Overview

Rate cards hold the chargeable and cost rates that Clio Operate uses across Fees, time recording and Payment Requests. Before release 7.12, this area was called Goods and Services, and its setup was split between Modeller and Admin. From 7.12, it is renamed to Rate Cards and managed entirely in Admin, under Admin > Finance > Rate Cards.

A rate card is a set of prices for a single rate card type. Each rate card holds one or more rate card items, and each item holds the rates that apply over time.

Rate card types

Clio Operate supports five rate card types.

Before you start

You need the Rate Cards - Maintain rate cards and items permission to create or change rate cards and their items. This permission was previously called Goods & Services - Items Edit.

Rate cards are in Admin, under Finance > Rate Cards. Fee Templates is the Finance landing page, and Rate Cards is second in the menu.

Find and view rate cards

1. Navigate to Admin > Finance > Rate Cards.
2. Select a tab to filter by rate card type: Charge Out Rate, Internal Cost Rates, Purchase Items, Adjustments, Fixed Price Services or Inactive.
3. The list displays Name, Description, Currency Code and Active columns. The visible columns vary by tab: the Adjustments and Fixed Price Services tabs hide Currency Code, and the Inactive tab additionally displays System Name and Rate Card Type.
4. To check existing rates before creating a rate card, expand the Search Rate Card Items panel below the list. It is collapsed by default.

Create a rate card

1. Select New, then select the rate card type (the field is labelled Rate Card Category).
2. Enter a Name. The system name generates automatically.
3. Enter a Description.
4. Select a Currency. It defaults to the system default currency.
5. Select OK to open the rate card and add items.

Currency is set on the rate card, not on individual items, so every item on a rate card uses the same currency. Currency cannot be changed once the first item exists.

For Charge Out Rate and Internal Cost Rates, the unit of measure is fixed to Hours. Rates can always vary by entity, so there is no separate toggle to enable variation. The previous pricing variation toggles have been removed.

Manage rate card items

Open a rate card to manage its items. The items appear on the left, and the details for the selected item appear in a blade on the right, with tabs for the rate card and the item.

Add an item

1. Select the plus icon to add an item.
2. Enter the Item Name and Item Description.
3. Check the Item Code. It generates automatically for every rate card type. You can change it before saving; once saved, it is locked.
4. Set Enabled as required.

Manage rates

1. Select an item to see its current rates, including the default rate and any rates that vary by entity.
2. Select the plus icon at the top right to add a rate. The start date defaults to today; you can back-date or post-date it.
3. Save the rate. The view then displays only the rates in effect today.

Use the Current Rates Only toggle to show or hide historic and future-dated rates. Full rate history is retained.

How rates vary depends on the rate card type:

• Charge Out Rate and Internal Cost Rates vary by individual, for example, by fee earner. They can also be varied by jurisdiction.
• Fixed Price Services vary by client and jurisdiction.
• Purchase Items and Purchase Item Adjustments vary by supplier and jurisdiction.

Clone a rate card

Cloning copies a rate card and its items, which is quicker than building one from scratch.

1. In the rate card list, open the burger menu for the rate card and select Clone.
2. Enter a Name for the new rate card. The system name generates automatically.
3. Leave Exclude historic rate changes set to On to copy only the rates in effect today. Set it to Off to copy the full rate history with its original dates.
4. If Exclude historic rate changes is On, enter an Effective start date. All copied rates take this date.
5. Select Clone. A message confirms when the clone is complete.

Names and system names must be unique. The system name is derived from the name, so if you enter a name whose system name is already in use, the clone cannot proceed.

Delete a rate card

1. Open the burger menu for the rate card, or use the toolbar, and select Delete.
2. Review the usage check. Clio Operate checks where the rate card and its items are used before deleting it.

Where a fee template references the rate card in its section configuration, a warning appears but the deletion can still proceed. Where the rate card's items are used in a fee structure, as a fee-template element, or in time recording, the deletion is blocked until those references are resolved.

Related configuration that changed

Charge-out rates for participants are now specified in the Rate Cards catalogue. Modeller > Global features > Participants > Rates displays an alert confirming this.

In Payment Requests, the transaction item types are renamed, for example, Payment Item – Rate Cards (Purchases).

In Fee Templates, section and element labels now refer to Rate Card Types, Rate Card Item Type and Rate Card Item.