How do rate types, rate quantities, units, quantities, time units, and time quantities work together?

Each inventory item is required to have at least one rate, and each rate has several required fields; some are set up in inventory (rate type, rate quantity, unit, and time unit) and some are added when the item is added to the function (quantity and time quantity). Before you set up your inventory, it's important to understand how these required fields work together.

Setting up Inventory Item Rates

Rate Type, Rate Quantity, Unit and Time Unit are set up on each item rate in the inventory library; these define the rate and cannot be changed when you use the item rate on an event. 

Rate Type

Rate Types represent the different ways you can sell you Inventory Items. It is possible that one item might be sold in different quantities, have different rates at different times of the day or week, of can be sold for different units of time (per hour, day or week). For example:

• For stagehands, you could have rates types for regular time (Regular) and overtime (Overtime).
• If you sell chairs either each or by the rack, you would have two rate types: Single and Rack.

Rate Quantity

The Rate Quantity represents the number of items included in a rate. This value can be one or, if this rate represents multiple items, the rate quantity should be the number of items. This value is used to calculate how many items are needed and stock availability.

• For the stagehand item, both the Standard and the Overtime rate types would have a rate quantity of one, representing one stagehand. The difference in these rates is in the price, which is added when the rates are added to the price schedule.
• In our chairs example, the Single rate type will have a rate quantity of one. The Rack rate type will have a rate quantity of 25 (or however many chairs are on a rack).

Unit

The Unit represents the unit of measure for the Item. Usually, this will be "Each" or "Person". 

• Our stagehand rates will have a unit of Person.
• Both of the rates for chairs will have a unit of Each, representing each chair and each rack, respectively.

Time Unit

This value represents the time unit you would like to order the items in. You will choose if you are selling these by the hour or by the day.

• In our stagehands example, both rates would be selected to be by the hour.

Using Inventory Item Rates

When you add the item rate to a function, you specify the Quantity (how many you need) and, if time bound, the Time Quantity (how long you need it for).

Quantity

This value represents how many of these items, at this specific rate, you want to order for the function. For labor and other time-bound items, the quantity is how many people or items you need.

• For stagehands, you would enter the number of stagehands you need for the function.
• If you need 100 chairs, you could select the Single rate and add a quantity of 100 or select the Rack rate and add a quantity of 4 (assuming 25 chairs in a rack). 

Time Quantity - Hours/Days

This value represents the number of selected time units you would like to order (how many hours or days the item needed for).

• In our stagehands example, we would select the Regular Time rate and the number of hours the stagehands will be needed for (this can be calculated automatically based on the function time). If the number of hours is more than the statutory or contract amount, you would also add the Overtime rate to the function and add the number of overtime hours they need to work. Each item rate would have a different price, with the Overtime rate reflecting the added cost of overtime.

Sample Items and Rates

We have additional sample items for our most common venue types below. Click a venue type to expand the accordion.