Rate Cards & Contract Pricing
What Are Rate Cards?
Organisation-Level Default Rates per Role
A rate card defines the default hourly rate for each role in your organisation. For example: Senior Consultant = €150/hour, Service Desk Analyst = €85/hour. Rate cards provide the fallback pricing used when no contract-specific override exists.
When Rate Cards Apply
Rate cards are used in automatic labour cost calculations. When DigitalCore needs to calculate the cost of logged hours, it looks for the most specific rate — starting from contract-level overrides and falling back to the rate card if no override exists.
How DigitalCore Picks the Right Rate
The Most Specific Rate Wins
The rate lookup follows a priority hierarchy:
| Priority | Source | When It Applies |
|---|---|---|
| 1 (highest) | Contract rate with engagement match | Rate defined in the contract specifically for this engagement |
| 2 | Contract rate | General rate in the linked contract for this role |
| 3 | Rate card default | Organisation-level default rate (flagged as default) |
| 4 (lowest) | Any matching rate card | Fallback to any rate card with this role |
Contract-Specific Rates Override Organisation Defaults
When you define a rate in a contract, it takes precedence over the rate card. This allows you to have a standard rate card for internal planning while honouring contracted rates for specific customers.
Engagement-Specific Rates Are the Most Precise
For maximum granularity, rates can be set at the contract level with specific engagement matching. This handles cases where the same contract covers multiple engagements but with different rate structures.
Contract SLA Terms
Defining Performance Thresholds and Consequences
Contract SLA terms define the performance expectations and financial consequences for each KPI:
- Which KPI — maps to a performance catalog entry
- Threshold value — the minimum (or maximum) acceptable level
- Operator — greater-than or less-than
- Penalty type — fixed, percentage, or tiered
Penalty Types: Fixed Amount, Percentage, Tiered
- Fixed — A flat euro/dollar amount per breach occurrence
- Percentage — A percentage of the monthly or total contract value
- Tiered — Multiple penalty levels based on the severity of the breach (e.g., below 99.5% = €1,000; below 99.0% = €5,000; below 98.0% = €15,000)
How Rates and Terms Flow Through the System
Rates Power Automatic Labour Cost Calculations
Every time capacity hours are logged, the rate lookup runs. The correct rate is applied and a labour cost entry is created in finance. No manual calculation needed.
SLA Terms Power Automatic Breach Detection
Every time a performance actual is entered, it’s checked against the contract SLA terms. If a breach is detected, the penalty is calculated and posted to finance automatically.