Use Sub Rate Schedules to Encapsulate Common Rate Components

Many implementations have multiple rate schedules that share common rate components. For example, the following illustration shows two rate schedules that use identical rate components to calculate taxes:

Two Rate Schedules That Share Common Rate Components

Rather than duplicate the taxation rate components on both rates, a sub rate schedule can be constructed that references the shared rate components. The sub rate schedule can then be included on each of the primary rate schedules:

Setting Up a Sub Rate Schedule to Encapsulate Common Rate Components

The primary reason to encapsulate common rate components into sub rate schedules is to simplify long-term maintenance. For example, if a new tax is introduced, only the sub rate schedule in the above example would require modification. The converse is also true. For example, if pricing structures are changed, only the affected primary rate schedules require modification. Both of these scenarios result in reduced rate construction and testing time.

The topics in this section describe sub rate schedules in more detail.