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Research Desk tracks costs at the source level and rolls them up to project billing through reconciliation. This guide explains the pricing fields you control and the reports that support invoicing.

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Key pricing fields

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Margin tracking

Enter Sell Price on each survey to populate margin calculations at the project level. If margin tracking does not apply to your workflow, enter 0.
Margin appears in project-level reporting when sell price is configured.

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How billing works

  1. Respondents complete surveys and are recorded as Completes
  2. Completes are billable by default — see Reconciliation
  3. During the reconciliation window, you reject invalid completes
  4. Rejected completes are not invoiced and suppliers are not paid
  5. Unprocessed completes are auto-accepted after the deadline
If you do not reject invalid completes before the reconciliation deadline, they become billable automatically.

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CPI and rate card

Research Desk sets a floor price from your estimated IR, LOI, and country. Your actual buy price (BCPI) on each source may be higher:
  • Niche targeting typically needs CPI 50–100% above floor price
  • L2 voter matching adds +2.50CPI(+2.50 CPI (+2.50 more for data append)
  • Pricing can be adjusted during fieldwork and applies immediately to live sources
Use the red alert icon and Performance Indicators wrench tool to adjust BCPI when specs drift.

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Cost Summary export

The Cost Summary report provides a financial breakdown by source number, including reconciliation outcomes. Where to find it: Open the project … menu → Export Cost Summary Use this report for client invoicing and internal margin analysis.

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Reconciliation and supplier costs

Details: Reconciliation · Exporting and Reporting

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Billing timeline

Example: A complete on December 15 can be disputed until January 31. Auto-accept runs February 1 if not processed.

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Reducing unexpected costs