Setting up machine pricing
This guide explains how to describe flight prices in the ERP: airframe, engine, launch. It is meant for the treasurer (Manage prices right). The amounts quoted are examples: each club sets its own.
Screen: Tarifs › Machines. To see how a price becomes an invoice line, read Billing flights.
The principle in four ideas
- A machine family groups the aircraft that are billed at the same price (for example "School gliders", "Performance gliders", "Tow planes", "Winch").
- The family carries price versions, each with a start date and, optionally, an end date.
- A version contains lines: each line has a unit (flight hour, hundredth of engine time…), a price, optionally tiers, and a revenue account.
- When a flight is billed, the ERP takes, for each machine of the flight (the aircraft, then the launch machine), the version active on the flight date, and bills all its lines (except those reserved for another flight type).
A line is not "picked": every line of the version applies. A motor glider therefore has an airframe line and an engine line in the same version.
Before you start
| Check | Where |
|---|---|
| The family is priced (a purely accounting family, such as trailers, carries no flight price) | Machines › Familles |
| Each aircraft belongs to the right family | Machines › Équipements |
| The revenue accounts (class 7) exist | Administration › Plan comptable |
| The flight types you need (tow, retrieve, plane flight…) exist | Tarifs › Types de vol |
Creating a version
- Tarifs › Machines, pick the family.
- Nouvelle version: a name (for example "School gliders 2027"), the start date, the end date if known.
- Tick Avec pack if hour packs should apply to this family (see Packs and discounts).
- Add the lines (see below).
- Activate: the ERP refuses if a line has no revenue account.
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Draft | Editable, never used for billing |
| Active | Used to bill the flights within its dates; locked |
| Archived | Finished; kept for older flights |
An active version can no longer be edited (only its end date is set, when archiving). To change a price: new version from the active one (a draft copy with lines and tiers), edit, set the effective date, activate. Archive asks for the old version's end date and offers to create the next one straight away.
One active version per day
Two active versions of the same family must not cover the same day: the flight is then blocked ("several active versions"). Start the new version the day after the old one ends. With no active version on the flight date, a club aircraft is blocked too; for a private aircraft the ERP only warns and bills the launch alone.
A price line
| Field | Role |
|---|---|
| Désignation | Label on the invoice line |
| Unité | What is measured (see the next table) |
| Prix de base | Price per unit (or the flat fee); the starting price, from 0 |
| Type de vol | All types, or one type: the line then applies to that type only |
| Compte de produit | Class 7 account credited at billing (required to activate) |
| Progressive tiers + Tiers | Different prices by quantity (see below) |
| Shown in the report | The line appears in the rates report seen by members |
The seven units
| Unit | What is measured | When to use it |
|---|---|---|
| Temps de vol | Hours, take-off to landing | Airframe of a glider or motor glider |
| Durée de vol | Same measure as flight time; thresholds in whole numbers | Rarely useful: prefer Temps de vol |
| Temps moteur (1/100 h) | Hundredths of an hour (36 s) of the engine index difference | Engine of a motor glider or plane; tow plane |
| Temps moteur (min) | Engine minutes, rounded | Engine billed per minute |
| Par vol | One unit per flight | Fixed fee on every flight (for example a landing fee) |
| Forfait | One unit per flight or launch | Fixed price of a launch |
| Tranche de durée | Flight duration in minutes; the band reached gives the total price | Winch launch priced by flight duration |
A flight missing the needed data (engine time not entered for an engine line, for instance) is blocked at preview: fix it before billing.
Only Temps de vol, Durée de vol and Temps moteur (1/100 h) can be paid by an hour pack.
Tiers: two ways to vary the price
A tier reads "from a quantity, price". The base price applies from 0 up to the first tier. Tiers are computed flight by flight, never on the year's total.
Simple tier (Progressive tiers unticked)
The last tier reached sets the price of all the quantity.
Example: base price €18, tiers "from 3: €9" and "from 5: €0". A 2-unit flight costs 2 × €18; a 4-unit flight 4 × €9; a flight of 5 units or more is free.
Progressive tier (ticked)
Each band is paid at its own price; the invoice line shows a single amount, at the average price.
