Explanation of Charge Settings - click here for an image of the charge window

The Compugene Online Round Robin system provides you with a wide range of charging options to select from, so it is important to plan in advance as to exactly how you want to structure the charges for your Round Robin.

For example, you can have minimum charges, maximum charges, per-name selected charges, and even different charges for different types of members that you set up, where a type could be one category of your members, such as Teachers, Parents, and Administrators.

There are two different methods for overall charging and, additionally, within each method there are two ways to charge on each range, where a range is defined as a starting number of selections, an ending number of selections and a charge amount for that range.


Overall Charging

The overall charging methods are type 0 and type 1 and the method you wish to use is selected in the Charge Type for Ranges option setting (see below for more information about this field).
Note that the overall charging method that you select will apply for all ranges and all sections that you define.

Type 0 overall charging method computes charges based on the range containing the total number of items selected by the member.

For example, define 3 charge ranges as: 1) 1 to 5 items: $5 each; 2) 6 to 10 items: $4 each; and 3) greater than 10 items: $3 each. If your setting is to use Charge Type 0 and a member selects 11 items, each of the 11 items will be charged at the "greater than 10 items" rate, which would be $3 and the total cost to the member would be $33.

Type 1 overall charging method computes charges for the number of items in each individual range. This is a step-charging method.

Using the same example as for Type 0, above, define 3 charge ranges as: 1) 1 to 5 items: $5 each; 2) 6 to 10 items: $4 each; and 3) greater than 10 items: $3 each. If you select Charge Type 0 and a member selects 11 items, each of the 11 items will be charged at the "greater than 10 items" rate, which would be $3 and the total cost to the member would be $33. If, on the other hand, you select Charge Type 1, then the same member choosing 11 items would be charged as follows: for the first 5 items (the 1-5 item range), $5 each for a subtotal of $25; for items 6 through 10, $4 each, for a subtotal of $20; and for the 1 item above 10 (total 11 items), $3, for a total charge of $25+$20+$3 = $48; as you see, this differs from the Type 0 charge of $33.


Range Charging

For a range, there are two ways to charge for selections in that range, type I or type R. Type I means that if a user selects the number of items within that range, then the range charge is applied to each item within the range.

Type R means that if a user selects the number of items within that range, then the range charge is applied once for all the items in that range. This technique can be used to create a minimum amount that a participant can incur.

For example, if you want to have a minimum charge of $25, create a range from 1 to 12 selections, give the range a charge of $25 and set the range type to R. Also, create an additional range, such as 13 to 400 selections with a charge of $2 and a range type of I. Thus, a member that selects 1 member to give to or a member that selects 9 members to give to will both be charged the same amount, $25, since the first range has a range type or R. Any number of members selected above 12 would be charged at $2 times the number of members selected, since the 2nd range has a range type of I, which would be from $26 and up.

Explanation of Fields to Set on the Charge Options Window

Does Reciprocal include those giving to all?

If you set this to Yes, this means that if member A has selected to give to all and member B has selected Recip and member B has not already selected member A, then the reciprocal calculation process will add member A to member B's selection list. If you set this to No, then if member A has selected to give to all and member B has selected Recip and member B has not already selected member A, member A will NOT automatically be added to member B's selection list.
Most installations set this value to No.

Charge Type for Ranges

You can select from one of two methods to charge for each range.
Type 0 computes charges based on the range containing the total number of items selected by the member.
Type 1 computes charges for the number of items in each individual range.
Example:Say you set up 3 charge ranges as follows:
Range 1: 1 to 5 items, $5 each;
Range 2: 6 to 10 items, $4 each;
Range 3: greater than 10 items, $3 each.
If you select Charge Type 0 and a member selects 11 items, each of the 11 items will be charged at the "greater than 10 items" rate, which would be $3 and the total cost to the member would be $33.
If, on the other hand, you select Charge Type 1, then the same member choosing 11 items would be charged as follows: for the first 5 items (the 1-5 item range), $5 each for a subtotal of $25; for items 6 through 10, $4 each, for a subtotal of $20; and for the 1 item above 10 (total 11 items), $3, for a total charge of $25+$20+$3 = $48; as you see, this differs from the Type 0 charge of $33.

Single Charge if All Selected

You can enter a single amount to charge if a member selects All, which indicates he wants to select all other members as his selection for the round robin.


Single Charge if Reciprocal Selected

You can enter a single amount to charge if the member chooses the Recip option. The recip option means: if member A selects the recip option and member B chooses member A in his selection list but member A did not choose member B in his list, the reciprocal option will cause member B to be automatically added to member A's selection list.


Cost per Reciprocal Selected

You can enter an additional charge that will computed for each member by multiplying the number of reciprocals added to the member's selection list (if any) by this charge. If this charge is zero, regular charges per item will apply to reciprocals as well.


Max # of reciprocals to be charged for

If specified, this is the maximum number of reciprocals that a member can be charged for. If zero, there is no maximum reciprocal count to limit charging.


Text to Explain Charges

You can enter text here that will explain how you are charging and this text will appear at the top of each member's selection window.


Maximum Charge

You can specify a maximum charge, so that regardless of what a member's computed charge would be based on a member's selections, if the maximum amount is smaller than the computed charge, the maximum amount would replace the computed charge.


Optional Early Bird Discount Section

Discount ends mm/dd/yy (blank if none)

If you would like to enable early bird discounting, then fill in this field with the date that early discounting will end. Some organizations use this feature to encourage members to make their selections early. If this field is blank, there will be no early bird discounts.


Total Discount low (%)

This is the discount percent that will be applied to amounts that are less than the discount break amount, which is specified below.


Total Discount high (%)

This is the discount percent that will be applied to amounts that are greater than the discount break amount, which is specified below.


Discount Break Amount

This is the amount that determines which percent discount the member will receive if his selections have been made before the Discount Ends date.


Discount All Amount

This is the amount that will be charged if a member selects All and his selection is made before the Discount Ends date.





Section Headings and Charge Ranges

Specify the headings (maximum 5) of sections that will appear on the Round Robin Selection window corresponding to different member types that you want to separate into different sections; for example, you can group all Officers together with the heading "Officers" and regular members under the heading "Members".
If your organization is a school, you could create separate sections for Parents, Teachers, Administrators, etc.
You can also specify the range of charges or simple charges that a member would be charged for selecting members under each different heading. For example, you can charge $3 each to select Officers and $5 each to select Members.

Section Heading

This is the text of the heading for the indicated section. You can have from 1 to 5 sections defined. Each section can have up to 8 different charge ranges.


For each range in a section (you can define 1 to 8 ranges per section):

Start of range

This is the number of selections that starts this range. The minimum number is 1.


End of range

This is the number of selections that ends this range. The maximum number would be the number of members that are in your database.


Amt per item or range

This is the cost for this range. If the R option is selected, then this cost is applied for the total number of selections in this range. If the I option is selected, then this cost is multiplied by the number of selections in this range to determine the cost for this range.
Example: if a range is defined as 1 to 50 selections and the amt per item or range is set to $2.00, if a member selects 32 names and type I is the range type, the total cost for this range for this member would be $2.00 times 32 = $64.00.
If instead type R is the range type, then the total cost for this member would be $2.00 (since the member has chosen a number within the range of 1 to 50 and the range cost is set to $2.00.)


Extra amount

This is an optional extra charge that can be specified for each range to add a fixed amount to the cost already calculated for that range for a member.


Special charge

This is an optional extra charge that can be specified for each section to add a fixed amount to the cost already calculated for that section for a member. For example, if your two sections are Teachers and Parents, you might add an additional charge for anybody selecting a name from the Teachers section.