Cost Override

In Teachworks, a student's billing method is set on their profile.  This determines how the cost of their lessons are calculated whenever you schedule or edit a lesson.  

The lesson cost can be based on the cost set on the student's profile, the cost set in your service list, or if you bill using a flat fee or package method, the cost for the lesson will be set to zero and a flat fee or package will be charged on the customer's invoice.

In the situation where a student is billed using one method for most of their lessons, but occasionally they're billed using a different method, you can enable the Cost Override feature.  This feature allows you to change the billing method at the time that you schedule or edit a lesson.

For example, you may have a student that is billed for lesson packages.  With this billing method the lesson cost is set to zero since the student is charged when they purchase the package. If you want to schedule a lesson that is not part of a package you would need to override the default cost calculation in order to assign a cost to the lesson.  Cost override allows you to do this.

Enabling Cost Override

You can follow the steps below enable Cost Override:

1. Click on "Account & Settings" and then click on "Account Settings".
2. Scroll down to the "Cost & Wage Settings" section.
3. Set the "Cost Override" field to "Enabled".
4. Submit the form to save your changes.

Now on your "Add Lesson" and "Edit Lesson" forms, you'll see a check box that says "Override Default Billing Method". 

Cost Override Options

When you click on the "Override Default Billing Method" setting, you will be able to select from the following options:

1. Service List Price - This will set the lesson price using the hourly rate set in your service list for the selected service.
2. Student Profile Price - This will set the lesson price using the hourly rate on the student's profile.
3. Custom Price - Adjusted - This will allow you to enter a price for the full lesson.  This amount will be adjusted for any student discounts or cost premiums entered on the student's profile. Each student in the lesson is charged this amount.
4. Custom Price - Unadjusted - This will allow you to enter a price for the full lesson that will ignore any student discounts or cost/wage premiums. Each student in the lesson is charged this amount.

Permissions

The override option is only displayed to staff and teachers that have the "Lesson Cost" permission on their profile set to "Manage".  It will always be visible to company admins when the feature is enabled.

NOTE: Cost Override should only be used for "one off" adjustments (IE: if you offer a course and want to charge the same price to all students who have different billing methods).

NOTE: If you plan on scheduling group lessons but have a different rate for each group size, it's best to create variations of the same service list.  Example: Math - Individual, Math - Group of 2, Math - Group of 3, etc.