program then knows to automatically work out what each date should be, based on the actual contract dates.

  8. If you have already entered and activated a price increase, then if you enter a 'Y' (yes) for the question 'Overwrite Existing Price Updates' then these will all be replaced by the new update. Entering a 'N' (no) will only add a price update for contract items, which do not currently have one already waiting. Entering a 'N' for (no) allows for different percentage changes to be entered for different groups of contract items, making the system far more powerful. See the next section for more details.
  9. If you left the Update Date blank (automatic date selection) you will then be asked to enter the EARILEST ACCEPTABLE EFFECTIVE DATE. This is a very useful feature because you might not want the price updating to start until at least the beginning of the next year or month or any date in fact.

By setting this date to the earliest date you want the new prices to come into effect, if the program finds that the next invoice period starts BEFORE this date, it will work out what the start date for the charge period would be for the NEXT invoice after that. It will continue to move forward in time until the period start date meets the conditions set. This could be several invoices into the future. Press 'Y' to log the price update information and thus activate it.

 

Once the price update has been activated, there is nothing more that needs to be done. The details of the waiting price update can always be viewed by selecting either option number 4 from the Contract Price Update Menu.

 

I want to update different groups of Contract Items with different rates. How do I do that?

Simply, you put each price increase through individually, starting with the one that effects the most contract items for either Rental, Hire or Insurance (do each type of item together before moving onto the next one) and ending with the one that effects the fewest items. After each increase has been activated, you simply remove the waiting price increases for the contract items it does not relate to. Then enter the next price increase and activate that, but this time select NOT to overwrite existing price increases. Continue until all the price changes have been put through (you could also remove the requirement to clear the price updates for the items it does not relate to and simply overwrite them with the next price update).

Option number 4 (Display Actual Contract Rates) gives you the facility to both view all the waiting Contract item price increases and to edit or delete them.

Example 1. You would like to increase all Ground Floor Unit Contract Rates by 10% starting from 01/03/01 and all the remainder by 15% starting from 01/04/01. All price increases should be in whole pounds.

  1. Select Option 1 (Enter Contract Rate Increase) and select RENT.
  2. From the List of Rental Ledger Codes, press 'A' for all.
  3. At the list of Size Codes, press 'M' to reverse the current selection and mark all Size Codes. Press <Esc> to move on.
  4. Then select by A Percentage. Enter 'Y' when asked if you want to round the price increases and then 15% as the increase
  5. Select 'Display Possible New Contract Rates' if you want to see the effect or just press <Esc> to exit the menu that follows.
  6. Select Option 3 (Activate Price Update System) to activate the price increase and leave the 'Date New Prices Come into Effect blank. Enter 'Y' when asked if you want to overwrite existing price updates (this way we will know that ALL contract items are going to start with a price increase of 10%).
  7. On the new screen, enter the earliest acceptable effective date as 01/04/01 and press <enter> to move on. Press 'Y' to continue and log the price update information and thus activate it.
  8. Now for the next update. Once again select Option 1 (Enter Contract Rate Increase) and select RENT.
  9. From the List of Rental Ledger Codes, press 'A' for all.
  10. At the list of Size Codes, select each Ground Floor Size Code by pressing <Enter>. They should now show as 'Marked'. Press <Esc> to move on.
  11. Now select by A Percentage. This time enter 10% and 'Y' when asked if you want to round the price increases.
  12. Once again select Option 3 (Activate Price Update System) to activate the price increase and leave the 'Date New Prices Come into Effect blank. Enter 'Y' when asked if you want to overwrite existing price updates (we are only going to overwrite the price updates waiting for the Ground Floor Size Code we selected ealier).
  13. On the new screen, enter the earliest acceptable effective date as 01/03/01 and press <enter> to move on. Press 'Y' to continue and log the price update information and thus activate it.
  14. Now select Option 4 (Display Actual Contract Rates) and select RENT. Check all the contract items and their new rates (and activation dates) to make sure you are happy with them. You can also 'Clear' specific price updates or edit either the new rate or the date it comes into effect. Now the price updates are complete.
  15. We could repeat the same process to update either Hire or insurance items, or to add yet more alternatives for contract rental items.

 

Having activated a Contract Price Update can I cancel it?

 

YES! Providing you do so BEFORE the activation dates for the updates, simply use Option number 5 (Clear All Future Price Updates) and then either RENT, HIRE or INSURANCE. This option does exactly the same as pressing the 'C' (clear) key in 14, except for EVERY contract item of the type selected. Once completed, you are back to square one with no price increases waiting for that type of contract item in the system!

 

End Document