Each fee in Certifications has its own record, whether it charges for a program application, course, or exam. You set the regular price and, if needed, add a member price. A fee does not charge anyone until another setup item, such as an application process or course offering, uses it.
What It Controls
This setting controls what people pay for a specific certification item. Application fees belong to one certification program, while course and exam fees belong to one course or exam. Each fee includes a price, an optional member price, and the same selling settings used by Rhythm’s other commerce features. An application fee’s price is the process’s baseline fee, and Rhythm then checks any special pricing rules on that fee to decide the amount charged. Because of that, a rule that looks like a duplicate of another rule may actually belong to a separate fee record.
A fee can also include an entitlement, so purchasing it is expected to grant related access, such as exam eligibility, once the order is processed.
Where to Find It
Application fees: Go to Setup › Applications › Fees to view all application fees in your account. You can filter the list by program. Select Create Application Fee to add a new one.
Course fees: Open the course under Setup › Training › Courses, then select its Fees tab. Select Create Fee from there. Course fees do not have one account-wide list. There is no file-based bulk update for course fees, so edit each course’s fee individually if you need to change prices across several courses.
Exam fees: Open the exam under Setup › Exams › Catalog, then select its Fees tab. Select Create Fee from there. Exam fees do not have one account-wide list either.
Tip
Custom fields you add to the application form do not appear on the order screen, whether or not they are conditional. Only the fee product appears there, so do not rely on the order screen to show a pricing breakdown based on application answers.
The Settings
| Setting | Options | Default | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Program (application fees only) | Any active program | None | The program this fee prices. The form only offers active programs |
| Business unit and identifier (application fees) | A business unit you pick, plus a typed suffix | None | The saved identifier combines your business unit’s code with what you typed, for example FAA-APPLICATION-FEE-1 |
| Business unit (course and exam fees) | Fixed from your account's Certifications settings | From settings | You cannot choose a different business unit for a course or exam fee in the Console |
| Name | Any text | Blank; course and exam fees default to "[course or exam name] Fee" | The fee name people see in pickers and reports |
| Price | An amount | None | The amount non-members pay. A fee has one regular price and, optionally, one member price. It cannot offer several selectable price tiers or a pay-what-you-can amount |
| Member price | An amount, or left unset | None | The amount qualifying members pay instead of the regular price. Rhythm does not require this amount to be lower than the regular price |
| Merchant Account Routing (financial configuration) | Off, or on with a merchant account chosen | Off | Routes this fee’s transactions to a specific merchant account instead of your account’s default |
| Revenue deferral (financial configuration, course fees) | Off, a fixed period, or tied to the course offering's date | Off | Defers recognizing this fee’s revenue. The course-offering-date option defers revenue until the offering actually runs, instead of using a fixed deferral period |
| Other selling terms (special prices, purchase limits, installment plans, portal visibility, and similar) | Various | Active; published to the Portal; no special pricing or limits | Shared commerce settings. Most do not change how Certifications charges the fee. The regular and member prices above can change the amount, and special pricing rules can also change it based on criteria such as membership status, values on the applicant organization’s record, or answers on the application form. Certifications checkout does not offer an optional add-on line item the way some other areas do, so a bundled product attaches automatically and becomes required for the purchaser. For an optional charge, such as mailing a printed certificate after the application is approved, invoice for it separately instead |
Tip
A saved Merchant Account Routing selection can occasionally look blank when you reopen a fee, even though transactions still route correctly. If that happens, re-select the merchant account to confirm it, or check with Support if the routing itself seems wrong.
Dependencies and Precedence
- A fee has no effect until something names it. An application process chooses an application fee as its baseline fee. A course offering chooses a course fee, and an exam offering chooses registration and retest exam fees separately. Creating the fee alone does not charge anyone.
- A course offering can only be associated with one fee record. You cannot attach separate member and non-member fee records directly to the same offering. Use the fee’s member price for that instead. If a course needs several purchasable options with different prices, such as different tracks or formats, keep one course and create a separate course offering for each option. Each offering can then use its own fee, instead of duplicating the course.
