Configure Inflation Rates

You can define plan-neutral inflation profiles for service providers. Inflation profiles correspond to a set of expected inflation rates for the specified years.

Many sponsors and CROs negotiate inflation rates, along with billing rates, as part of a Master Services Agreement or a Statement of Work. You can create user-defined inflation profiles by provider to match these negotiated rates. Each time you create a plan, you can then apply the profiles to create a more accurate estimate of the costs you expect to see in the provider bids.

ClearTrial suggests configuring rate variances by location so you can set the inflation rates for a base location, such as the USA, and then cascade those rates to other locations based on the variance % per location.

Note:

To use user-defined inflation rates only in specific locations, override the default ClearTrial values with your custom values for those specific locations. Leave the ClearTrial defaults in the remaining locations in the event one of those remaining locations is later included in a plan.

You can save draft versions of inflation profiles to continue to work on them until you have them finalized.

To work with inflation profiles, your assigned ClearTrial System Administrator must grant you the Clinical or System Administrator role.

• Define an Inflation Profile
  An inflation profile includes an hourly rate plus a percentage to cover inflation for vendors to whom you may assign tasks to when planning a study.
• Publish Inflation Profiles
  Publishing the inflation rates saves and makes them available to ClearTrial to use to calculate fees and costs associated with tasks assigned to the chosen vendor.
• Change Inflation Profiles
  You can edit and save inflation profiles in a draft state as many times as necessary prior to publishing them. When you are ready, you can publish that draft and replace the currently published inflation profile.
• View the Inflation Profile Revision History
  The Inflation Profile Revision History screen shows previously published sets of inflation rates.

Define an Inflation Profile

An inflation profile includes an hourly rate plus a percentage to cover inflation for vendors to whom you may assign tasks to when planning a study.

1. From the Maintain menu, select Inflation Profiles.
2. On the Inflation Profiles screen, click New. You can also copy an existing inflation profile by selecting the profile's check box, clicking Copy, and then editing the fields as described below.
3. On the New Inflation Profile screen, from the When drop-down list, select the service provider to whom this inflation profile applies.
4. From the performs work for drop-down list, select the sponsor that will be charged these rates.
   • If your organization is a sponsor, select your organization or an affiliate from the drop-down list.
   • If your organization is a CRO, select the sponsor to whom this inflation profile applies.
5. From the for Rate Year drop-down list, select the rate year to which to apply this inflation profile.
   • When creating a plan, the effective rate year selected in the Provider Details screen determines which billing rates are used. Rates are inflated per any inflation percentages specified.
   • A rate year is defined as January through December for the relevant year.
   • The rate year in effect determines the correct billing rate table and which inflation profile is used in that plan.
   • If there is no inflation profile for the sponsor/provider combination and rate year, ClearTrial issues an alert and the inflation rate defaults to 0% for all years of the trial.
6. Click Ok.
7. On the Create Inflation Profile screen, from the Base Rate Location drop-down list, select the country or region to which the base rate applies.
   • All the countries supported by ClearTrial are shown and the fields prepopulated with any already defined rates. Note that your selections from the New Inflation Profile screen appear at the top of the table.
   • By default, ClearTrial derives the rates of all other locations using the values in the RATE VARIANCE % row. You can edit any variance or override any specific rate value.
   • You can change any variance or override by any specific percentage.
   • If you want to use the same inflation rate values in all locations, enter the values once in the Base Rate column and change the Rate Variances for each location to 100% so that ClearTrial applies the base rate values by year to every location.
8. For each Year, for each location column, enter the inflation rate as a percentage.
   • The default specification includes five years, because most studies planned are five years. You can add years by clicking Add Year. You can specify inflation rates for up to 30 years.
   • To exclude an inflation calculation, enter a zero.
   • You can include a different rate for every year of the study and relative to each location.
9. Click Save. ClearTrial saves the inflation profile as a draft.

Publish Inflation Profiles

Publishing the inflation rates saves and makes them available to ClearTrial to use to calculate fees and costs associated with tasks assigned to the chosen vendor.

1. From the Maintain menu, select Inflation Profiles.
2. Select the check box of an inflation profile whose status is Draft.
3. Click Publish.
4. On the Confirm Publish Profile screen, click Publish.

   The inflation rates are immediately effective and available.

   Any unlocked plans that do not have frozen rates reflect these changes.

Change Inflation Profiles

You can edit and save inflation profiles in a draft state as many times as necessary prior to publishing them. When you are ready, you can publish that draft and replace the currently published inflation profile.

You can also edit published inflation profiles and save them as a new draft that does not replace the published inflation profile.

1. From the Maintain menu, select Inflation Profiles.
2. On the Inflation Profiles screen, select an inflation profile's check box, and then click Edit.
3. Edit the base rate and percentages applied to selected regions and countries for the years shown.
4. Click Save.

   If your profile matches an existing profile, ClearTrial asks you to confirm that you want to overwrite the existing values rather than create a new profile.

   To work with inflation profiles, your assigned ClearTrial System Administrator must grant you the Clinical or System Administrator role.

View the Inflation Profile Revision History

The Inflation Profile Revision History screen shows previously published sets of inflation rates.

1. From the Maintain menu, select Inflation Profiles.
2. On the Inflation Profiles screen, select an inflation profile's check box, and then click Show Revision History.

   The revisions are shown on the Show Revision History screen.

3. You can view a profile by clicking its Show Profile link or edit a published profile by clicking the Open as Draft link.

   The inflation profile appears in a separate window.

4. View or edit the inflation profile, and then click Close.