Overview
Surcharges are charges automatically applied to customer invoices when additional fees are incurred by a company. These fees may include fuel surcharges, winterization fees, or any other temporary or permanent charges that must be reflected on the customer’s invoice. In CRO Billing, surcharges function similarly to products but can now be calculated either as a flat dollar amount or as a percentage of the job cost.
UPDATE: Surcharges can now be applied to jobs as well as all products related to that job including additional fees, weight overages and conditional products! Click here for more information.
Accessing the Surcharges Feature
Navigate to the Products page.
Select the new Surcharges tab at the top of the interface.
Within this tab, surcharges can be created and configured. The interface is similar to the one used for products but provides additional functionality to define percentage-based charges.
Creating and Configuring a Surcharge
When creating a new surcharge, the following fields can be specified (see Screenshot 2):
Name: Identifies the surcharge (e.g., “Fuel Surcharge”).
Category: Groups surcharges logically for organizational purposes.
Description: Provides invoice-level details (the text appears on the invoice as written here).
Dollar Amount or Percentage: Specifies whether the surcharge is a flat rate (e.g., $25) or percentage-based (e.g., 16.25%). To enable a percentage-based surcharge, select the Percentage Based toggle.
Applying Surcharges Automatically with Conditions
Surcharges in CRO Billing are governed by Conditions that determine how and when they are applied to invoices.
Once Per Job: Applies a surcharge each time a job is performed (e.g., 16.25% Fuel Surcharge on every service).
Once Per Customer: Applies a surcharge once per customer invoice rather than per job.
These conditions can be set at a global level (for all customers) or at an individual customer level.
Global Application of Surcharges
To apply a surcharge to all customers:
Create or edit a surcharge under Surcharges.
Define the desired Conditions (e.g., “Once Per Job”).
Set the dollar or percentage amount.
In this example, a Fuel Surcharge of 16.25% is applied to every future invoice for every job (see Screenshot 3).
Customer-Specific Surcharges
For surcharges that apply only to specific customers or scenarios, use the Conditions tab within a customer’s billing options:
Open the Customer record.
Select the Conditions tab. (See Screenshot 4)
Add the surcharge (e.g., “Hard to Access”) and configure any additional conditions (e.g., restricting by asset type or job type).
Specify Once Per Job or Once Per Customer, depending on the intended behavior.
Invoice Example
When multiple surcharges are configured, they will be automatically added to the scheduled invoice as shown in the example (Screenshot 5). In this scenario:
Fuel Surcharge at 16.25%.
Winterization Fee at 10%.
Hard to Access Surcharge at $25.
Key Takeaways
Surcharges can be applied regardless of whether the customer is billed on a recurring or on-demand basis.
Surcharges are not limited by the type of asset or service; any combination is acceptable.
Further conditions or restrictions can be layered to match specific operational or billing requirements.