Charge Rates are used to monitor the status of Project-Phase Design Budgets on the Project page. To take advantage of this feature you must enter two pieces of information: one for each staff member, and one for each Project-Phase. Both have shortcuts.
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First, for each staff member, add a charge rate. The shortcut: If you want, say, a 20% markup of your costs to be profit on projects, then divide each staff member's Standard Billing Rate by 1.2 to get the Charge rate.
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Second, for each Project-Phase, add a dollars budget. The shortcut: after deducting expenses like consultants from each Project-Phase Fee, divide that net Fee by 1.2 to get your design budget (if you are using a 20% markup).
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The Architects Financial Model lets you be more rigorous in calculating appropriate Charge and Billing Rates for your firm. See https://www.architekwiki.com/wiki/architects-financial-model 

​If you are planning on rate increases for the coming year, it should be executed as close to January 1st as possible. That way all your time entries for the new year will reflect the change. 
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LABOR RATES might be changing because of raises. 
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CHARGE RATES should increase if Labor Rates go up. 
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STANDARD BILLING RATES should increase if Labor Rates go up, but you might want to increase them in any event. 
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CUSTOM BILLING RATES, where you have implemented them, also might need to increase. Check Reference Guide No. BR-16.
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Here are two articles that explain how to determine rates. 

https://www.architekwiki.com/wiki/architects-financial-model

https://www.architekwiki.com/wiki/your-bof
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Feel free to email me with any questions by responding to this email. 

Have you built a Financial Model for your firm based on this process? 
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MyCorbu recalculates your Overhead and Billing Overhead Factors for you each month. 
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Check it out here. On the Admin page, under the Staff heading click the button for "Staff Details & Billing Overhead Factor Calculations”. As you scroll down the page you will find a table of past calculations that you have entered using the form. In the form at the bottom, simply transcribe the values determined for you or enter your own values, and then add the percentage profit you plan for.
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Month by month you will see how this key metric is trending.  "Lower is better.”
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As a user of MyCorbu you can get the app for 2/3 off. Look for the discount code. On your Admin page, under ’Staff’, click the “Staff Details and Billing Overhead Factor Calculations” button. Or use this link:
https://architekwiki.knack.com/mycorbu#admin/rates-and-comp-time/ 

You can easily review the status of PTO for anyone as explained in this HELP article. 
 
The individual can also determine their own status from their Timesheet page. The process starts by scrolling down on the Timesheet page to the 'Time Records By Date' table. Next type or copy/paste into the 'Search' box the name that your organization uses for the PTO Project-Phase, and click 'Search'. 
 
Make sure the Filter is set for 'This Year'. At the bottom of the table is the total of PTO hours taken so far this year.
 
The final step is to click the Billable Ratio button at the top of the page. At the bottom of this view the PTO Allowance for the individual is shown. Simple math shows how much PTO remains.

Some processes that you perform in MyCorbu require changing what you are viewing. I have found that using Dual Tabs can facilitate those processes.

Dual tabs simply means having two browser tabs, or windows, open into your MyCorbu account at the same time. Some browsers let you duplicate a tab, but you can always open another tab and log in a second time.  

Here are two examples, but you can find many more.

• Add a new Category while you are entering Expense transactions.
• Check 'All Time' while preparing Invoice transaction entries.

​The minimum number of Categories is more appropriate for small firms. No one has time to manage or analyze more. 
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Add more detail later if it would really help. 
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The whole purpose is, first, to tell you something useful, and, second, to help prepare taxes. The ultimate minimum list of Categories is just the Schedule C categories that apply to you. 
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Your time is better spent analyzing Billable Ratios. 

Architekwiki, who brings you MyCorbu, now has a new app to help you build a financial model of your firm; then use that model to make your firm stronger.
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You can learn more here: https://www.architekwiki.com/afm.html
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As a user of MyCorbu you can get the app for 2/3 off. Look for the discount code. On your Admin page, under ’Staff’, click the “Staff Details and Billing Overhead Factor Calculations” button. Or use this link:
https://architekwiki.knack.com/mycorbu#admin/rates-and-comp-time/ 

​Whether it is your custom to send Statements or not, there inevitably arises a situation where a reminder is in order. 
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To quickly create a Statement, go to Bookkeeping > Receivables. Then use the Search box to isolate a client, a project or an invoice. 
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You can ‘print’ a PDF in most browsers so that you have an attachment with all the breakdown (even aging) for a simple email statement. 

​The simple formula for financial management is: “The hours that you get paid for have to generate enough revenue to cover ALL the firm’s expenses plus a profit.”
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On the Admin page is a new link to tools to help you incorporate this model into your bookkeeping. 
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More help is coming in the weeks ahead. 

​You get the Best Results by daily logging of time and money transactions. This requires just 5-15 min/day. 
 
There are two reasons that you get the Best Results this way. 
1) GIGO - Garbage In, Garbage Out. Old time entries do not reflect reality.
2) More importantly, you can have GREAT info at your fingertips all the time. 
 
It is priceless to know you are going over budget or drifting off target as early as possible so you can correct the problem. 
 
TIME - take a few minutes to set up your personal timesheet to make daily time entries a breeze. Then twice a day, before lunch and before ending work, make your time entries. 
 
MONEY - as you receive payments or bills, enter them while you make time entries once a day (if any). Include a PDF or picture of the bill if you want to have it handy when you pay bills later. Leaving expenses marked ‘No’ for ‘Paid?’ puts them in the Payables table for easy access. 

The ‘Sort By’ number that you are encouraged to add is a necessary inconvenience. Some things just do not lend themselves to sorting. Income and expense ‘Categories’ and ‘Project-Phases’ particularly.
 
