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Prior to version 3.8 PD Place provided different pricing options for public users, private users, payment initiative groups, early bird registrations and discounts for a single employee group.
In version 3.8, all of these features still exist, but you are also provided with a new feature called cost schedules that will open up a whole new world of pricing options that can handle all of the above features and much more.
This article looks at the basic functionality and how these can be used to offer you flexibility on pricing of your in-services/workshops.
Cost schedules are associated with each workshop or in-service you create. If not specified, then the basic public and private costs defined in the workshop detail screen take priority.
From the In-service Admin Portal, a new link will take you to the cost schedule screen. A typical screen is shown below:
The cost schedule screen is very simialr ot the registration restriction screen, in that the top portion contains the existing rules to be applied when the system tries to determine the price for a registrant. You can remove and edit these.
The bottom section provides the capability to add additioanl rules as needed.
Each rule allows you to set the cost, the date range the entered price is applicable and to who the pricing is applicable.
In the above example, let’s assume that on the in-service detail screen, the private price has been set as $45.00. The implementation of the two cost schedule rules shown have the following effect.
First, if the user is not an employee within the “elementary teacher” employee group the registrant will be charged the full $45.00.
However, of the registrant is an elementary teacher and they register between January 9, 2011 and February 8, 2011 the cost will be $30.00. If they register between February 9, 2011 and March 8, 2011 the cost will be $35.00. Registration after March 8, 2011 will revert to the standard cost of $45.00.
As you can see the flexibility cost schedules provide adds a powerful tool to the PD Place administrator.
I will leave you with a few examples of how cost schedules could be used:
a) greater flexibility in pricing so that different public user groups, employee groups or locations can be assign unique pricing. This expands on the more limited 50+ discount capabilities.
b) expands the capability for “early bird” type specials.
c) allows you to provide zero cost to specific public user groups, employee groups or locations.