- Use special pricing instead of multiple fees for audience-based pricing. If pricing should vary by member status or a similar criterion, create one fee and handle the difference with special pricing logic. Do not attach more than one fee to the same offering or process.
- A certification application process shows only its one assigned fee at checkout. The order summary displays that fee’s name. If a different fee should appear for some applicants, it needs its own process.
- Changing a price changes it everywhere the fee is used, with no warning. If more than one process or offering uses the same fee, editing its price changes what all of them charge from that point forward. The fee record does not show which processes or offerings use it.
- The same fee can serve more than one kind of application. An application fee does not define whether it is for a new application, renewal, or reinstatement. The application process decides that by choosing which fee to use.
- Coupons can target a fee by its identifier, but if you delete that fee later, the coupon keeps the old identifier and no longer discounts anything.
- A special pricing rule that requires several certification programs is meant to require all of them, not just one, before it applies. If a charge looks wrong, review the special pricing rule’s criteria alongside the values on the applicant’s organization record. An unexpected amount often comes from that combination, not from the base fee. Also confirm that the application form includes every field the pricing logic checks, including yes/no questions. A missing field can prevent the intended price from being applied. The order review screen does not show which special pricing rule applied or why, so you need to check this in the fee’s own setup.
- Editing a complex special pricing formula may need engineering help. Some special pricing logic is not fully self-service to change. Contact Support if a rule needs updates beyond its basic criteria.
Change Impact and How to Revert
You can change a fee’s price, member price, and other selling terms at any time. The new terms apply to new applications, registrations, or orders from that point forward. You do not need to publish the fee change separately.
Certification application fees do not support automatic date-based pricing, such as an early-bird or late price that changes on its own by date. If pricing needs to change on a schedule, you have two manual options. You can edit the fee’s price yourself on the date the new pricing should start, or set up a separate application process for each pricing window and activate or deactivate the process on schedule. Since neither option runs automatically, a calendar reminder can help you make the change on time.
Warning
Deleting a program also deletes its application fees, unless a dependency on one of those fees blocks the entire program deletion. Deleting a course or exam works differently. Rhythm refuses the deletion while any fees still exist, so you must remove the course’s or exam’s fees first.
Permissions
You need full Certifications administrator access to open the Application Fees list and to create, edit, or delete fees there. Course and exam fees are managed from the course’s or exam’s own page, so anyone who can open and administer that course or exam can create, edit, or delete its fees. Those panels do not have a separate fee-specific permission.
Validation and Errors
- A fee must have a parent, such as a program, course, or exam, plus a name, business unit, and price. If any are missing, Rhythm refuses to save the fee and names the missing fields.
- Rhythm refuses to save a fee if it names a program, course, or exam that no longer exists.
- A $0 fee still runs through the application’s order-detail and confirmation pages, the same as a priced fee. Those pages can look blank when nothing is actually due, but you still need to keep them in the process so submission completes.
- A Course Fee or pricing field used in a Certifications query may behave differently, or may not be available, across every query type. Check the specific query object, such as Courses > Course Offerings, if a pricing field seems to be missing or acting differently than expected.
- Delete an application fee from the Application Fees list, then confirm the deletion in the dialog. Delete a course or exam fee from that course’s or exam’s Fees tab the same way.
- If a course offering still uses a fee, Rhythm refuses to delete the fee and names the dependency. Remove or change the offering’s fee first.
- If an expected application, course, or exam fee is missing, check whether a program filter is narrowing the Application Fees list. For course and exam fees, make sure you are on the correct course’s or exam’s Fees tab, because those fees only appear on their own parent page.
Related Tasks
Application fees are selected as a process’s baseline fee in Application Processes. The program, course, or exam that owns a fee is set up separately, starting with Certification Programs. Fees also feed forecasted revenue during a billing run; see Billing Templates and Recurring Billing Runs. When someone buys a certification exam fee on behalf of another contact, the purchase appears both in that contact’s Purchases and under Exams on their certification record.