Crews that log hours with manual activities — without billing by an activity rate — can now skip the Rate field entirely. On jobs with Manual Pricing, the Rate on Add Manual Activity is optional: leave it empty, tap Add, and the activity saves with the rate and amount as $0, while the workers, times, breaks, and total time are recorded exactly as entered. Time tracking stays quick; billing stays untouched.

What's New

• Rate optional under Manual Pricing: an empty Rate no longer blocks saving — the activity stores with rate and amount of $0, matching how the CRM already handles it.
• Hourly Rate stays protected: on hourly-priced jobs, the Rate is still required — clearing it shows “Please enter rate” and the activity won't save without one, so hourly billing can't lose its rate by accident.
• Interstate and Commercial simplified: those service types don't price by activity rate, so Add and Edit Manual Activity don't show a Rate field at all — the activity saves with the amount as $0.

Who This Is For

• Companies that use manual activities purely to record crew hours, not to bill by activity rate
• Crews and supervisors who log time in the field and don't want a required field that doesn't apply to them
• Back office teams who want the app and CRM treating an empty rate the same way

🧭 How to Use It

1) On a Manual Pricing job, open View Activities → + (Add Manual Activity), fill in the activity, workers, and times, leave Rate empty, and tap Add. The activity saves — rate and amount $0, everything else recorded as entered.

A manual activity saved with an empty rate: $0 amount, with worker, times, and hours intact

2) On an Hourly Rate job, the Rate is still required — leaving it empty shows “Please enter rate” and the activity waits until a rate is entered.

Hourly Rate pricing keeps the rate mandatory

3) On Interstate and Commercial jobs there's no Rate field on the form at all — just add the activity and go.

Interstate/Commercial: Add Manual Activity with no Rate field

Good to Know

• Entering a rate still works as before: a manual activity with a rate filled in saves and calculates exactly as it always has — this change only covers the empty case.
• $0 means $0: zero-rate activities carry a $0 billed amount, so work order income, invoicing, and reports aren't inflated by time-tracking entries.
• Payroll is untouched: worker payroll runs on worker pay rates, not the activity rate — logging a $0-rate activity doesn't change what the crew is paid.
• Update Job Rate accepts $0 too: the Update Job Rate popup saves a zero rate as well, keeping the whole flow consistent.

Available Now

Optional rates on manual activities are live now in the Crew App — no setup needed. Log the hours, skip the rate where it doesn't apply, and the books stay clean. Built from customer feedback, as always.