New Commissions

Creating a new commission:

1. New commissions can be created from the search results in the commissioning platform, as well as other routes into this screen. Once you have selected a contributor, simply click on Create a new Commiss... button OR hit the Return key OR double click on the contributor's name.

2. You will then be offered a number of choices that will determine how the commission will be setup:

(a) Which editor's commission is it?

If you are commissioning on behalf of someone else, e.g. a desk administrator on behalf of the desk editor, you will first need to choose a name from the Commissioning on behalf of list.

Under this scenario the default cost centre of the person you select gets applied to the commission, along with any other chart of accounts defaults they may have. You will have the opportunity to change any of these later if you need to.

If you are entering the commission on your own behalf, your own chart of accounts defaults are used. Again, you will have the opportunity to change these later if you need to.

(b) What format will the content be and what type of source is it?

Next, you must choose from a list of formats and applicable source types. Your choice here will determine the type of fee you can enter, and the set of rights that is automatically applied to the commission. It is very important to get this choice right.

(c) Default or non-standard rights?

If the contributor has been commissioned before, and GNM agreed non-standard rights the last time, then you will be offered the choice of using the rights last agreed with them or using the standard (default) values.

3. Once the above selections have been made the details of the commission can be entered:

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:

• 1. 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

  2. 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 account. 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 details of your commission, click on the Submit button.

RCS will assign a unique Commission Reference Number, or CRN, to the commission and present a text box on the right hand side of the screen showing a recapitulation of what you have just entered, as well as details of any missing information required to process the 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, 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.