Intelligent Labor Rate Selector

Summary:
Enable users to automatically select the most appropriate labor rate for proposal line items based on configurable business rules. Similar to the material consolidation process, this feature would evaluate available labor rates after users build rates in the rate builder and enter estimated hours, then apply the best-fit rate according to predefined criteria. Rules should be configurable at a global level for reuse across proposal templates, with the ability to override them at the individual proposal level.

Problem Statement:
Currently, users must manually determine which labor rate to apply when preparing proposals, even after rates and estimated hours have already been entered. This creates extra effort, increases the likelihood of inconsistency, and makes it difficult to ensure rate selection aligns with business priorities such as profitability, competitiveness, or cost efficiency. Without a structured rule-based process, teams may spend unnecessary time evaluating rates and may apply different logic across proposals, reducing accuracy and standardization.

Proposed Solution:
Add an intelligent labor rate selection tool that automatically evaluates and assigns the best labor rate based on user-defined rules.
Allow administrators or authorized users to define labor rate selection rules at a global level so they can be reused across proposal templates.
Allow proposal-level overrides so teams can adjust rule behavior when needed for specific bids or customer situations.
Support rule criteria such as lowest rate, highest profitability, preferred contract rate, customer-specific pricing, or other configurable selection factors.
Mirror the general usability and automation approach of the material consolidation process so the experience feels familiar and consistent to users.
Provide clear visibility into which rule was applied and why a specific labor rate was selected.
Prevent conflicting or unclear rule application by defining rule precedence and validation behavior.

Benefits:
Reduces manual effort during proposal creation and rate selection.
Improves consistency by applying standardized logic across templates and proposals.
Helps optimize pricing decisions based on business goals such as competitiveness or profitability.
Increases efficiency for teams managing complex rate structures.
Provides flexibility through global defaults with proposal-specific overrides.
Improves user confidence by making rate selection more transparent and repeatable.

If you want, I can also turn this directly into a tighter customer-facing version or a more technical/internal product requirement version.