The Sort By number overcomes this situation by giving you something that you can easily control to get the sort order that you want.
 
- Use numbers from 0 to 11 for income Categories.
- Use numbers over 11 for expense Categories.
- Use any numbers to sort your Project-Phases per Project.

​Paying bills is tedious, but this hint can help. With MyCorbu it is so easy to log bills as they arrive, that I recommend it. And having them logged means that you can eliminate whatever process you have for managing timely payments. 
 
Here is what I recommend. On the day that the bill arrives, make an Expense transaction entry on the MyCorbu Books page with these differences: do not check ‘Yes’ for ‘Paid?’; set a Due Date (optional); and attach a scan of the bill by clicking ‘Choose File’ (also optional).
 
Now you are always ready to take the last step in paying bills. When that day arrives, navigate in MyCorbu to ‘Payables’ in one tab of your browser and your banks “bill paying” app in another. Use the Payables report to guide you. As you schedule payments with your bank, mark them ‘Paid’ in MyCorbu. 
 
This process will make paying bills less of a project. It also puts the information about bills at your fingertips anytime you want to check it. 

If you would like to implement a feature in MyCorbu but are concerned about creating bad data or just want to see what it looks like, consider taking a Test Drive.
 
Log into the Test Drive account, which can be found under the “Other” menu on the MyCorbu website. Here is the instructions link - https://www.mycorbu.com/testdrive.html

An alternative way of using credit cards with MyCorbu is to make an Expense transaction whenever you charge something and mark it NOT paid. 
 
When you make a credit card payment each month, do one of two things. 
 
If you pay off the entire balance every month, go to your Payables report and mark each item on this month’s statement as PAID. 
 
If the credit card is not paid every month, go to your Payables report and mark only items you are paying as PAID. Always pay off at least the interest that is due. If this doesn’t meet the minimum payment (or you can afford more) also pay for one or more items, and mark them PAID. Remember to make a new Expense transaction for the interest. 
 
This method creates a little complexity, but your records are always up to date. 

​The simplest way of using credit cards with MyCorbu is to make an Expense transaction whenever you charge something and mark it paid. Then pay off the credit card every month. 
 
If the credit card is not paid every month, this method creates complexity. For your tax return you will have to determine which of the expenses that you have charged have actually been paid. 
 
This complexity can be improved upon by always making partial payments equal to the interest plus the cost of one or more items. This is still messy, but not as much.

Every project-based firm has a ratio of billable to non-billable hours that sets the threshold for profitability. See how to establish yours here. 
 
MyCorbu calculates what is actually happening for you. The individual can see their ratio on their Timesheet page. The overall firm’s ratio is accessed from the All Time page. And Admins can access each staff member’s ratio. Go to Admin page > Staff Details button > ‘detail’ link in table. 

​Over time as you use MyCorbu, the number of Projects, Project-Phases, and even Staff can become unwieldy. To change what you see in drop-down lists and in tables, you can make any of those items INACTIVE. The data is not lost, but it is no longer visible. Most views of your data are set to display only ACTIVE information. 

To toggle Projects to Inactive, go to the Projects page, click the 'Projects Table’ button, and click ‘Yes’ in the ‘Active’ column. Then uncheck the checkbox to change to Inactive.

To toggle Projects-Phases to Inactive, go to the Projects page, scroll to the desired Project-Phase, and click ‘Yes’ in the ‘Active’ column. Then select the ’No’ radio button to change to Inactive. 

To make Staff Inactive, go to the Admin page, scroll to the table of Staff Members, and click ‘Edit’ in the ‘Edit’ column. On the form, change the ‘User Status’ to ‘Inactive’ and Submit.

The date of an invoice is only useful as a point of reference. Usually the date assigned is the date it was prepared or sent. 

I think it is more helpful to your bookkeeping to date invoices with the last day of the period that it covers. That approach puts your time expense and the associated income in the same timeframe.  
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The date is now meaningful and it may spur your client to make payment just a little sooner. 

Recently Knack, the platform on which MyCorbu is built, experienced problems with response times. Hopefully this has been permanently corrected. 

If you ever experience problems with the way MyCorbu is responding, I suggest that you visit https://status.knack.com/
This will tell you if the platform has an issue. 

If not there are two ways to help your computer respond better. 
1) Clear your browser cache. Here is how:  
https://www.refreshyourcache.com/
2) Delete your browser cache, history and cookies. Here is how:  
https://kb.iu.edu/d/ahic

However if you see unexpected results in the app, then contact me. Rick Wolnitzek

If you have paid subscription, you have a Renewal Date.
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Keeping you informed of your Renewal Date takes three forms.

1. The newest and easiest way is to click the 'Account Settings' link next to your login name. This displays your renewal date along with your name and email. You can re-set your password here too.
2. Another method is to click the 'Subscription' link next to your login name. As you scroll down through the form, you will see your Renewal Date.
3. The third method is by email. You will automatically receive email reminders 30, 14, and 7 days before your subscription expires.

I have just added a 'Test Drive' account. Anyone can login and add data to see what BOOKS is like. To access the Test Drive account just login using these credentials:

email address  =  corbu@testdrive.com
password  =  MyCorbu

The BOOKS page of the website now has 'Test Drive BOOKS' buttons
​so you can always find this information.

When Bookkeeping launches in the next week or so there will be a feature that hasn't been mentioned before now - FILES. You may add a file to your expense or income transactions by simply uploading it. This will allow you to keep your bills and invoices right with your transactions for easy reference.