Overview of Estimate Rate Adjuster

The Estimate Rate Adjuster is a utility that allows you to update the rates in one or more estimates and estimate templates in a few easy steps. It was formerly known as the Rate Rise Utility.

When rates rise

When you increase hourly rate(s) at the Activity List this does not automatically update exiting estimates and estimate templates.

There are three possibilities:

  1. Estimate polices via activities (and contains activities)

    2. The estimate costs are not automatically updated.

    When you add a cost from the estimate the rate applied is the rate in the estimate, not the updated rate at the Activity List.

    However, you can run the Estimate Rate Adjuster to update these kind of estimates.

  2. Estimate polices via charge codes and contains charge codes

    3. The estimate costs are not automatically updated.

    When you add a cost from the estimate the rate applied is the updated rate at the Activity List.

    The same amount of money is left because the estimate cost remains the same. Thus, the amount of time left decreases. See Rate rises and charge code-based estimates.

  3. Estimate polices via charge codes and contains activities

    4. The estimate costs are not automatically updated.

    When you add a cost from the estimate the rate applied is the updated rate at the Activity List.

    The same amount of money is left because the estimate cost remains the same. Thus, the amount of time left decreases.

    Here the estimate costs can be updated using the Estimate Rate Adjuster. See Rate rises and charge code-based estimates.

How the Estimate Rate Adjuster works

First you update your rates as required at the Activity List. Then you run the Estimate Rate Adjuster one or more times. The adjuster goes through the specified estimates and estimate templates, looking at their estimate costs and matching them to the corresponding activities in the Activity List and updating the estimate cost rates to match. There are three options to specify where you want the impact of the increased rates to appear, e.g. decreased duration left or increased total cost.

The adjuster cannot change estimates that contain charge codes, since charge codes in the Charge Codes List do not have rates. It also cannot change the rate of an activity-based estimate cost when it cannot find a corresponding activity in the Activity List.

A different way of using the adjuster is to ask it to change all costs in the specified estimates and estimate templates to one new rate. This option can change estimates containing charge codes. You might choose to use it only in a targeted area of your cases, see below.

A separate page explains the different scenarios that are possible when your estimates 'police' via charge codes. See Rate rises and charge code-based estimates.

Note that the adjuster only adjusts current case estimates. It does not update any case estimates that are not the current estimate.

It is important to understand that the changes this utility makes may affect many records in the database and once completed, there is no way to reverse the changes. It is a good idea to read the instructions and options here carefully before deciding what changes you want to make.

Make sure you have backed up your database before making changes to estimates using the Estimate Rate Adjuster.

Tip for first time users

There are lots of checks and balances in this utility. You can move backwards and forwards through the steps and you'll also be shown the impact of your changes before you commit to them. If this is your first time using the utility, you might like to start by only updating one case, see step 4, and checking afterwards at the case to confirm that the changes are what you expect. You can run the utility multiple times, changing the settings each time.

Running the utility involves specifying the method of rate adjustment and how the impact is to be 'felt' in existing estimate templates and current estimates. You can target which estimate cost rates you actually want to update based on categories, offices, companies, and so on. You can move backwards and forwards through the utility at any time before completion and are shown a list of the cases that will be affected before you commit to the update.

You may want to run this utility more than once, selecting different settings on each occasion, updating different cost types differently or different categories differently, and so on. You can also target individual cases.

Instructions

Detailed instructions start at Run Estimate Rate Adjuster.