In this article we will cover how a user would navigate to and set up their own price matrix within FieldCentral including some best practices.
Important! Please review “User Defined Field (UDF) Setup” to ensure UDFs are configured for Price Matrix before proceeding.
Price Matrix allows companies to set up seasonal service pricing based on property specific factors. In addition, this tool allows users to seamlessly mass update & maintain pricing from one location, even if needing to take into account modifying factors.
Reminder on FieldCentral Pricing Structure:
If there is no Price Override, the system will default to Property Level Pricing
If there is no Property Level Pricing, the system will default to Price Matrix values
If the Work To Do is not assigned to a Price Matrix, the Work To Do Default (base) pricing will stand
*Price Matrix values will be used to determine estimates and ad-hoc visits including labor costs.
*Price Matrix values will not impact parts/material pricing
*Once an Estimate is converted to a Contract, the contacted visits will use the values in the contract regardless of updates to Price Matrices.
IRRIGATION:
If the property has 14 zones, the service would cost $250.00 & have a budgeted time of 120 minutes
LAWN CARE:
If the property was 2234 sq feet, the service would cost $100.00 and have a budgeted time of 60 minutes.
Once the user has logged into FieldCentral, navigate to the Settings page via the quick access panel.
Select to open “Services”
Then select “Price Matrix”
If the user is setting up their first Price Matrix, this page will be blank and the user will click the green + button on the top right corner to begin.
This will populate a row of fields for the user to complete.
Depending on what type of Price Matrix the user is creating will determine how to best name the Price Matrix.
(Example: Irrigation clients might name their price matrix “Zone Pricing” and Lawn care clients may name theirs “Mowing by Square Footage” or “Fertilization by Square Footage”.)
To begin configuring the Price Matrix, the user will click the arrow on the left hand side of the screen which will open the Price Matrix grid view.
Here the user will hover over the “No UDF” text on the left hand side to access the edit button.
(Reminder: User Defined Fields will need to be set up before the user can proceed with configuring their price matrix. Please review the UDF Setup article for further details/assistance on this process).
Depending on your type of business and business needs users will select their appropriate UDF from the drop down.
Irrigation Clients this might be the “Number of Zones” UDF
Lawn Care Clients this might be the “Square Footage” UDF
Once this UDF has been selected, the user will now be able to add the values for which to group their pricing by.
To enter these values the user will click the green + button on the button left.
This will populate the window shown below asking the user to provide the value range's minimum value.
Users will enter the boldened numbers as minimum values to create their value ranges for this example.
To edit any of these value ranges, the user will simply hover over that value range for additional edit buttons to populate.
The user will also notice that one of the value ranges is highlighted in green with a star besides it. This is the default value range which the system will automatically use for a property if there is no value in the corresponding UDF.
To adjust which range is the default, hover of the desired default range until the edit icon appears and then click to edit.
Irrigation visual below:
Lawn Care visual Below:
Select the “Default” checkbox and then click save.
This will update to show the new defaulted value range displayed with the green highlight and star besides it.
To begin adding pricing & budgeted schedule time to these zones, users will click on any of the + buttons within the grid highlighted in the light red.
NOTE: If users need to account for another pricing modifier, please review “Adding Modifiers to a Price Matrix” as to not duplicate efforts.
Here is where the user will begin to establish the pricing structure, rates and budgeted schedule time for this range value.
*If Price Matrix is assigned to a WTD’s trip charge the time will still be used as the threshold for knowing when to begin billing hourly.
The first step will be to select the price structure so lets review what each mean:
For our examples we will begin with a flat rate and then enter in the appropriate flat rate for that value range.
Scheduled time is the budgeted length of time that will be blocked off the schedule for the WTDs that are filtered through this price matrix.
Irrigation Example: A 1-4 zones customer’s winterization will be charged at a flat rate of $100 and scheduled for 30 minutes.
Lawn Care Example: 1-999 sq feet customers are charged a flat rate of $50 for mowing and the time spent to do that mowing service is 30 minutes.
Once the first pricing structure is entered, the user will see it paired with the corresponding value range.
The user will continue this process for each value range determining pricing structure, entering pricing rates and applying scheduled time if applicable.
Irrigation Visual below:
Lawn Care Visual below:
Once the final values are added for the price matrix configuration a window will appear asking the user if they would like to “Update Pricing Calculations”
Users can determine if they would like to update “Only visits” or “Visits and Unsent Estimates” then click “Update”
If the user is not yet ready to update visits nor unsent estimates, the user will select “Do not Update”.
Once “Update Pricing Calculations” has been established the user will be brought back to the main grid view of their price matrix.
The Price Matrix will be labeled as “Ready for Use” and the user can take the next step to assign Work To Dos’ and confirm if they would like to “Allow Invoicing Defaults”.
If a user opts to not “Allow Invoicing Defaults” the user is stating that properties with default values will be flagged with elevated visibility in order to address as needed prior to invoicing. This means that if a UDF is not filled in, the property will default to the Price Matrix default range. That property will then have an alert when a visit reaches billing. This is to ensure that it is reviewed and allow the user to clarify the UDF value before invoicing.
If needed, users are able to set up and configure more than one price matrix as needed.
Once a Price Matrix is set up and assigned to Work To Do’s, the system will use those values when creating estimates or scheduling visits.
We highly encourage our clients to set up and leverage this tool if they are needing a way to manage how services are priced in a scalable way that will save you time. By using the Price Matrix tool, users can mass update pricing structures and take into account modifying factors as needed. Price Matrix is the ideal tool for standardizing your pricing across your customer base.
Related Articles:
Assigning WTDs to a Price Matrix