Charging rates

General information

You can set up charging rates on the Charging rates page in the CafeStation configuration.

There are two types of rates:

Charging rates can be assigned to computer groups and customer accounts. Use the Set default rates command from the List menu to assign charging rate to a workstaiton group.

When a workstation is active, the currently used charging rate is displayed in the rates drop down list in the main window and in the Time information window. You can change it dynamically by selecting another one from the drop-down list.

Approaches to charging rates configuration

There are several approaches to constructing charging rates.

Most of our customers set charges for individual time periods, like:

It's also common to set prices per minute to get exact charges:

Notice how the Minimum time setting can be used offer better prices for customers who purchase long periods of time.

It may be also sufficient to define just one price for hour or minute if prices in your cafe are fixed no matter how much time is used.

There are many more possible combinations, feel free to experiment a bit with different settings to find ones best for you.

It should be noted that the software will not be able to calculate charges for time periods that are not defined. For example, if you define prices for 1h and 3h periods only and your customer uses 15 minutes, the charge calculated by the software will be the same as for using one hour.

Setting the minimal time period

If you require your customers to pay for a certain amount of time, even when the use less, you should set the Minimal time period property of the charging rate to reflect that.

You want your customers to pay for using at least 15 minutes and you have configured a charging rate to charge $0.10 per minute. You should set the Minimal time period to 15 minutes for this rate. Now, when a customer uses computer for 10 minutes only, he will be charged $1.50 instead of $1.00.

Each charging rate can have different minimal time period settings.

Periodic discounts

Periodic discounts are used to change charging rates for specified occasions automatically (weekends, evenings, etc.). Of course the prices can be actually higher than normally, we decided to call them discounts to make their function more apparent.

Charging rate can be used periodically when the Periodic rate option is selected in its properties. After the prices are set up, it should be added to the main charging rate's periodic discounts list. You will be asked to choose when the discounted charging rate should be active when assigning it to the main charging rate.

Imagine you have a promotion running on Saturdays and are offering lower prices during that day.

Now, when Saturday comes, the Saturday charging rate will be used automatically. After the discounted period is over the software will switch to the basic charging rate again.

Periodic charging rates can be used with both accounts and workstation groups.

Using charging rates with the system protection module

When the System protection module is active, you can assign selected disk restrictions to charging rates.

If you want to disable all games for the charging rate used when customers are supposed to use office applications only, you should check the Lock games restriction on the Disk restrictions tab of the Charging rates properties window. Remember to adjust this restriction to fit the configuration of your workstations first.

Disabling access to the Internet

A charging rate can be configured to lock internet. You should check the Disable Internet option in the charging rates properies window.