Rates Setup Dialog

Start setting up rates by opening the Rates Setup dialog (Maintenance / Park Setup / Rates).  This will list any rates already defined (if there are any), with their Rate Type, Rate Code (optional), Rate Name, and a value for Each item.  From here you will add or edit rates, delete obsolete rates, and move rates in the list.  Moving rates in the list is important because the order that they appear here will be the same order they appear when they are selected when entering transactions (assuming you plan to manually select rates instead of using auto-rates).  The order is even more important if automatic rates calculation (auto-rates) is used, in which case the least expensive per day should usually be first (e.g. Monthly first, then Weekly, then discounted daily, then the normal single-day rate last).

The Rates Setup dialog starts by showing All Rate Types (all rates defined), but you can select any of the other types to narrow down the list.  If you select a specific type here, then that type will be assumed when you add or insert a new rate definition (but the type can be changed later). You can also Print the shown list at any time.

Adding or Editing Rates

Note that the amounts shown for the rates in the list are coming from the Rate Definitions -- they cannot be changed directly in the list.  You need to Edit the rate definition to change an amount.  Also note that the amounts do not include taxes, if the Auto-add Tax feature is being used to calculate taxes on the rates.  If you see "<EXPR>" for the rate amount, that means that the rate amount is determined by an expression, which cannot be calculated here without proper reservation context.

The basic procedure for defining a Rate is to click Add rate definition, and then enter the details of the rate definition including the applicable site type, discount, taxes, dates, and each of the transactions (charges, etc.) that make up that rate. Insert is the same as Add, except that the rate will be inserted in the list at the current selection point, rather than added to the end of the list.  You can edit any of the existing rates by clicking on the rate in the list and selecting Edit rate definition, or you can double-click on the rate in the list.

Warning -- Once a rate is edited or deleted, there is no way to Cancel the operation -- the changes are permanent once you leave the Edit Rate dialog and come back to the Set Up Rates dialog.  (Moving rates is also "permanent" since there is no Cancel button, but you can always move them back.)

You can Move, Delete, or Copy one or more rates by selecting the rates in the list (Ctrl-click or Shift-click will select multiple rates), and then click the appropriate button.  Copying rates is very handy if you have groups of rates that are similar but have slight variations, such as discounts or season dates.

Copy Note: When you use "Copy Rate", the new copies will appear at the end of the list.  In most cases you will want to move the new copies up to a more appropriate order, especially for Auto-Rates functions to work.

Add or Remove date(s) to Rates

These functions allow you to select any number of rates, enter one or more dates or date ranges, and will add or remove those dates from the applicable dates for the rates selected.  It does so by adjusting the "Special Dates Applicable" or "Special Dates Not Applic." fields of the Rate definition.  It won't modify the "Season Dates" setting.

Importing and Exporting Rates

These functions allow copying a rate setup from one database to another (or between computers).  This is used if you have your software provider do the setup on another system and then need to import that setup to the working database on your computer.  The Import function will only work with files exported using the Export Rates function here.  It cannot import rates from a user-created file.

The Export function creates a text (CSV) file in a special format that the Import function can read.  This can include one or more rate definitions (select the entry or entries to export before clicking the Export button).  To complete the export, select the location (Save in) and the file name for the exported file with the "Export" file dialog is shown.

The Import function is simply the reverse of Export -- select the CSV file containing the exported rates, and Open it to import the rates into your database.

Examples!

The following detailed description of rates definitions can get pretty technical, so if you want to just start setting things up then skip to the Rates Setup Examples section below for step-by-step tutorials.