Have you ever had a contract that you had to bill $X each month no matter what but that $X had to be split between a Color meter group and Black meter group? Using the Allowance with Credits within your meter group and a Base Rate on the contract can accomplish this. For the Base Rate, you can either use the Contract Base Rate, the Equipment Base Rate, or (if your on 8.0 and above) the Meter Group Base Rate. It just depends on the contract specifications as to which one you use. Let's say you need to bill $100/month for a piece of equipment no matter what their volume is for each meter type. And you need to bill $X for any copies ran between the 2 meter groups that are above $100 based on the cost per copy you have negotiated with the client. You would use one of the Base Rates mentioned above, i.e. if you use the Contract Base Rate then set it to a Monthly billing cycle for $100/month (also set it to bill 1 month in advance if you want to collect the $100 ahead and no matter what the volume is for each month) if you want to bill the Base Rate at the entire contract level. Or use the Equipment Base Rate if you want to bill the base rate per each piece of equipment on the contract ($100/month billed monthly). Or you would use the Meter Group Base Rate if you have specific meter groups (no matter how many pieces of equipment i.e. NPS Contracts) that you want to bill a base per month for. The Meter Group Base Rates are a little tricky. So I'll outline that exact setup after I outline the Allowance with Credits setup. After you have your Contract level Base Rate or your Equipment Level Base Rate set then set your overage cycle up. For this scenario, set the overage cycle to monthly. Then add your meter groups. Since you don't exactly know the customers volume each month for each meter type then just split the volume 50/50 ($50 worth of copies towards the Black group and $50 worth of copies towards the Color group. So if the cost per copy on the contract is .02 for black copies and .07 for Color copies for the overages, then you would set the black copies meter group to Allowance with Credits, Covered Copies 2,500, Credit Rate of .02 and Overage Rate of .02. Then set your color copies meter group to Allowance with Credits, Covered Copies 714, Credit Rate of .07003 and Overage Rate of .07. The reason for the difference on the color meter group between the overage rate and the credit rate is because .07 doesn't divide into $50 evenly. So in order for the base rate to be exactly $100 and the overage bill for .07 then you need to set it at .07003 for the credit rate (714 x .07003 = $50.00). What this does is create an invoice that will automatically bill for $100 no matter what and then take the copies ran in each group and times it by the cpc. Then it will deduct the copies allowed time the credit rate cpc and deduct it from the total of the copies ran. It can show a credit in one meter group if it didn't make the allowance and a charge in the other if it went over. This way, no matter how you calculate it, EA will come up with the proper dollar amount distributed between the 2 groups to cover the $100 and bill for overages or credit for underages. And as long as you bill the Base Rate ahead 1 month then even if their volume goes under the minimum the next month, then it's only coming off of the overages billed from the previous month and you still get the $100 per month no matter what. To use the Meter Group base Rates then you would set the meter groups the same way as above (use the exact Allowance with Credits, Credit Rate, Covered Copies and Overage Rate settings) but don't use Contract Base Rates or Equipment Base Rates. There still has to be a Monthly billing cycle set on the Base Billing cycle of the contract but set the Base to $0. Then put a check mark in the box on the meter groups for Bill Meter Groups Base Rates. Set the Base Rate per Copy to .02 for the Black and the Base Rate per Copy .07003 for the Color meter groups. Then you can bill a bunch of machines for a certain $ per month, no matter the volume of the group, and then split the volume between the fleet of machine. (Screen Shots to Come)
Using Allowance with Credit on Contracts in EA
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