> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.denari.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# Pricing a service
> Every service needs a billing arrangement before the engagement can be turned on.
**Every service on an engagement needs a billing arrangement before the engagement can be turned on.** The arrangement says how that service gets billed. Nothing goes live with no way to bill it.
## The five kinds of billing arrangement
| Kind | Typical use | Bills | Ends |
| - | - | - | - |
| **Fixed price** | A tax return at a set price | With the work | When the service ends |
| **Time & materials** | Open-ended advisory | For hours logged, at rates | When the service ends |
| **Payment plan** | Paying off an audit fee in pieces | On its own schedule | When the total is reached |
| **Subscription** | Monthly bookkeeping at a set price | On its own schedule | When cancelled |
| **Retainer** | Money paid ahead and drawn down by work | On its own schedule | When cancelled |
Fixed price and time & materials bill **through the work**: the charge shows up when that project's work is billed. Payment plans, subscriptions, and retainers are **recurring agreements**: they make their own scheduled charges.
## When you need a recurring agreement
**You don't need one just to bill less often.** To bill monthly bookkeeping
quarterly, set the billing group's invoice frequency to Quarterly. See
[Billing groups](/flows/billing-groups#invoice-frequency-is-the-billing-clock).
Use a recurring agreement when the amount follows its own schedule, like twelve equal payments on an audit fee. The service keeps its own price, and its work is still tracked at that price; the agreement is what gets invoiced instead.
For a charge with no project, such as a monthly software fee, add a **subscription** for that one service and mark it **only a fee**. It shows up on the invoice every period without making any project work. A subscription can only be marked this way if it bills its service instead of the service's work.
## Set up a recurring agreement
Set these in the engagement wizard, or under **Agreements**.
| Setting | Choices |
| - | - |
| **Schedule** | Weekly, monthly, quarterly, annual, or custom, on an anchor day. |
| **Ends** | When a total is reached, after a number of charges, on a date, or never. |
| **Amount** | A fixed amount, an installment of a total, or a price times a quantity. |
| **When paused** | **Skip** (those periods aren't charged), **Defer** (the charges move later), or **Accrue** (the charges build up and come due when the pause ends). |
| **True-up** | Retainers only. Squares the amount paid ahead with the work actually done, either at the end or every period. |
| **Scope** | What the agreement covers (below). |
Agreement statuses are **Draft, Active, Paused, Past due, Completed, Canceled**. **Past due** means payment attempts ran out; it does not cancel the agreement.
A service that one schedule already bills instead of its work can be picked up by a second schedule that bills on top of it. The second one can't take its place: **instead of its work** is turned off for a service that's already covered that way, so a service never ends up with two standing charges.
Agreements made in the engagement wizard go live when the engagement is activated. For something that covers several engagements, such as a client-wide retainer, use **Agreements → New recurring agreement**.
## Scope: stopping double billing
When two arrangements could bill the same work, the scope decides which one wins.
| Scope | Means |
| - | - |
| **Exclusive** | This arrangement is the only one that bills this work. *The audit fee is paid in installments, so don't also bill the audit time.* |
| **Supplemental** | This one bills on top of whatever else, for extras beyond a fixed fee. |
| **Residual** | This one picks up whatever nothing else covered. |
Flows won't let you set up two exclusive arrangements for the same work over the same dates.
## A service added later
A service added to an engagement after it was created needs its own billing. **Set up billing** opens right after you add it, and the service shows **Set up billing** on its row until it's done.
* Choose **Fixed price** or **Time & materials**. It starts from the template's price; a custom service starts blank.
* It covers that one service, starting on the service's start date. If an earlier arrangement covered the service and has since ended, the new one starts the day after that coverage ran out, and the dialog says so.
* On an active engagement it takes effect right away, and the service's projects that aren't on an invoice yet are priced from it.
For a payment plan, subscription, or retainer, use **Agreements** instead.
## The agreed price
Each service has an **Agreed pricing** card on its **Billing** tab. Click **Set price** the first time, then **Change price** after that. Services priced when the engagement was created, or with **Set up billing**, already have a price, so they show **Change price**. The price can be:
* **Flat fee**
* **Hourly.** Time is billed at each person's [bill rate](#bill-rates). A rate typed here is only an estimate; bills don't use it.
* **Flat + hourly.** A flat fee that covers some hours, then an hourly rate after that.
* **Recurring charge**
You can record a flat + hourly price, but billing can't bill a service that
way yet. See [What's not in Flows yet](/flows/coming-soon).
## Change a price
* Every price has an **Effective from** date. Old prices are kept in a **History** list with the reason for each change.
* A project is priced as of the first day of its period. A new price reaches projects whose period starts on or after the effective date.
* Projects whose period already started keep their old price. Flows warns you about this when you change a price. To include one of those periods, set the effective date on or before the day it starts.
## Bill rates
Hourly work is billed at each person's **bill rate**. Admins set rates under **Configure → Bill rates**.
| Tab | What it holds |
| - | - |
| **Levels** | A bill rate for each level, such as Partner or Senior. Everyone at a level bills its rate unless they have their own. |
| **People** | Each person's level, and their own bill rate if they have one. Someone with no rate shows **No rate**, and their time is valued at \$0. |
Every change has a **Starting** date, and Flows shows who it changes before you save.
A time entry is valued at the person's rate on the day the work was done. A change only reaches work dated on or after its start, and Flows refuses a change that would reprice time already logged. If the Senior rate goes from $150 to $175 starting January 1, December's work stays at \$150.
That value is also the work's **standard value**, which [realization](/flows/drafts-and-review#the-billing-review-tab) compares the bill with.
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