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Contract fees are entered and reviewed using the Gross Fees tab. This is laid out in two tabs: Fee structure and Gross fee. Fee structure allows you to define how you will pay the contributor. The most common structure is Gross Fee whereby contributors negotiate a gross fee, which is then paid in equal amounts over the contract term. Unless you are dealing with photographic agencies, the system defaults to Gross fee and this will be the only option available.
To enter contract fees:
1 Click on Gross fees… The Fees tab defaults to Fee structure.
2 If the contract fees are not being paid in GBP, select an alternative Currency from the list. Fees should ALWAYS be entered in the local amount, i.e. if you have agreed a contract will be paid at USD 50,000 per annum, change the currency to USD and enter 50,000 in Total fee.
3 The usual payee will be defaulted to the Contributor or their agent/default payee if this has been entered against their record.
5 If you selected Stringer under Contract type or you are creating a contract with a news agency, which is paid at lineage rates, tick the Pay lineage? checkbox and enter a Lineage rate. The standard rate as agreed with the NUJ is presently £295.72 per 1000 words. Lineage payments are entered using the Lineage tab in the Content matching screen. For more information, click here
6 Select the Gross fee tab.
7 Define in Rate the rate at which the contributor is to be paid, e.g. '£450.00 per column'.
8 Enter in Total fee the total value of the contract excluding any Monthly service fee.
9 If a contract is being paid under more than one cost code and different increases are to be applied to each one, these can be entered by clicking on Fee split.
10 Select from the options under Payment terms how you want to pay the contract fees, either monthly (default setting), quarterly or in one lump sum payment.
11 All contracts default to being paid in arrears. If you want the monthly or quarterly fee to be paid in advance - particularly relevant for the agencies - tick Pay in advance?.
12 Click on Close.
Should the total cost of a contract be split across more than one Cost Centre, this information can be accessed by clicking on “Fee split” in the Fees tab.
To input or change a fee split:
1 Click on Fee Split
2 By default the table will show the total fee created in the contract, rate, and the description of the fee split as well as a running total. EITHER Select an existing record OR press on the next row to create a new record/fee split.
3 Type in a value into fee - the Running Total must equal the Total contract fee. Enter the rate at which the fee is worked out (Eg 75p per word) and a description for the fee split (this will be applied to the individual transactions otherwise the Payment description will be applied)
4 Attribute the cost by filling in the CoA Fields.
5 Enter in Annual % increase the percentage increase to be applied to each cost area at renewal. NB This field shows as its default the Annual increase entered above in the Gross fee tab. Each fee split you enter must be unique - you will get an error if you try and enter a Cost combination twice with the same Annual increase as RCS will expect these to be entered as one line.
6 Click on Close.
When a contract is entered on RCS, the system uses the contract fee, the payment terms, i.e. monthly, quarterly or lump sum, and the duration to set up payment runs that are then reported automatically to Contributors Accounts. Contributing individuals who are VAT registered and our news agencies are instructed to invoice Contributors Accounts directly with our ARN as a reference. Invoices can be emailed to gnmap@guardian.co.uk
Photographic agencies
The most common type of contract fee structure is Gross fee whereby contributors negotiate a gross fee, which is then paid in equal amounts over the contract term. If you are creating contracts with photographic agencies, there is the further option of Space rates.
Space Rates
Under Space Rates- fees is calculated by measuring the picture's size and then applying a fee according to the table of charges stored against the contract.
To use either fee structure, select the Space rates option in the Fees tab. The second tab, defaulted to Gross fee, will rename itself to reflect your choice. Fill out the fee fields and click on Close. Pictures supplied under a space rates contract are processed through the Picture payments screen. For more information, click here
Payment scheduler
To view and manage payment schedules against contracts, click on Transactions... Only outstanding payments, identifiable by the STM statement under Notes, can be changed or deleted, e.g. where a contract has been terminated mid-term. You can also add new payments where you want to keep an existing contract 'live' after its termination date.
Should an individual contributor issue invoices for contract fees, invoice numbers can be recorded in the Supplier invoice no. field alongside the appropriate payment line. Contract payments to organisations MUST have an invoice number. Usually contract payments are invoiced directly to Accounts who will enter the invoice number to release the payment.
If you want contract payments to go to any other person or organisation other than the contributor or the contributor has an agent and you want to pay the contributor directly (if a relationship between the contributor and an agent exists in RCS, payments by default will go the agent), use the Payee field to access a list of all available payees in RCS. NB This will need to be done for every payment scheduled against the contract.
Expenses
Expenses limit defines the total expenses allowable during the contract term. Any overspend is tracked when actual expenses are entered against the contract. Expenses can be entered either by selecting Administration > Other payments + expenses or by clicking on the Expenses button.
?Legacy contracts?
RCS treats a contract as 'legacy' if the start date of the contract precedes the go-live date of any desk or publication participating in the contract. Whilst this does not effect payments in respect of standard FFP contracts with contributing individuals - Accounts will continue to pay the contract automatically until termination after which point, when the contract becomes 'live', they will expect payment instructions from RCS - you will need to generate payment instructions for agency contracts, normally on receipt of an invoice. To enter legacy payments:
1 Select Editorial > Review contracts.
2 Choose Organisation and then EITHER scroll through the resulting list and click on a name OR type in the first few letters of the agency's name. Having found the agency you want, click on OK.
3 In the Contracts screen, select the appropriate contract from the scrollable ARN list.
4 Click on Transactions which will bring up the Scheduled transactions screen showing you a list of payments due - none will have been or will be instructed to Accounts as they are all regarded as legacy.
5 Choose the payment which matches the invoice you have received and either click on Insert in the toolbar or type CTRL + DOWN.
6 Copy down the last record by typing SHIFT + F6.
7 Make any changes and enter the Supplier invoice no.
8 The record above - the legacy version of the live payment you have just entered - should now be deleted as it is a duplicate. To do this, highlight it and either click on Delete in the toolbar or type CTRL + UP.
9 Save your changes. The payment you have just entered will be despatched to Accounts in the next run.
Once agency contracts are 'live' on RCS, they are treated the same as any other contract whereby RCS will generate payment instructions which Accounts will match to the invoice sent directly from the agency. The agency will be requested to show our ARN on all invoices.