Rate Calculations

The rate for recharge centers is calculated by dividing the total budgeted cost for providing the product or service by the total projected level of activity for the budget period.  The total budgeted cost should be derived from the historical costs of the prior fiscal year factored with projected costs for the next fiscal year. 

“Level of Activity” is the total projected volume of work to be performed in a recharge center, expressed as labor or machine hours, CPU time, or units of products or services to be provided.The unit’s usage recording system should be complete and well controlled.  Total units billed should reflect total services rendered and users should be consistently charged for usage. User rates consisting of flat fees that charge per range of actual use such as light, moderate, or heavy use are not allowable.

Volume Discounts
Volume discounts are acceptable if it can be that costs savings are realized when a large of a product is provided to an user.

Multiple Services/Products
Recharge departments providing multiple services my not subsidize the cost of certain services by charging excessive rates for other services.  Consideration should be given to size, complexity, and equity in setting multiple rates for a recharge department.

Subsidized Users

If the recharge department chooses to provide a service to a particular internal group of users at no charge or at a lower rate than other users, the recharge department billing rate must be calculated for all internal users based on total recharge department expenses and total units of output.  The portion of the services used by the subsidized user group that are not billed for should be charged to a recharge department account to keep track of these services.  When the rates are reviewed annually, these charges that were not billed will have to be included in the rates to calculate the over/under-recovery.