FAQ

A: It cannot fix all your problems if you have a poorly run business. See all of our Audio training CD's to help you in the many other areas of your business.

Q: How often do you update your flat rate pricing information?

A: When you buy from us, you will receive the most up to date information available because we manufacture the CD’s “in house” in our state of the art production facility, and your CD is produced the day you order it. We update our master copies throughout the year to always ensure up-to-date and accurate information is achieved.

Q: Prices on parts on constantly changing, especially going up in price, how do I handle annual parts pricing updates?

A: We suggest you increase your parts prices at whatever the average inflation rate is once a year (about 3 or 4 percent a year) and reprint out your price books (takes about five minutes to do this).

Q: Maybe I pay a little more or less for a part in my city than another contractor does in their city, what I do about that?

A: The parts prices in the software are set at a national average. You can change them up or down to reflect your local market conditions (takes about 5 minutes to do all of them globally). You can also change a price on an individual part at any time (takes about five seconds to do).

Q: Some repair jobs may take a little longer to do or a little shorter to do, what should I do about that?

A: You can adjust your labor task times to reflect the worst case scenario or you can do what most contractors do, they set their prices to the average labor times to do a task (the software already has this programmed into it as a default). Remember with flat rate you can earn more money overall than using time and material but you need to realize that the very nature of flat rate pricing is that you will make a little more or less profit on all jobs, but every job will be profitable.

Q: How much should I charge by the hour for my work when I enter my hourly rate into the software?

A: The software comes with a default at $90 an hour and we recommend you change it to suit your company (takes less than five minutes to do). Please become educated in how much an hour you need to charge to stay in business and earn a fair profit. This hourly cost of doing business will vary greatly across the USA.

Q: Should I increase what I charge when I go to flat rate?

A: Probably. Most contractors have never been trained in how much to charge per hour, so they are currently charging ridiculously low rates. When they discover what it really cost them to run an excellent company with excellent employees, they are amazed. That is why they NEED to use flat rate pricing, so that they can stay in business! For example, a lean and mean low overhead contractor in Dallas, Texas needs to charge at least $90 an hour to make a ten percent profit. If he was using time and material pricing he could only charge the “going rate” in town, which is about $70 an hour, because customers would think he was a crook if he said he charged $90 an hour. The only way he can stay in business and not work for “peanuts” is to hide his needed $90 an hour price in the flat rate price. It is sad that things have to work this way in our society, but that is how things are. Customers don't realize they can’t get an excellent, highly trained technician to come to their home or business at “the going rate.”

Q: How do I get my technicians to “buy into” using flat rate pricing? I don’t want any of them to quit.

A: Have a meeting with them and discuss the benefits to the customer and the benefits to them by using flat rate pricing. Most technicians are willing to accept change if it benefits them and benefits the customers they serve. Realize that very few contractors in the USA will be able to compete and survive in the future unless they go to flat rate pricing.

Q: What operating systems does this software work with?

A: Any Microsoft® Windows operating system will work. We also provide an alternative free program called OpenOffice.Org in case you do not currently have a spread sheet program.

Q: How does Accu-Pricing™ work?

A: Step 1: When you receive the software, load it onto your computer (easy to follow instructions come with it).

Step 2: After you have loaded the software on your computer, open the flat rate file and set the hourly labor rate and the service call charge you want to use (this takes less than 5 minutes to do).

Step 3: Print out your price sheets and put them in your technicians’ binders (these you can purchase from us or develop yourself).

Step 4: Use your flat rate pricing books for thirty days and then see what changes you want to make to them. Make those changes and then reprint the price sheets. Update your prices each year globally (this means all prices increase) which takes less than five minutes to do. Every three to five years, we recommend you update all your parts prices manually to get them a little more accurate. Note: This software is 100% customizable. You can add a new repair task or edit an existing repair task in less than 60 seconds. There are no complicated formulas or formatting to learn, this has already been done for you. You just need to know how to type a number in a box. It has a powerful search engine to quickly find any information you are looking for.

Q: What are the general benefits of using flat rate pricing instead of time and material pricing?

* Your company can make more money because you look more professional and your customers will approve more work if you remove their fear of the unknown that time and material pricing has inherent in it. Ever taken a cab ride and watch the meter add up or go to a restaurant without prices on the menu? How comfortable are you approving a purchase for something without knowing the price upfront?

* Your technicians can make more money because you can charge more and hence pay them more. Also flat rate pricing allows you to pay your technicians by the task instead of by the hour. Most repair people today (like auto mechanics) get paid by the task rather than by the hour.

* It is a more honest way of doing business than time and material because there are no unpleasant surprises when a customer knows the total price upfront.

* Less collection problems because the customer only approves the dollar amount of work they can afford.

* Technicians are able to do a job without the customer “breathing down their necks” wondering why the job is costing them so much money and time. Technicians are more productive and enjoy their work more, which the customer sees, resulting in greater customer satisfaction.

* If you offer maintenance or service agreements, flat rate can help sell more of them.

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