TABLE OF CONTENTS
Adding currency-specific charge rates
You can add currency-specific charge rates in Equinox by clicking on the ‘Charge Rates’ link in the System section of Equinox.
You can edit specific charge rates by going to the ‘Add charge rates’ box on the User charge rates page.
Note: If you don’t set up any specific charge rates, Equinox will automatically use your default hourly rates.
Types of charge rates Equinox handles
This specifies what filters you can use to set up a charge rate. There are seven possible types you can choose from. This list is hierarchical, with ‘Case’ being the most specific item you can choose and ‘Category’ being the most generic. The types are:
- Case
- Client and Applicant
- Client and Who Pays the Bill
- Applicant
- Who Pays the Bill
- Client
- Category
Equinox will first look for a ‘Case’ charge rate because this is the most specific charge rate you can have. If it doesn’t find a Case charge rate, it will look for a Client and Applicant charge rate, and so on down the list. If Equinox doesn’t find any of these types listed, it will use your default charge settings.
Example – How to set up specific charge rates for patent cases
This example explains how to set up specific charge rates for patent cases. The screenshot below tells us that our Dummy User has a default charge rate of GBP 100. But what if a staff member charges GBP 100 for trade mark-related work and GBP 200 for patent-related work? This is where the ‘Add charge rates’ box comes in handy!
In the ‘Update standard charge rates’ box below we see that our Dummy User has a default charge rate of GBP 100.00/Hour. In the ‘Add charge rates’ box below that, we see that for all items in Category ‘Patent’, the Dummy user instead charges 200/Hour.
Note: Make sure you add your specific charge rates after setting up your default charge rates. If you try to add specific charge rates before adding defaults, Equinox will clear your specific charges when you add default charges.
When you've entered your specific charge rate for your chosen category, click the green ‘Add’ button.
An ‘Add Rate’ notification will briefly appear in the bottom right of the screen to let you know you’ve added your charge rate successfully.
Equinox displays all charge rates configured on your system in the ‘Charge rates’ box at the bottom of the ‘User charge rates’ page.
When you next go to add a charge for a patent case on Equinox for which ‘Dummy’ is the assigned attorney, you’ll see that this value of GBP 200 has automatically been pulled across. Equinox highlights this specific charge in yellow to make sure you’re aware that this rate is different to the rates you set up as default values. If you need to change this rate you can manually override it by typing a new numerical value into the yellow box.