Setting accurate labour rates in your account helps automate cost and pricing calculations across jobs, invoices, and estimates. Labour rates can be configured in engineer profiles, job description templates, price books, and contracts, giving you control at every level of your workflow. With support for custom timeframes, rounding rules, discretionary minutes, and nominal codes, your labour pricing stays consistent, accurate, and aligned with how your business operates — reducing admin, avoiding disputes, and improving customer satisfaction.
🔍 How to access the Labour Rates setting
➡️ Go to your Profile icon → Choose Settings → Locate Pricing in the categories menu → Click View next to Labour Rates
Create a new labour rate
Click Add new labour rate
Enter the labour rate name (e.g. “Day Rate”, “Overtime”)
Enter a description for how this rate will appear on invoices and payments
This description will be shown to customers on estimates and invoices, so it should clearly explain the type of labour being charged.
Enter the hourly rate under Basic rate / hr
Select the nominal code
Nominal codes help categorise labour costs in your financial reports.
Choose the VAT/TAX percentage (depending on your regional tax settings)
Select a rounding rule (e.g. 6, 15, 30, or 60 minutes)
Commusoft always rounds up to the selected interval. For example, if you choose 15 minutes and the engineer is on-site for 1 hour and 7 minutes, the time will round up and bill for 1 hour and 15 minutes.
Enter the number of discretionary minutes
Discretionary minutes create a grace period before rounding happens. For example, if you're onsite for 2 hours and 3 minutes and use 30-minute rounding:
With 5 discretionary minutes, the time rounds down to 2 hours
With 0 discretionary minutes, it rounds up to 2.5 hours
Click Save
Labour Rate Hierarchy (Highest to Lowest Priority)
Contract Labour Rate
If the customer is linked to a contract and that contract has a labour rate, this will override all other rates. Contracts take absolute priority for labour pricing.
Price Book Labour Rate
If the customer has a Price Book applied, the labour rate from that Price Book will apply unless a contract is present.
Job Description Template Labour Rate
If no contract or Price Book applies, the system will use the labour rate from the Job Description Template configured for that job.
Engineer Sale Rate
This is the default/fallback rate taken from the engineer’s profile. It’s only used if none of the above are defined.
How to set up advanced labour rates
Advanced labour rates let you define different labour costs based on the day of the week and time of day. This allows for more accurate billing, especially for after-hours, weekend, or time-specific rates.
➡️ Click Advanced Labour Rates in the Actions column next to the labour rate you want to edit
You’ll see a table where you can define specific days and timeframes for different labour rates.
Select the day the rate applies to
Enter the From time and the To time for the time range
Enter the labour rate you want to apply for that period
Repeat the rows as needed to apply different bands to the same day
For example, you might set a standard rate from 08:00 to 17:00 and apply a higher overtime rate from 17:00 to 20:00.
You could also define weekend rates by selecting Saturday or Sunday and applying a separate rate.
Click Save to update your settings
Managing labour rates
Once you've added labour rates, you can edit, delete, or clone them as needed. These actions are available in the Actions column next to each labour rate.
To edit a labour rate: Click Edit > Make changes > Click Save
To delete a labour rate: Click Delete > Type delete > Click Confirm
If deletion is not possible, the system will display a message explaining why the labour rate cannot be removed.
To clone a labour rate: Click Clone > Type clone > Click Confirm
Common questions
💭 What happens if I don’t use discretionary minutes?
You’ll always round up to the nearest time block you’ve selected in the rounding rule.
💭 Can I use multiple labour rates at the same time?
No. Each job will use a single labour rate, based on the priority order defined in the Labour Rate Hierarchy section.
💭 Can I create weekend-only rates?
Yes. Use Advanced Labour Rates to define specific days like Saturday or Sunday.
💭 Does the system show which labour rate was used?
Yes. The name of the labour rate will appear in job costing logs and on customer invoices.
Example use cases
Standard and Overtime Rates
Use Advanced Labour Rates to set a "Day Rate" for 08:00–17:00 and an "Overtime" rate for 17:00–20:00 on weekdays.Weekend Premiums
Create a higher-rate labour entry and apply it to Saturdays and Sundays only.Tax-Specific Labour Rates
Apply different VAT/TAX percentages depending on job type or client location.CIS Labour Reporting
Assign nominal codes like "CIS Labour" to group subcontractor labour for financial and compliance reporting.