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Surcharges

A surcharge is an additional fee levied for work performed outside of regular business hours, such as for work on evenings, nights, or holidays. This surcharge can be invoiced to the customer. It is important to note that the duration for which a surcharge is calculated (the surcharge duration) is independent of the actual time worked (attendance), as it results from a combination of the duration of the time recording and the corresponding percentage from the surcharge model. Invoicing surcharges reduces the available budget.

Configuration and Management of Surcharges​

The basis for surcharges is the surcharge model, which is stored in the master data. Here, different surcharge rates can be defined for various times of day and days of the week.

  • Assignment at Customer and Project Level: The surcharge model can be stored directly on the customer card and the project card. When a new project is created, the surcharge model is automatically adopted from the bill to customer. If no surcharge model is assigned to the project, no surcharges can be determined.

  • Time-based Definition: In the surcharge model, start and end times can be defined for surcharges. If these fields are left blank, the surcharge applies to the entire day (e.g., for a Sunday or a holiday).

  • Types of Days: Surcharges can be defined for different types of days, such as working days (Mon-Fri), Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays. The latter require a base calendar for the resource. Business Central can identify the day of the week using the date in the time recording. Based on the day of the week (Mon-Fri, Saturday, or Sunday), surcharges can be determined without using a base calendar. Surcharges for holidays can only be determined if a base calendar is entered for the resource (Resource Person Defaults) and the holidays are maintained in it.

  • Percentages: For each surcharge line, a percentage (e.g., 50% or 100%) is set.

  • Deactivation: There is a "Disable Surcharges" option in the time recording. This can be set manually to prevent surcharge calculation for a specific time recording. For projects with a "Fixed Price" billing type, this option is automatically set to "Yes" and cannot be changed by the user.

The Surcharge Calculation Process​

Surcharges are calculated automatically whenever the date or duration of a time recording is changed. The calculation is based on the rules stored in the master data.

  1. Determine Type of Day: First, the type of day for the time recording is determined (e.g., working day, Saturday, Sunday, or holiday). Please note that holidays can only be determined if a base calendar is entered in the Person Resource Defaults for the resource.

  2. Find Applicable Surcharge Model Lines: The system searches for relevant lines in the associated surcharge model. A line is relevant if its defined times match the time recording and the surcharge percentage is greater than 0%. Please note that surcharge model lines that do not apply for the entire day can only be applied if the time recording has a start and end time (e.g., surcharges on working days from 20:00 - 0:00 can only be applied if the time recording ends after 20:00. Without a start and end time in the time recording, no surcharge can be applied). If the surcharge model line applies to the entire day, a surcharge can be determined without a start and end time in the time recording.

  3. Calculate Surcharge Duration: The duration within each relevant surcharge model line is multiplied by the respective percentage to determine the specific surcharge duration in minutes. The sum of these individual surcharge durations results in the total surcharge duration for the time recording. Note: The duration considered for surcharge calculation cannot exceed the total duration of the time recording (e.g., Start 20:00, End 23:00, Break 2:59 only allows for 1 minute to be considered for the surcharge calculation). If a surcharge model line has a 0% surcharge, it is not used in the calculation and does not "consume" any duration (e.g., if the time recording overlaps with two surcharge model lines).

  4. Add to Billable Duration: The calculated surcharge duration is added to the original billable duration of the time recording. The duration of the time recording itself is not changed. Only after this step is the rounding, as defined in the Time & Travel Model, applied.

  5. Time & Travel Model: The settings from the Time & Travel Model are applied when selecting an activity. The rounding of the billable duration is applied after the surcharges have been determined. If the Time & Travel model line is marked as not billable, no surcharge is applied and the billable duration is set to 0.

Transparency and Billing​

  • Visibility in Time Recording: The "Surcharge Duration" is stored as a non-editable field in the time recording but is hidden by default. If a surcharge has been applied, the billable duration becomes non-editable. To edit it, surcharges must be deactivated in the time recording.

  • Impact on Budget: Surcharges increase the billable duration of the time recordings and thus directly affect the budget. (e.g., If the budget is 50 days, after billing a time recording for 1 day plus a 100% surcharge, the remaining budget is 48 days).

  • Detailed Overview: There is an option to print the surcharge model used on the detailed overview in the invoice. Time recordings for which surcharges have been calculated are marked with an asterisk here to increase transparency for the customer. This printing option can be controlled at the project level or manually when printing the invoice.

  • Manual Interventions: The "Disable Surcharges" option in the time recording allows for overriding the automatic calculation if, in a specific case, no surcharges should be calculated.

  • Synchronization: The surcharge models and surcharge data of the time recordings are synchronized with the DYCE Connect platform to ensure a consistent data basis.

Time Zones and Surcharges​

For international teams, considering time zones is crucial. DYCE Time Tracking ensures that surcharges are always calculated based on the user's local time (based on browser settings).

The Rule: Local Time Matters! A surcharge is applied if the user works during the hours defined in the surcharge model within their own local time zone (for which a surcharge applies). It does not matter if the main system (Business Central) is located in a different time zone.

Example: A surcharge model defines a surcharge starting at 20:00 (8:00 PM).

  • Business Central is set to Berlin time (UTC+1).
  • The User is located in San Francisco (UTC-8).
No.User time (Local)Surcharge applied?Time in Business Central
1.11:00 - 12:00No20:00 - 21:00
2.05:00 - 06:00No14:00 - 15:00
3.20:00 - 21:00Yes05:00 - 06:00

  • Time Recording 1: Even though the time in Berlin (20:00) would be eligible for a surcharge, no surcharge is calculated because the user performed the work at noon local time (11:00).

  • Time Recording 3: A surcharge is calculated because the user worked at 20:00 local time. However, in Business Central, this entry is displayed as 05:00 the following morning.

Important Note for Billing

On the detailed overview in the invoice, time recordings are printed exactly as they are stored in Business Central (system time). Consequently, a customer might see start and end times that differ from the actual local working hours of the reporter.

Caution with subsequent changes in Business Central
Business Central stores the start and end times but not the original time zone of the user. This leads to a critical point regarding post-processing:

If you modify fields such as Start/End, Duration, Date, or Resource directly in Business Central, the surcharge is automatically recalculated. Since Business Central uses its own system time zone (e.g., Berlin) as the basis for this recalculation, the result may change:

  • In Example 1 above, a recalculation in Business Central would suddenly add a surcharge because the system assumes the work took place at 08:00 PM.
  • In Example 3, an existing surcharge might be removed during a recalculation in BC because 05:00 AM is not surcharge-eligible according to the system time.

Recommendation: To maintain the correct (local) time zone, changes to time recordings from other time zones should ideally be made directly by the user in DYCE Time Tracking (s. details for Time Tracking and Time Zones).