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All CollectionsImplementation: Set-Up Your Kitchen's Account
Set-up your Billing Plans
Set-up your Billing Plans

Set up all your rate structures

Gnomes avatar
Written by Gnomes
Updated over a year ago

What are Billing Plans? 

Billing plans are how your clients pay for their time in the kitchen. Each client will be assigned to a billing plan. Clients can only be on one billing plan at a time.
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The Food Corridor offers 3 billing plan options for kitchen bookings, so you can choose what works best for your system and individual clients. You can create as many billing plans as you'd like. 

The 3 billing plan options include: 

  1. Hourly (pay as you go)

  2. Time-based monthly

  3. Credit-based monthly

Hourly Billing Plans

Hourly billing plans charge clients for their bookings as they go, so these clients 'pay as they cook.' Hourly clients are charged for each booking at midnight after the booking takes place. For example, if a booking is created on Monday, and is scheduled for Friday, the client will be automatically charged for their time on Friday night at midnight, after the booking ends. You can also set custom hourly rates for individual clients. Custom hourly rates as a dollar amount or percent of the calendar rates will always override the set price of the space calendar.

Hourly plans come built-in to the software so there's no need to create one from scratch. Once you have clients, you would simply assign them the default "Hourly" plan on the Clients tab.
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Monthly Billing Plans

Monthly billing plans charge clients once a month for time in the kitchen, on the monthly billing date (the 5th of the month). Clients prepay for their fixed monthly rate and receive either a set number of hours (time-based plan) or credit (credit-based plan) to use for bookings throughout the month. As a client books on the calendars, the time or credit is deducted from their monthly pre-paid amount. If the client books over their pre-paid time or credit on their plan that month, the overage hourly rate(s) kick in. Overage hours for the month are included on the next month’s bill. Unused time and credit for billing plans do not roll over into the next month.

The main difference between time-based and credit-based plans:

  • The rates set in time-based plans override the rates set on the individual space calendars. Time-based plans are a good way to set custom rates and pricing tiers for different plan types. As the client books, the system will track their hours according to the rates set in the plan, not according to the rates set on the space calendars. You can also add a second off-peak rate in the overage tier for clients on time-based plans to take advantage of cheaper, off-peak rates.

  • Credit-based plans, on the other hand, do go off of the rates set on the space calendars, including the peak and off-peak rates. Credit-based plans are a good option if you prefer the system to track clients' time based off where and when they book, and work well if your space calendars vary in their rates. You may choose to discount or upcharge this plan by adding a monthly recurring credit to the client's profile.

Create your Billing Plans

Once you've decided on your type(s) of monthly plans, add them by going to your Kitchen Settings tab > Billing Plans. 

You can have as many or as few plans as you like. We encourage you to have standard plans (e.g. Plan A, B, C). 

  • Build a time-based plan by assigning a plan name, description, a base monthly rate, the number of hours included for that base monthly rate, and hourly overage rate(s) if the client books over that base number of hours. Don't forget to add off-peak overage rates if you want to incentivize off-peak hours for clients on this plan!

  • Build a credit-based plan by assigning a plan name, description, and base monthly rate (which will be the usable credit amount). You can assign this plan a custom percentage, which will apply to the calendar rates of bookings, including peak and off-peak rates. By adding a custom percentage, bookings can be charged at a discount or upcharge rate for all booking times and spaces, as opposed to one flat rate that disregards variability in space rates as well as off-peak incentives.

Need to include storage in your billing plans?
While billing plans are intended to apply to a client's bookings, there is a way to include storage units in your plans if you wish. Follow these steps to include storage in a monthly plan, while not sacrificing the ability to inventory your storage space.

Need clients to pay in arrears, instead of pre-pay?
​Check out how.

Assign your billing plans to your clients
Follow these steps.
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Communicate with your Clients

When you're ready, educate your clients on how they will be automatically billed.

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