Configure Billing Frequency and Fee Types for Services

When setting up your services in Karbon, defining how often clients are billed and the method used to calculate fees is crucial for accurate invoicing and streamlined practice management. This guide explains the available Billing Frequency options and Fee Types in Karbon, along with how to configure them for your services.

Billing Frequency Options

Billing Frequency determines how often your client is billed for a specific service. You will select this option when creating or editing a service in your Service Library.

Available options include:

Monthly
Weekly

Choose a billing frequency that aligns with your client's payment expectations and the delivery schedule of the work.

Fee Types in Karbon

Karbon offers two primary Fee Types for your services: Fixed Fee and Time & Materials. You will select the appropriate fee type when defining a service in the Service Library.

1. Fixed Fee

A Fixed Fee means you bill a flat, consistent amount for the service per period (e.g., weekly or monthly), regardless of the actual time tracked by your team.

Best For:
1. Subscription-based services with a predictable scope of work.
2. Monthly recurring services (e.g., bookkeeping, payroll).
3. Advisory packages or flat-rate tax preparation.
4. Clients who prefer price certainty and predictable invoicing.

How to Set It Up:
1. In the Service Library, when creating or editing a service, choose Fixed Fee as the Fee Type.
2. Enter the total fee for the service.
3. When you link Work Templates to this service, you will distribute that total service fee across your linked Work Templates. Ensure the sum of the fees assigned to your individual work templates equals the overall service fee.

2. Time & Materials

With Time & Materials billing, clients are billed based on the actual time logged by your team members, using their defined hourly rates or other itemized charges.

Best For:
1. Project-based work where the scope may vary.
2. Ad hoc consulting or one-off tasks where hours are unpredictable.
3. Services where flexibility is needed and fees may vary month to month.
How to Set It Up:
1. In the Service Library, when creating or editing a service, choose Time & Materials as the Fee Type.
2. Link your Work Templates to the service for visibility and workflow management, but you will not assign individual fees to them here.
3. Ensure your hourly rates for each staff member are set under Colleague/Role Settings.
4. Time & Materials invoices will reflect the actual time logged against the linked work, and fees will be calculated automatically based on the configured colleague rates.

How These Settings Work Together: Example

Let's consider an example:

Service: Monthly Bookkeeping
Billing Frequency: Monthly
Fee Type: Fixed Fee

In this setup, your client is billed a predetermined amount (e.g., $750/month) regardless of the exact time spent on the work. You would still track time internally against the Work Items linked to this service to monitor profitability and team efficiency.

Engagements is currently in Early Access. If you're interested in learning more, we encourage you to reach out to your Customer Success Manager.

Helpful Next Steps:

Building Your First Service in the Service Library: Learn how to create your services from scratch, integrating these billing configurations.
Build and Send Your First Karbon Engagement: Understand the full process of creating client engagements where these billing settings come into play.
Frequently Asked Questions: Engagements in Karbon: Find answers to common questions about how billing settings impact engagements.
Create and Map Service Types in Karbon: Set up your foundational service categories, which organize the services you apply billing to.