Example (tow): €3.32 per hundredth for the first 12, then €2.82: base price €3.32, tier "from 12: €2.82". A 15-hundredth tow costs 12 × €3.32 + 3 × €2.82 = €48.30.
The box is not offered for the Forfait and Tranche de durée units.
Duration band (winch)
With the Tranche de durée unit, the base price covers the shortest flights, and each tier gives the launch's total price from a duration in minutes.
Example: base price €11, tiers "from 11: €13" and "from 46: €19". An 8-minute winch launch costs €11; 20 minutes €13; 50 minutes €19.
Differentiating by flight type
A line's Type de vol field reserves it for one type. All types makes it always apply.
- For the launch machine, the type is the launch type chosen on the Planche (tow, retrieve, ferry, winch launch, plane flight, test, warm-up…). This is how one tow plane bills a tow per hundredth of engine time and a retrieve at another price, or nothing.
- For the aircraft that flies, it is the declared flight type (instruction, solo, passenger…): for example a different airframe price in instruction.
- A self-launching glider, a TMG or a plane that launches itself is its own launch: its launch type (plane flight, test, warm-up) selects its lines.
The launch types themselves are created in Tarifs › Types de vol. They also carry the launch pilot share: for a "training tow", a percentage (30 % for instance) of the tow is billed to the tow pilot, the rest to the usual payers.
Common recipes
Glider
One family per price class (beginner, school, club, performance…). One line: Temps de vol, price per hour, airframe revenue account.
Motor glider or TMG
One family, two lines: Temps de vol for the airframe, Temps moteur (1/100 h) for the engine. Engine time comes from the index entered on the Planche.
Plane
A single Temps moteur (1/100 h) line.
Tow plane
A Temps moteur (1/100 h) line with progressive tiers (example above), possibly one line per launch type. A tow flight with no tow plane entered is blocked: the launch machine is mandatory.
Winch
A Tranche de durée line with tiers. Again, the winch must be entered on the flight.
Fee per flight
A Par vol line in the aircraft's version: it is added to every flight, whatever its duration.
Check before activating
- Facturation & Vols › Vols: open a representative flight and Preview. Price lines, tiers and blocking errors are shown without saving anything.
- Test a short and a long flight (for the tiers), one flight with a launch and one without.
- Tarifs › Rapport: check what members will see. Tick Shown in the report on the lines to publish (nothing is published by default).
Good to know
- New season: new version from the active one, then set the dates. Administration › Exercices comptables › Prepare next year lists the price versions still missing.
- Packs: billing is always at full price; the discount is returned afterwards as a REM entry. Packs are set in the Forfaits tab (details).
- "Under 25" discount: it applies to selling a pack (the catalogue line chosen as its Displayed rate) to billing several members at once and to the entry draft (Apply the under-25 rate box, for an Other rates item), not to flights: flight billing does not read it yet and the field is greyed out on flight rates (planned for later). For a youth flight rate, create a dedicated family or version.
- Club flights (introductory, club, training, test, warm-up): the credit goes to the analytical accounts set in the flight billing settings, in place of the line's revenue account.
Revising engine tariffs from the fuel price
The price of an engine item is fixed part + consumption × price per litre; tiers follow the fuel and pack discounts keep the same discount in euros. Tarifs → Fuel tab:
- Once: pick a version in force, give each engine item its fuel (100LL or UL91) and consumption per unit, and the price per litre the current tariffs were calculated with. The fixed part is deduced (refused if it would be negative: wrong consumption or price per litre). The Items linked to the fuel card lists everything that is linked (family, version, fuel, consumption, fixed part); Unlink takes an item out of the formula, it keeps its current price.
- At each revision: enter the effective date and the new prices per litre, then Calculate the new prices. The table shows, for every family, the old price, the new one, the change in %, tiers and pack discounts, with a warning for a large change or a discount above the price. Nothing is written.
- Create the draft versions: one draft version per family on the effective date; the version in force is left unchanged and activating the draft closes it the day before the effective date (activate it before that date, otherwise the old prices keep applying).
- Review the drafts (Machines → family → versions), then activate them before the effective date: otherwise the old prices keep applying.