Navigate to the Pricing tab and select the Fees sub-tab from the left-hand menu.
Click the New Fee icon in the top right corner of the Fees page.
From the New Fee sidebar, select the Business line the surcharge will apply to, such as Residential.
Under Recurrence, select Recurring.
In the fee creation panel, enter a descriptive name in the Fee field (e.g., 'Fuel Surcharge').
Ensure the Sub-item toggle is enabled. This ensures the surcharge appears as a distinct line item on customer invoices.
In the Value section, click the % button and enter the desired percentage value.
From the Pricing Period dropdown, select the billing frequency that matches the services you want to apply this surcharge to (e.g., Monthly). The system will automatically identify how many services match these criteria.
Click the Auto-Link to Matched Services button to apply this fee to all corresponding services.
Click Create to save the new surcharge.
Link a Fee to Services by Pricing Period
After creating your fee, you can review or modify which services it applies to. Click the three-dot menu next to the fee and select Link to see a full list of linked services. From here, you can manually enable or disable the fee for individual services.
Understanding How Surcharges Appear on Invoices
Understanding how surcharges appear on invoices is essential for maintaining pricing flexibility and providing clear, transparent billing for your customers. Surcharges allow you to apply additional, often variable, charges to services without altering their base price.
What a Surcharge Is
A surcharge is a specific type of fee that is automatically applied to a customer’s service based on predefined criteria. In the system, it is configured as a fee with the Sub-item option enabled. This ensures it appears as a separate, clearly labeled line item directly under its associated service on an invoice.
Surcharges are commonly used for:
Fuel Surcharges: To account for fluctuating fuel costs.
Environmental Fees: To cover regulatory or disposal costs.
Administrative Fees: To apply standard processing charges.
A surcharge can be set as a percentage of the service price or as a fixed dollar amount.
Why It Matters
Properly configured surcharges offer significant benefits for your billing process. They allow you to add temporary or variable costs to services dynamically, ensuring your pricing remains accurate and competitive.
Improve Transparency: Customers can clearly see the base cost of their service and the reason for any additional charges, reducing billing disputes.
Increase Flexibility: Easily adjust for variable costs across many customers at once without having to manually edit the price of each individual service.
Automate Billing: The system automatically identifies which services should receive the surcharge, saving you time and preventing manual errors.
How It Works
The system uses specific service attributes to automatically link and apply surcharges. The most important attribute is the Pricing Period.
When you create a surcharge fee, you assign it a pricing period (e.g., Monthly, Quarterly, Annually). The system then automatically links this fee to all services that share the same pricing period. For example, a fuel surcharge created with a "Monthly" pricing period will only apply to services that are also billed monthly.
When an invoice is generated, the system checks the services being billed. If a service has a linked surcharge, the charge is automatically calculated and added as a new line item on the invoice.
💡 Guidance: Using Service-Linked Surcharges
When a recurring percentage-based surcharge is linked to a service and enabled, it will apply to all customers who have that service active on their account. This is because the fee is service-based, rather than account-specific.
At this time, surcharge behavior cannot be customized by customer—meaning it can’t be automatically limited to certain accounts or defaulted to “off.” If you need to exclude specific customers, this can still be done by manually disabling the fee within those customer profiles.
Best Practice Recommendation
While service-linked surcharges (such as fuel surcharges) can be a helpful short-term solution, many businesses find it simpler to adjust their base pricing instead. Fuel and operating costs often remain elevated for extended periods, and pricing updates are commonly implemented over time to reflect these changes.
If you’re planning for a longer-term adjustment, consider incorporating the surcharge percentage directly into your service pricing. This can create a more consistent experience for both your team and your customers.
In summary: Service-linked surcharges are available and flexible, but a pricing update is often the more streamlined long-term approach.