Bill Rates are what you charge your clients for an employee's time — the flip side of pay rates, which are what you pay the employee. Setting a bill rate per employee (and per classification) lets the system price labor on time-and-materials work correctly.
Where to find Bill Rates
From the left sidebar choose HR & Payroll, then Bill Rates.
What you see on this screen
| Column | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Employee | The person the bill rate applies to. |
| Classification | The Pay Classification the rate is for, so billing can vary by the kind of work. |
| Bill Rate $/hr | The hourly rate you charge the client for this person's time. |
| Effective | The date the rate took effect. |
| End Date | When the rate stops applying (blank while it's current). |
| Notes | Context for the rate — why it changed, which contract it came from. |
Adding and editing
Click Add to set a bill rate — pick the employee, the classification, the hourly amount, and the effective date. Right-click a row for its actions. Like pay rates, you can give one person different bill rates for different classifications.
Effective dating — how rate changes work
Rates are effective-dated: instead of overwriting a rate when your price changes, add a new row with the new amount and its start date, and end-date the old one. One employee can therefore have several rows per classification over time — the row whose date range covers the work is the one that prices it. That history is what keeps past invoices explainable.
Pay rate vs bill rate: a pay rate is your cost (what the employee earns); a bill rate is your price (what the client pays). The gap between them is your labor margin.
How Bill Rates connect to the rest of the app
- Billing. On time-and-materials work, bill rates price the labor that flows onto customer invoices.
- Classifications. Rates can vary by classification, matching what you charge for different work.
- The Employee dialog. The same rates are editable per person on the Bill Rates tab of the Employee detail dialog — this page is the all-employees view of the identical data.
Permissions
Viewing requires HR view access; adding or editing bill rates requires the manage permission.
Tips & best practices
- Never edit an old rate to change your price — add a new effective-dated row so history stays intact.
- Keep bill rates ahead of pay rates. When a raise goes through in Pay Rates, review the matching bill rate so your margin doesn't quietly shrink.
Common questions
Can one person have more than one bill rate? Yes — one per classification, and multiple rows over time as prices change. The classification of the work plus the date decide which row applies.
Where else can I edit these? On the Bill Rates tab inside the employee's detail dialog — same data, filtered to that person.
Related topics
- Pay Rates — what you pay the employee (the cost side).
- Pay Classifications — the work types a rate applies to.
- Employees — the per-person Bill Rates tab.