Factors are a simple way to add additional charges or credits on a project-wide basis. You can use factors to add misc expenses, hardware, travel costs, taxes, fees, shipping, labor, discounts, etc.
Before you can add a factor to your project, you will need to set up your company factors in the Settings area.
To Create a New Company Factor:
Go to Settings > Company > Factors, then click +Add Factor.
This will open a window where you can define the parameters of the factor.
Set the factor name and description, then select a Factor Method from the dropdown menu.
Factor Methods are used to determine the price of the factor. There are several methods to choose from. If none of the pre-calculated methods work for you, you can simply use a flat-rate and enter whatever price you'd like.
Next, select the factor category that most closely relates to this factor.
Factor Categories determine where the money is allocated in your financial breakdown. For example, our Travel Expenses factor is categorized as "Travel" which is a Labor category. Even though this factor is calculated based on a percentage of equipment price, the value will show up in the 'Labor' section of the financials.
You can also select whether you'd like this factor to be default (automatically added to every new project), protected (only admin can edit/delete), taxed (at the tax rate of the project), or hidden (rolled into its corresponding category on the proposal, rather than having its own line).
To add a Factor to a Project:
Now that you have set up a factor in the settings area, head back to your project and open the Overview page. Click +Add Factor and select a factor to use.
You can adjust the numbers here as needed. The numbers you set up in the Settings will populate by default, but you can always change them on a per-project basis.
Once the factor is added to your project, you will see the factor total on the Overview page, and in the Builder (select All Rooms/All Systems to see the full factor total - otherwise each room you are viewing will shows its corresponding percentage of the factor total based on the labor category.)
NOTE: Due to projects being protected from outside changes, if you want to make edits to an existing factor in a project (e.g., have that factor be taxed, but it isn't currently), you will first need to go to Settings>Company>Factors, then edit the factor, and finally go back into your project, delete the old factor and re-add the new factor for the changes to take effect.
You may also find our tutorial video on Factors - Charges and Credits helpful.
Feel free to message us if you have any questions!