Creating a new text Commission
Having determined that you are entering a commission for text content you now enter the details of the commission.
The information entered will be used to generate a confirmation, by way of a commission letter, that will be emailed to the contributor as a PDF attachment.
Mandatory fields
These fields have red prompts to remind you they must be entered:
Contribution: a description of what the contributor has agreed to deliver.
Words: This is the number of words the contributor has agreed to write.
Other fields
Planned publication date: this date helps to avoid duplicate commissions and also helps track commissions by edition date.
Rate or estimate:
RCS works out fees for the commission based on the number of words that have been commissioned. Clicking on the Rate button or the fee field itself will automatically insert the rate according to the standard NUJ rate for written contributions. If the contributor has been commissioned in the past then a choice similar to the one below will appear:
The fee according to the contributor's last commission, which is rate per word for their last commission applied the the words agreed for this commission
The standard lineage rate applied to the agreed words.
For an up to date list of the standard fee rates see: http://www.theguardian.com/info/guardian-news-media-freelance-charter#Fees
If neither rate here is relevant then click on cancel and enter the fee agreed yourself.
NB The Copy last button pre-fills the form with the contributor's last commission details. This is especially useful for contributors who are commissioned on a regular basis.
Day or Space rate:
Photographers may have pre-agreed day rates and half-day rates listed on their record. These rates can be applied when choosing a fee.
Contributors who are supplying stock images may be paid according to the published size of the picture. For picture commissions click on Space rates... (or B/W for illustrations) to bring up a list of the rates that can be applied to images.
For an up to date list of the standard fee rates see: http://www.theguardian.com/info/guardian-news-media-freelance-charter#Fees
Saving a commission
Once you have entered everything you can, click on the Submit button.
RCS will assign a unique Commission Reference Number, or CRN, and present this a text box on the right hand side of the screen, along with the wordy description of the main points for this commission.
The contributor will be sent an email confirming the agreement and giving them instructions on how to submit their copy and get paid. If you have entered an estimate, then you can enter the fee at a later date in the Review commissions screen.
If you need to change the commission fee or need to split the payment across more than one cost centre then you can do so by going into the Payments window.
Avoid creating duplicate commissions
If the commission due date is the same as another commission for the same supplier then you will get a warning message. You should double check that you are not creating multiple commissions for the same article. Please see this note on avoiding duplicate commissions.